In a previous FOSDEM I described the selfish contributor:

https://archive.fosdem.org/2020/schedule/event/selfish_contributor/

Which is the archetypal scratching your own itch contribution. The original talk mostly focussed on how to deal with corporations, which tend to act rationally and are usually persuadable. In this talk I'd like to look at individuals and their motivations and how their selfish motivations can be harnessed efficiently.

By now everyone has heard the phrase "toxic individualism" which simply means putting your rights and needs over that of the community. Many Codes of Conduct try to characterize this behaviour and that, in turn, can lead to a general fear because many actions of a selfish contributor could be classified as toxic behaviour because under this definition, every non-altruistic action (even scratching your own itch) could fit the definition. One would think therefore that successful and vibrant communities must be tolerant of some form toxic behaviour to avoid driving away potential contributions, but that isn't true either. What actually happens is that successful communities evolve strategies for harnessing what would otherwise become toxic behaviours to serve the community.

This talk will explore how conditions arise in a community for harnessing selfish impulses to the good of the community. Sometimes it can be community processes, but most often it is people who spot the issue and help mediate a solution which benefits both the contributor and the community at large. This talk will also explore what those skills are and how to develop them and also touch on how, even in the best communities, those mechanisms can fail and give some hints for recognizing when this has happened and what to do about it.