That's a bit like saying "carpenters make furniture. You should probably make money."
Our craft is programming. In order to create unique value where others haven't out of programs, you should probably be good at programming. If the unique value we would create were out of design, we'd be designers. If it were out of reports, we'd be statisticians. Know your craft and be good at it.
I bet there are a lot less carpenters "worth their salt" giving away their designs and "sharing" furniture for free than programmers. Still, if you want and afford to profess for fame and good will, do it..
I think you would be very surprised to see the insides of many periodicals focused on carpentry. Open source and information sharing wasn't invented by a bunch of programmers at Stanford in the 70s.
Before the Internet, publishing and distributing was expensive. But in about every craft, you have people hosting their knowledge and designs for free from the earliest days of the Internet. First self-publishing (webpages) and mail groups, later also on-line forums.
I have barely shared an opinion and I'm already forced to offer countless minutes of free "support" because someone on the internet misunderstood it or has surplus minutes for arguing. Now imagine if I had posted a github link to some fancy router, brand new web framework for Golang or whatever. Sorry but I really don't have time to explain you that I don't have time for "free support" even if the hosting is cheap now.
You're not forced to do anything. You can share stuff and then not reply to people's comments. I think most people understand that others too are busy.
>You can share stuff and then not reply to people's comments.
Good. That's what I meant in the original comment: "Make what you want and don't actively share it". Share if you want but don't waste time sharing/commenting/documenting/crowd pleasing.
But you can really know your craft, have side projects, make a nice living and have a fulfilling life outside your job even if you don't get temporarily crowned "master carpenter" of the <trendy new thing> because you "taught the craft" for free on the internets.
Our craft is programming. In order to create unique value where others haven't out of programs, you should probably be good at programming. If the unique value we would create were out of design, we'd be designers. If it were out of reports, we'd be statisticians. Know your craft and be good at it.