The world is not fair

So, I’m a software engineer. I work for a large-ish company that is a major player in the digital TV arena, and I think I’m considered pretty good at my job. I think I’m paid slightly shy of average for a developer of my age and experience, but I like my job and my co-workers enough to let that slide. I have a reasonably good income and no dependants, and if I wasn’t paying out a staggeringly huge amount in debt repayments each month, I’d be very comfortable (rather than just pretty comfortable.)

So far, so average. So can someone tell me how the hell I earn more than Wil fucking Wheaton? This guy was in Star Trek for crying out loud! And on top of that (or, depending on your opinion of Wes, despite it,) he’s grown into one of the best, most natural writers of the blogging generation. Oh, and he’s a great spokesman for unashamed geeks everywhere too; I mean, did you hear his PAX keynote?

Honestly, it’s a sign of his talent that it’s been years since I’ve thought of him as “that kid who played the annoying one in TNG.”

So how come he writes entertaining, uplifting, even self-validating blog posts every day¹, produces books that are truly a joy to read, is capable of whipping a conference full of high income geeks into a frenzy, and yet is still worried about how to provide for his kids, while I show up to an office every day, write code designed to make rich people richer, which may or may not ever be released, and somehow earn enough that my biggest worry is whether I can afford that new monitor this month without curtailing my pizza habit?

Is that fair?

Hell no. So here’s my plan. I bought “Just a Geek” ages ago, but have lost my copy somewhere along the way. I borrowed “Dancing Barefoot” once, and to my shame have neither bought nor Read “Happiest Days of Our Lives” yet. So I’m going to buy all three of them. This month. I’m not doing this as a charity thing; I genuinely love his writing, and want to own his books; I’ve just not got around to to buying them. So I want the books, I’m sure he’d like the money. It’s a win/win situation.

Because I know he’d hate the thought of people buying his writing out of charity, I’m not going to suggest everyone goes out and does the same, but I will point you all at his blog. Add it to your blog-roll (if you haven’t already.) Read it for a while. I’m pretty sure that, if you’re a geek or a gamer or just love good writing, you’ll end up buying his books for reasons he won’t hate.

Go. Now. Read.

1. I smile to myself, genuinely cheered, when he writes about his kids — who I’ve obviously never met — getting into roleplaying, or Monty Python, or the right computer games, or any of the other things I love. [↩]