The amount doesn’t matter — according to Tidelift’s 2024 report, around 60–80% of open-source maintainers never receive any payment for their work.
So even a small donation is meaningful — it means someone out there found real value in what you built.
You can use GitHub as a portfolio or a playground for experiments. But real value rarely extends beyond your own boundaries unless you're building something to meet a real need.
The most natural approach? Solve your own problem.
My challenge
I run Fedora Linux with GNOME and Sway as my daily drivers (not really an issue 😀 , I'm happy with it).
I needed a speech-to-text (STT) tool. An offline, private "voice keyboard" for everyday desktop interaction — chats, terminal, any window.
It turned out other people needed it too.
Speak to AI is now finding its place in the community.
If there’s one takeaway, it’s this: build tools for yourself.
Solve real problems you actually have, use what you build, and ship it as open source.
Sometimes that’s enough for it to matter to others too.
> Cover image via: https://hear-me.social/@debby/115588019309116671
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