We trust strangers' open source more than our colleagues'
3 days ago
- #psychology
- #tech culture
- #open source
- Tech companies often prefer unknown open source libraries over those maintained by colleagues due to psychological biases.
- Key psychological factors include social proof, blame avoidance, conflict-of-interest reflex, and the 'prophet without honor' effect.
- Consequences include wasted energy, ignored good code, morale hits, and security ironies.
- Solutions involve applying uniform criteria, moving projects to neutral spaces, and framing suggestions appropriately.
- Encourages fair evaluation of colleague-maintained libraries to potentially find the best solutions.