In a way, I like to think about these [open source] maintainers kind of like 18th century weavers in North of England. Uh these weavers were kind of known as Luddites. They were specialty weavers. They built uh they wove amazing clothes. They were the best in the world at what they did. And then, British colonialism happened. They were replaced with machines. And these well-compensated weavers uh that lived on nice for farms in Yorkshire, they were forced to move to London and live in cramped housing and eat stale bread.
So, the future of open source maintainers is moving to London and eating stale bread.
The Luddites were members of a 19th-century movement of English textileworkers who were against the usage of certain types of automated machinery owing to their concerns relating to worker pay, child labour, working conditions and output quality. They often destroyed the machines in organised raids.[1][2] Members of the group referred to themselves as Luddites, self-described followers of “Ned Ludd”, a legendary weaver whose name was used as a pseudonym in threatening letters to mill owners and government officials.[3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite
The Luddites were members of a 19th-century movement of English textileworkers who were against the usage of certain types of automated machinery owing to their concerns relating to worker pay, child labour, working conditions and output quality. They often destroyed the machines in organised raids.[1][2] Members of the group referred to themselves as Luddites, self-described followers of “Ned Ludd”, a legendary weaver whose name was used as a pseudonym in threatening letters to mill owners and government officials.[3]