Microsoft&#8217;s Worst Nightmare?
<p>A commenter writes, in reference to my letter to the Microsoft<br />
recruiter,</p>
<blockquote><p>
BTW, I think abrogating to yourself the status of MS&#8217;s worst<br />
nightmare might be seen as presumptious, considering that FLOSS<br />
depends on a big community, and a lot of what FLOSS is about precedes<br />
your 97 work, but far be it from me to try to teach ESR strategy.
</p></blockquote>
<p>Um.  You meant &#8220;arrogating&#8221;, I think. A few words about that&#8230;</p>
<p><span id="more-209"></span></p>
<p>Well, duh.  Of <em>course</em> the open-source community predates<br />
me and is much bigger than any one individual. I&#8217;ve done more than<br />
most to point that out, I think, asserting our continuity clear back<br />
to 1960 and the SPACEWAR hackers at MIT.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m Microsoft&#8217;s worst nightmare not so much because of myself as an<br />
individual but because I&#8217;ve served as a public focus and embodiment of<br />
the hacker community&#8217;s values.  And (this is the nightmare part) I<br />
sold them to Wall Street.  I broke us out of the geek ghetto.</p>
<p>I try not to have a big ego about this.  I&#8217;m well aware that if it<br />
hadn&#8217;t been me in that role, somebody else would have done it. It was<br />
<em>time</em> in the late 1990s.  OK, to be honest I think without me<br />
the open-source transition would have happened a few years later and<br />
with less up-front awareness, but it was going to happen; long-term<br />
trends in the underlying economics guaranteed that.  I may have been<br />
the first to understand and publicize those trends, but that never<br />
gave me the illusion that I created them or that they wouldn&#8217;t have<br />
operated without &#8220;ESR&#8221; pushing.</p>
<p>In fact, having been the key man at one or two pivotal historical<br />
moments, I&#8217;m in an almost uniquely good position to plump for the<br />
&#8220;times make the man&#8221; theory.  Yes, I supplied some individual vision.<br />
But I absolutely do not think of myself as indispensible and never<br />
have.  Because I&#8217;ve felt the tide of history sweeping me forward, and<br />
I know that the hacker community created <em>me</em>.  </p>
<p>This is something that is hard to talk about without sounding<br />
mystical. I sometimes feel almost as though I&#8217;m a sort of sense organ<br />
or mirror that the hacker community grew in order to see itself more<br />
clearly.  To the extent I ended up &#8220;leading&#8221; or became a culture hero<br />
in that process, it was because the community desperately needed<br />
someone to do it and pulled me into the role, shaping me to fit<br />
in the process.</p>
<p>Cultures need culture heroes &mdash; and they&#8217;ll create &#8216;em if they<br />
don&#8217;t pop up spontaneously.  Note: the process can be damn rough on<br />
the candidate.  And being the focus of so many peoples&#8217; dreams and<br />
aspirations is&#8230;well, it&#8217;s terrifying at times.  I used to have a lot<br />
of contempt for rock stars who couldn&#8217;t handle the pressure and fucked<br />
up with drugs.  Now I understand better.  I&#8217;ve been through some<br />
awful, heartbreaking, soul-destroying shit on this job.</p>
<p>But let&#8217;s look on the positive side.  I guess the most important<br />
point I want to make is that my success doesn&#8217;t belong to me alone but<br />
to all hackers, every one of us.  I never forget this, and I hope no<br />
one else will either.</p></p>
