Software and "Crescent Moon Spring"
当Unix实践接近开发源码时，就欣欣向荣，反之则停滞不前。
——Henry Spencer（史上最伟大程序员之一）
The longer I have been engaged in software open source-related businesses, the more I feel this way. It seems that I am doing something glorious but particularly frustrating, desert afforestation. China has the most extensive group of programmers, but it still gives us the indisputable fact: our software culture and engineer culture are like deserts.
The standard of plant selection for afforestation is usually those plants that can tolerate poor soil and rapidly increase the volume and canopy coverage of trees, such as poplars, so that soil moisture and light below the tree canopy are reduced, and the roots of these plants will grow deeper. The local use of a large amount of groundwater has led to a drop in groundwater level and a decrease in soil water content, making it more difficult for native herbs to use water, causing the death of native herbs and reducing vegetation coverage. At the same time, trees or shrubs also increase the evaporation of this area, and exacerbate the loss of water in this area. Furthermore, due to the reduction of vegetation cover, the surface roughness decreases, the wind speed near the surface increases, and the surface runoff increases. The wind speed and surface runoff increase, leading to further soil loss. As a result, afforestation has played the opposite effect as expected. When the groundwater drops further, those artificial trees have difficulty in obtaining groundwater due to their roots and lack a source of water. These trees will also die.
Perhaps many people do not understand the above analysis of "the bull's head is not the horse's mouth". But when you are asked, "We have 150,000 software personnel, 70,000 self-employed personnel, and 80,000 outsourced personnel, which consumes tens of billions of dollars a year, and actually cannot be an American software company with two or three hundred people. We have to study the problem Where and how should you solve this problem?” You should understand the problem to a certain extent.
Fortunately, after several years of practice, I have seen some hope, just like the "Crescent Lake". I heard that it was almost exhausted in a few years, but those who have been there in the past few years have seen that the water has increased again. Also lush vegetation. Although there may be a possibility of "infusion", it gives everyone hope after all.
Afforestation in the desert must not go deep into the desert hinterland like the Sahara Desert. In places where there is no grass around, you must find some "oasis" or places like "Crescent Spring". In the software industry, such places and water sources are "open source communities."
The latest research by forestry experts has shown that it is necessary to reduce the density of trees, plant shrubs or herbs instead, or improve the environment of native plants. Simple tree planting and afforestation projects can not achieve the expected results, and even cause the opposite effect. We must use our knowledge to make use of nature, and implement environmental protection and ecological improvement projects based on local conditions.
Similarly, when a larger number of software engineers can go deep into the open source community to learn, grow and progress, we shouldn’t worry about their “skills” all day long and use “exams” to spur them, but it will bring additional happiness. The "pain" is that under such continuous growth, they are becoming more and more "valuable".