<p>
Really? I looked it up on Merriam-Webster (because I’m not good enough to use the OED), and here’s what I got:</p>
<p>Main Entry: prof·it
Pronunciation: ˈprä-fət
Function: noun
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin profectus advance, profit, from proficere
Date: 14th century</p>
<p>1: a valuable return : gain
2: the excess of returns over expenditure in a transaction or series of transactions; especially : the excess of the selling price of goods over their cost
3: net income usually for a given period of time</p>
<p>Looks like only the latter two are strictly monetary. Of course you can respond that this is just the denotative meaning of the term, which is strictly academic compared to the connotative, yet when I hear “profit” spoken in a general context (as in, “I profited”), I tend to think of the primary definition first. </p>
<p>You guys (potentially including the OP) aren’t thinking outside the box. Profit to you guys is financial. Practical to you guys is something that increases income or decreases time spent working. I don’t want to make harsh generalizations, but this seems like a characteristic attribute of many programmers/coders I know.</p>
<p>When you deal so much with the straightforward logic and predictability of computers, it only makes sense if you begin to see the world in that way too. As something to be planned out, attacked, decoded. </p>
<p>I apologize in advance if I am misrepresenting you guys. And although I certainly am making a normative claim on the desirability of one Weltanschauung over another, I don’t believe my views are representative of the entire population. If that provides you any solace.</p>