Should I work for free?

shouldiworkforfree.com

2 pointsmono3 comments

Here's my version: NO! You should always get something in return for your hard work.

Of course, in a few cases on there, you ARE getting something for your hard work (or repaying favors you already got), it's just not cold, hard cash.

Any trade that isn't in balance is bad for both sides. It may not be immediate, but it will be eventually.

I find that my personal projects are the ones that get the most visiblity and recognition. If I were to think of purely in terms of am I getting cash for this time - then I would probably never spend time on any project or startup where there was no money in it for me right away.

Think about all those open source projects on GitHub - if nobody ever worked "for free", you would get such great wonderful projects like some amazing jquery pluggins and what not.

I think when people think in a small short term view like this, they severely limit themselves.

Perhaps this is overly simplistic, but by definition "work" is stuff I wouldn't do for free.

I definitely do technical things for free, but I'm free to walk away any time -- I think the essence of "work" is the inability to walk away (without terminating whatever contract is in place).

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