Hi, Jérôme. What a wonderful story! I sometimes wonder what it feels like to be a sole proprietor / maintainer of something that so many people depend on. I'm so happy you realized that feeling, and I hope I can get there by the end of next year. I am also in the middle of authoring my own package as I am also thirsting to start my own niche project.
By the way, I really enjoyed your point about "gaining much from it in other ways." I'm beginning to realize more and more the positive "side effects" of contributing to OS. The original goal was to give back of course. Now the motivation is becoming multi-layered. In brief, here are some of the benefits I'm seeing from contributing to OS.
You learn about VCS (Mercurial, Git, all of that).
You learn about discipline (it takes a fair amount of time to see your contributions get merged).
You learn about effective communication (describing the problem, the solutions you considered, the solution you ultimately took, etc.).
You learn about "production level code".
You learn about how to write tests.
You learn about build workflows (some projects have a complex build process).
You learn about new methods/concepts. "Wait, what! You could do that?" There were tons of those moments when I was looking at the Firefox codebase.
You learn about ways you can measure your skills against a job at a target company. It's not the best proxy but it is a decent one as I tried to argue in this post.
IMO, you gain in different doses of those aforementioned reasons. For example, it's hard to learn effective communication (reason 4) if there are fewer people involved in a project.
Your point about doing OS to land a job is incredibly fair. When people ask me if it's a good way to get their foot in the door, I tell them no. It's incredibly inefficient because relationships take time to build, and people who are solely in it for the job seem to lose motivation and burn out quickly.
All of this to say that I really enjoyed your perspective about not seeing OS as a way to get into the "big league". I definitely don't want to give people the impression that that should be the main driver. Hopefully it's a mix of reasons, and people also weigh the pros and cons of contributing to a smaller project.
If my comment was in a git repository and your comment was a PR, I'd merge it immediately - well said! 🥰 I was lazy with my "gaining in other ways", your list details it nicely!
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Hi, Jérôme. What a wonderful story! I sometimes wonder what it feels like to be a sole proprietor / maintainer of something that so many people depend on. I'm so happy you realized that feeling, and I hope I can get there by the end of next year. I am also in the middle of authoring my own package as I am also thirsting to start my own niche project.
By the way, I really enjoyed your point about "gaining much from it in other ways." I'm beginning to realize more and more the positive "side effects" of contributing to OS. The original goal was to give back of course. Now the motivation is becoming multi-layered. In brief, here are some of the benefits I'm seeing from contributing to OS.
IMO, you gain in different doses of those aforementioned reasons. For example, it's hard to learn effective communication (reason 4) if there are fewer people involved in a project.
Your point about doing OS to land a job is incredibly fair. When people ask me if it's a good way to get their foot in the door, I tell them no. It's incredibly inefficient because relationships take time to build, and people who are solely in it for the job seem to lose motivation and burn out quickly.
All of this to say that I really enjoyed your perspective about not seeing OS as a way to get into the "big league". I definitely don't want to give people the impression that that should be the main driver. Hopefully it's a mix of reasons, and people also weigh the pros and cons of contributing to a smaller project.
Warmly,
DH
If my comment was in a git repository and your comment was a PR, I'd merge it immediately - well said! 🥰 I was lazy with my "gaining in other ways", your list details it nicely!