Having come across an interview with Linus Torvalds in regard to the development of Linux primarily the kernel which he still maintains I was interested in his view of his own self interest in the project, basically the level of self interest was great enough to get him interested and this helped create a community project. Well that is simplifying it a bit but I was taken back by the self interest bit but it did make sense. It got me thinking about the pharmaceutical industry and the research and treatment of mental illness. The main criticism of this industry is its drive for profit and the self interest of parties involved. Also add to this negative views about drugs for treating mental illness. People will call into question the drugs effectiveness. People will blame the medication for creating problems worse than the symptoms. This of course could be cultural if we question the birth of drug treatments such as the use of LSD in the sixties to treat disorders. These early experiments in treatment were at the time seen as helpful, really they were quackery. So the history of these drug treatments still resonates negatively when in fact the treatment of some illnesses have improved. Also mixed with the negative view of self interested parties looking for profits you have an unpopular combination. A friend told me how his neighbour who is treated for a mental illness had leg problems and as far as he was concerned it was caused by his medication. How he knows this for sure is uncertain but he feels this is the case. Regardless it is better to be asking questions rather than pointing the finger. Medications don’t work for everyone and the history as well as the research is changing and it isn’t always for the better. A straight linear path to perfection isn’t always believable the actual responses to the medications are not always favourable and people can wonder what the real effects are. My point really is that the self interest of various parties can be welcome if the institution itself isn’t corrupted by self serving with no benefit to others. Some ideas follow a path that resolves some of the questionable history and the negative perceptions may follow years after even when beneficial results are obtained. If you look at the culture of Linux a lot of people have benefited with robust systems and reliable solutions, there are always negatives too and this resonates in different ways. Once I met a neuroscientist at a party and we got talking, I was talking about my Dad and his issues with mental illness and he was telling me some of the research going on mainly using lab mice and it was quite alien to me as I don’t spend my time making mice go mad for the sake of research. It was fascinating and really I had to take his word for it. There have been some big breakthroughs in understanding and my Dad won’t take the new medications as he doesn’t want to spend the money on them even though they are subsidised I suppose it is just my Dad’s decision not to play. He gets an older medication that isn’t as effective but it is free and helps him. The new medications should be free but then the self interested parties don’t get paid and really they deserve to, if they weren’t going to they wouldn’t have bothered funding all the research and going to all that effort. It really comes down to governments standing outside of the equation, they will subsidize but they really can’t be expected to own every intellectual idea that pops up, that is self interest for you it is everywhere allowed to grow in the bosom of capitalism hopefully to most peoples benefit but its not for every one. In the meantime the fear of going broke keeps us all going to work hopefully our own self interest will lead to some positives it isn’t all about money or convenience or self interest but a whole gamut of motivations. I did all that graffiti for free what motivated me? Interest and enjoyment. I just wanted to see what wasn’t there appear to me. It wasn’t on your wall then it was, magic. It was in my head then it was there like a cryptic telegram from space. It wasn’t always welcome very rarely welcome but you do persevere. I suppose I buy more into the idea of interest without the self part, as interest is usually about more than your self but the activity or thing of interest that stands outside in the larger world. Your self with interests maybe. Anyway interest kind of stands in the world with interested parties being interesting I hope.