As a teenager, I was enthralled by Ayn Rand. Her positive depiction of the creative entrepreneur has been the life-force behind my personal actions and my life-dreams. I remember completely empathizing with the plight of Hank Rearden who, after creating a new metal alloy, decided to keep it private instead of publicizing it for the world to copy for free.
I remember being disgusted by how people had the gall to tell Hank what to do with his creation. Being shocked by how someone can devise a new process and have someone else attempt to rip it away for the so-called “public good”.
I always believed that it was up to Hank Rearden what to do with his miracle alloy. It was his prerogative to donate it to the public just as much as it was his right to sell it and make a fortune off it. He chose the latter, but was forced into the former.
As a user, I am a huge proponent of open-source software. I am currently building a project in Drupal and developing a website for someone in WordPress. I have enjoyed hacking every single line of code that I was able to, and creating something that was me. Open-source afforded me a relatively short launch time and saved me the need to recreate the wheel.
The open-source community is large and flourishing. The ethos of the community is simply to build things that both the creator and other people can use, and like an Amish community raising a barn, to put together a project that is greater than the sum of all the parts.
The community is somewhat paradoxical, with people donating their time, much like Wikipedians, to help out the greater cause, for sheer recognition and spreading goodwill among men, without a clear financial incentive. I believe that without these individuals, the Internet, and indeed the startup world, would look very different. I applaud them.
But I don’t believe that anyone has the right to subject their personal beliefs onto anyone else. I am morally disgusted by a “holier than thou” attitude. It is as if a priest looks with disgust towards a fornicating couple, because he has chosen the path of abstinence for himself.
Chris Pearson created the Thesis Template System in order to assist developers and designers to quickly create and change WordPress-powered websites in an extremely powerful manner. I remember hearing Chris’ description of Thesis over a year ago, and immediately empathizing with the solution that he programmed by hand, by himself.
I was impressed by his business savvy and understanding of how the market works. He created a product that saved people who charge a lot of money for their creations a lot of time. At the time of this writing, he has assisted over 27,021 people and saved countless man-hours of headache and work.
I don’t intend to canonize Chris as a saint. It’s not in my religion. Nor do I think that Chris is trying to be one.
He created a product that he wants to protect the rights to. Chris is heavily involved in the affiliate world, because he has no problem with other people benefiting off of his hard work. As long as he is remunerated as well.
One cannot force another to subscribe to certain belief. The mob cannot force Chris to apply a GPL license to his work, just because like the antagonists of Ayn Rand’s dystopian society, they believe it to be morally right.
Chris knows his audience, their wants and needs, and is hell-bent on delivering that. For this reason, Chris is actually speaking at The Audience Conference next month. Because he cares about his audience.
From the first day of his launching Thesis, Chris was in the black.
Someone who creates a product and charges a fair price while retaining his intellectual property should be venerated and not crucified. Because he is an example to the rest of us that if you create something that helps people, you can make money. And money is not an evil thing.
As we live in a free-market society, instead of threatening Chris with lawsuits and harassing his clients, perhaps the WordPress Foundation and Community should look at the problems that Chris attacked and figure out new creative solutions to solve them. The WordPress Developer Community is not Chris’ audience, and Chris should not have to pay them heed. They are practicing a double standard. If they really believe that they are releasing good karma onto the world by their valuable contribution, that should be enough for them.
Chris does nothing but hold the Community in the highest regard for their holy quest for the greater good. But he is a creative entrepreneur, who cares about giving his audience a elite and exclusive product. And he is content with that.
Chris is a businessman who knows his business.
Who the fuck is John Galt anyways?
7/15/2010
@Pearsonified’s Ethos of Creative Entrepreneurship versus the Hive - 1938 Media
via 1938media.com
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