There's a classic experiment where people turn some pegs a quarter turn for an hour or so. There were three groups, the first was paid a dollar, the second $20, and third was control, paid nothing. Of the three groups, which do you think enjoyed the work the most?

Well, the one dollar group said they enjoyed it the most and indicated they were most likely to do an experiment like it in the future? Why? You can read more here: http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Festinger/

So what this says is, when you get paid enough money, you can admit to yourself that what you are doing for the money isn't that great and you don't like it. If you aren't paid that much, then you have to justify to yourself why you are doing it and this might include that you enjoy it, you're helping a group, "doing your part," or some other reason besides being fairly compensated. Otherwise, you'd say, "I do it for the money."

I wonder if collectively, programmers/hackers/IT people work for less than their value and so they (we) compensate for the lack of compensation with "passion for the work."