Free Sucks

Free sucks. There, I said it. And for all the reasons I’m about throw down as to why, I’m sure I’m going to get massive pushback on this. But, it needs to be said.

I took an internet law class at law school (not for free, BTW), where my professor began with the history of the internet. Once upon a time, we had ARPAnet, and then the internet. ARPAnet was set up between a few universities to share information between computers, basically. Then we dove into all the tricky laws that govern (or attempt to govern) the internet. But the one statement he said that always stuck with me, even to this day is the following: “The internet wants to be free, and also be…expensive.”

The internet has done a lot of good for our society — it’s given classrooms the largest libraries ever. It’s allowed us to communicate with others across the world for lower costs, even free in many cases. But, I argue it has also conditioned us in a negative way to expect that EVERYTHING on the internet, and in some cases EVERYTHING in real life (IRL) should be free.

Bad idea.

‘Free’ IRL has documented evidence of being horrible for many reasons. Here’s an example in the world of event planning, one that I’ve always been involved in with several of my day jobs. How would you as an event planner like to plan a ‘free’ event not knowing that 40% of your RSVPs may or may not show up? Thanks, but no thanks. You’re setting yourself up for an ulcer....and failure.

We invest in the stock market and our retirement, but when we sign up for a free event, we really have no skin in the game. We’re not supporting the event or the platform with anything. There’s no exclusivity to a free event either — so that means there’s little to no value in it. Free even denotes that organizers don’t value the event or the service. Anyone and everyone can get in! So, why would someone show up for something they have little or no investment in? This is the concept of scarcity — in the opposite.

I also argue that this ‘free’ argument is one of the Achilles’ heels of the US healthcare system. We’ve been conditioned to think that healthcare should be ‘free’ because our employers of the past haven’t asked us for large copays. Now that we DO have our personal bank accounts in the game for healthcare with high deductibles, a lot of people complain about it. Pharmacy is in the trouble that it’s in as a profession because it’s been giving away its cognitive services for FREE forever as well. (This, coupled with no one knowing what anything in healthcare costs — ANOTHER conditioning that we created for ourselves by assuming that our employers and managed healthcare plans would give us healthcare for ‘free,’ or at least for the best price.)

NOTHING. VALUABLE. IS. FREE.

When you pay to use a service or show up at an event, you’re invested — that means you have skin in the game. That means you’re a part of it. That also means that you have a personal interest in that thing you paid for to work. Whether that’s training or education to get you ahead in the workforce, or that software you’re using that gives your company a competitive advantage. You’re doing something to learn something that is scarce. That’s the value.

I also personally pay my very hard earned money for exclusive educational opportunities and events, and I’m happy to do so, if I think that the content was well-curated and/or I believe in the person or teacher putting the course on. I’d rather spend thousands of dollars to have the exclusive or nearly exclusive opportunity to meet up with one of my gurus IRL and have a conversation with them once than go to 10 free year-long seminars in a crowd of tens of thousands of people and never hear anything truly great or that would be carefully curated knowledge (and/or didn’t get my personal questions answered). If my questions didn’t get answered, I just wasted time (which, by the way, is the most precious resource of all.) And admittedly, I’m pretty picky these days about my short list of gurus.

As a writer, if it takes me more than 1 hour to develop content anymore, I tend to share most, if not all of it for an exclusive period of time, then I ratchet it back and charge for it. People love to complain about that, or call the content as “clickbait.” But if I know there’s no other place for them to get the content — then too bad! I value my time an research skills, thanks, and you don’t have to buy it! Instead of complaining about my clickbait, why not instead focus on something YOU can contribute that’s unique, scarce or exclusive in the universe, Mr. Heckler?

'Free' also attracts the cheap. And I really don’t want to work with cheap customers. They’re usually the ones with the most complaints, and who expect EVERYTHING for free. The service/content/education is never good enough. Usually, when I find someone who is cheap around the 10th or so complaint — I just ask them — “Do you work for free? All the time? Or, only on the internet?”

When they reply “No,” I smile and move on.

The super cheap tend to have never planned events or anything that mattered either. They just show up, usually late, to heckle and criticize those who dare to step into the arena and start something new. It’s easy to criticize and harder to create. Usually, with the critics, I just ask them about the last thing that they organized, and when they can’t come up with anything, I smile and move on.

If you organize events or educational meetings, or even an app on the internet — please, stop giving away your best stuff for free. It’s setting up an unsustainable expectation and it’s lowering the bar on quality. It’s bringing out the cheap hecklers. Instead, charge something. Or make it exclusive somehow to your best customers. That gets people to show up and invest in what you’re doing. It also shows that you value what work or service that you’re providing. Try being on the ‘expensive’ part of the internet spectrum in my law professor’s statement. Otherwise, you’ll just be another voice in a sea of nothingness — and hecklers.

p.s. Yes, I understand that this post is free, and therefore, it possibly sucks. But I’ll chalk it up as a public service/utility for now, and state that I don't think it sucks. ??

p.p.s. Just so you know, the internet was not free either. (Nor invented by Al Gore.) You can read about how the US federal government paid for the origins of the internet here. Also, healthcare certainly isn’t free either — it’s over 18% of the US GDP now.

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Erin L. Albert is a writer, podcaster, pharmacist, attorney and entrepreneur. She is also senior director of education at ASCP. Opinions here are her own.