#3 - self-sustaining systems

in reading the multiple articles on linux, i was struck by how unique a working situation the linux development was. this actually seems to approach democracy and an ideal working altruistic society would work. the necessary presence of one mediator perhaps has warnings for the attempted application of the system to a generic community... anyway, i found it sad that this was the kind of endeavor i would love to be involved in, community working to get things done, work on it because it's interesting and will help you eventually somehow. the sad part came when the articles mentioned that the reason it was working so well was because only the impassioned=really good=top 5% of hackers were really working on it and the rest of the computer programming community had to be forced into drudging work by a cranky boss. Being able to spread the boring jobs to people who can handle it easily and with a minimum of fuss seems like an ideal strength of the linux work-mode, but to the majority of people that have have no real passion for anything, enduring that bit of boredom for the cause of the passion is impossible and they stay useless in this type of work-society. dealing with the kind of person who is completely willing to let everything fall through the cracks because of any urgent interest is draining and frustrating. this type of person seems to be encouraged by our society of plenty - it's easy to get enough to live on, hard to find a challenge to meaningfully take ahold of your time. um little off subject, ::shrugs::