The latest articles on DEV Community by Hilary Asogwa (@dansatch). https://dev.to/dansatch https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F4091174%2Ff4ed1db2-2474-4e76-a466-facad4b8e670.jpg https://dev.to/dansatch en Hilary Asogwa Sun, 23 Aug 2026 19:10:43 +0000 https://dev.to/dansatch/i-finally-get-opensource-3g7l https://dev.to/dansatch/i-finally-get-opensource-3g7l <p>I've been coding for about 8years now, professionally about half that time. I've always enjoyed it, or I think I have(it's the only thing i've been good at), but through that time I never found/understood the reason behind opensource contributions. </p> <p>I know the theory about going the distance together, but never gave it some thought, at least until my boss thought it'd put me on a better position professionally(same with this article being public)<br> I worked on 2 first time issues over this weekend.</p> <ul> <li>Spacebar: had to investigate the api slowmode behavior and ensure the endpoint returns the required result. and </li> <li>node-config, basically handling a breaking change in the backend and writing the appropriate regression test. </li> </ul> <p>The hardest part was trying to recreate the issue and familiarising myself with the repo.<br> "Why do I have to do this? if it was really important the repo owner would handle it." <br> I still don't think i was wrong in my thoughts, but having the first PR get accepted and the owner leaving a comment felt liberating.</p> <p>Outside of work, I don't have friends that still code, so the 2 message converation about 10lines of code with a complete stranger felt like homelander discovering milk for the first time.</p> opensource oldnoob node homelander