this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2026
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I think the entire idea of free and open source software is an example of people working for something without personal benefit. We wouldn't be talking on Lemmy right now if people hadn't created the ActivityPub protocol and developed the infrastructure, for instance. Hell, I've developed software purely out of spite.
I think if you remove the carrot from the equation, most people will still do the things they love and would still need the things that they need. If I didn't have to work 40-60 hours a week to afford things like healthcare and housing, I'd likely be working on software that improves the lives of those around me.
I can also see projects where massive achievement wouldn’t have been accomplished without some discipline in where time is spent.
One example in games is accessibility support. That is a region where indie devs are terrible, usually because it’s not inspiring to work on. Easier to just reply to your one blind user “Look, I have limited time and a long list of bugs. It’s a video game.” But AAA, and Xbox earlier in the gen, were much better about refining that experience for people.
There’s constantly memes mocking yellow tape, but that aside the improved ways in which games teach people and bring on non-players is like night and day to the old times. You can see that when you try picking up some old games for the first time.
I love Linux now on a technical level, but I probably wouldn’t have the theme I use for the UI if not for Windows, a paid product containing lots of expensive user research and telemetry-driven changes; a lot of GNOME and KDE authors were insistent about the technical efficiency of their old window setups until they finally gave up and started copying Windows - and it IS genuinely a more intuitive environment for a lot of people.
Talk with artists about all their abandoned projects, and you can find that there’s some benefit in balancing “Do what you love” and “Ship the damn product in a complete, wrapped box”
I think we're getting into different discussions. The jobs people don't want to do wouldn't evaporate. I mean unless you're imagining a future where the majority of labor and menial mental effort is automated then yes I could definitely see people having the freedom to do whatever they desired. As of now though there are a lot of jobs that people would not want to do if there was no personal benefit in it but are still wanted or needed by society.