C.4. The Magic Cauldron

C.4.1. Notes

C.4.1.1. Note 31

The underprovision problem would in fact scale linearly with number of users if we assumed programming talent to be uniformly distributed in the project user population as it expands over time. This is not, however, the case.

The incentives discussed in Chapter 3 (and some more conventionally economic ones as well) imply that qualified people tend to seek projects that match their interests, as well as the projects seeking them. Accordingly, theory suggests (and experience tends to confirm) that the most valuable (most qualified and motivated) people tend to discover the projects for which they fit well relatively early in the projects' life cycles, with a corresponding fall-off later on.