I'd think that people who work on free software in their free time would be a much better top 10%. They saw a problem, fixed it, worked with the community and contributed.
By classist, do you mean "people who can't write software because they have problems in their life"? I don't understand how someone like that would be able to get a job as a software developer anyway. They might be able to get a trainee job or something, but I assumed we were talking about "people who have experience" jobs. However, unpaid internships are a very different thing:
If you work on free software in your free time, you're contributing to a commons that everyone (not just potential employers) benefits from. The fact that you contributed to a community of free software users shows that you have community involvement, are self-motivated and have the technical knowledge to work with the project you contributed to.
On the other hand, unpaid internships are a way to get free labour for mindless tasks that have nothing to do with actually working in the field. In many cases they are illegal, and many people from poorer families can't afford to work on an unpaid internship.
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I'd think that people who work on free software in their free time would be a much better top 10%. They saw a problem, fixed it, worked with the community and contributed.
This approach has classist implications. See also unpaid internship.
By classist, do you mean "people who can't write software because they have problems in their life"? I don't understand how someone like that would be able to get a job as a software developer anyway. They might be able to get a trainee job or something, but I assumed we were talking about "people who have experience" jobs. However, unpaid internships are a very different thing:
If you work on free software in your free time, you're contributing to a commons that everyone (not just potential employers) benefits from. The fact that you contributed to a community of free software users shows that you have community involvement, are self-motivated and have the technical knowledge to work with the project you contributed to.
On the other hand, unpaid internships are a way to get free labour for mindless tasks that have nothing to do with actually working in the field. In many cases they are illegal, and many people from poorer families can't afford to work on an unpaid internship.
See the difference?