**The very idea that you have to pay engineers to build is ludicrous.**
They love building. They have made their hobby their job. That's the equivalent of saying that a baker would never bake anything, if you didn't pay him. I assure you, he would always be baking. He loves baking. That is why he is a baker. I assure you that the software engineer logs out of us work computer every evening, and then flips open his private computer, to build the fun stuff. We do this shit 48 hours a day and just wish we could squeeze another 72 hours into the day to do it.
**You pay engineers to maintain and update the stuff they have built, after they have grown a bit bored of it.** Or to give you access to their machines, respond to your service requests, add features they don't themselves want, etc. That is the moment where the play becomes work.
The reason the Nostr funding eats up enormous amounts of money and turns the protocol into a repo graveyard, is because it is aimed at paying builders to build. Which is the max retarded way to spend money. That actually _inhibits building_ as the people who would normally just start building sit around on their arse and wait for it to rain money on their heads. Effectively holding their own ideas hostage.
> I will not build this thing I want to build until you pay me because I have seen that you pay other people and I don't want to be the only loser who isn't in on the scam.
-- Typical dev on Nostr
And then the hard work of keeping things going, marketing their product, and dealing with users arrives... and most of the devs start slowly disappearing, again.
They built what they wanted to build.
They got what they wanted to get.
Peace out and thanks for all the zaps.
And the rest of us are their bagholders, trying to explain why the _Great Stuff Grants Have Brought Us_ is now a 404 File Not Found. Or why there is this nifty mobile app, but it's a bit broken and the dev isn't responding to questions.
Nobody paid that dev to respond to your questions. That is why.
/rant
/rant
