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Ashutosh Kumar
Ashutosh Kumar

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Don't chase GSoC, Chase open source

โœฆ If you're doing ๐—š๐—ฆ๐—ผ๐—– only for the stipend, ๐—œ ๐—ต๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜๐—น๐˜† ๐˜„๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ต ๐˜†๐—ผ๐˜‚ ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐˜ ๐—ณ๐˜‚๐—ฐ๐—ธ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐˜‚๐—ฝ ๐—ฏ๐˜† ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ท๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป. Because, GSoC doesnโ€™t make you good at open source.

โœฆ ๐—ข๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ป ๐˜€๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ธ๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐˜†๐—ผ๐˜‚ ๐˜„๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜๐—ต๐˜† ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐—š๐—ฆ๐—ผ๐—–.

Most of you havenโ€™t contributed to a single open source organization or open source project, not even built one real world project, and yet people have flooded my ๐——๐— ๐˜€ with:

โ€œHow do I crack GSoC?โ€
โ€œWhich org is easiest to crack?โ€
โ€œSend me your proposal so I can crack it too.โ€
โ€œHow much stipend will I get if I contribute?โ€
โ€œAny shortcut to get selected?โ€

Iโ€™m tired of this word: ๐—–๐—ฅ๐—”๐—–๐—ž.
There is nothing to crack.

Open source is not:
โ€ข ๐—”๐—ป ๐—ฒ๐˜…๐—ฎ๐—บ
โ€ข ๐—” ๐—๐—˜๐—˜ ๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ
โ€ข ๐—” ๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜๐—ฒ๐˜€-๐—ฏ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐˜€๐—ต๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜๐—ฐ๐˜‚๐˜
โ€ข ๐—” ๐— ๐—”๐—”๐—ก๐—š / ๐—™๐—”๐—”๐—ก๐—š ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐˜„

People think GSoC is some shortcut program:
Contribute using AI.
Copy a PR.
Get selected.
Take the money.
Flex the certificate.

That mindset is fucking bullshit.

๐—ฌ๐—ฒ๐˜€, ๐—š๐—ฆ๐—ผ๐—– ๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ฝ๐˜€ ๐˜†๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜‚๐—บ๐—ฒ.
๐—•๐˜‚๐˜ ๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒโ€™๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—น๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ฟ๐˜‚๐˜๐—ต:

๐Ÿ‘‰ With this โ€œcrack mentalityโ€
You probably wonโ€™t even get selected and even if you do, youโ€™ll hate the process.

So if youโ€™re aiming for GSoC 2026, pause and rethink:

๐—ช๐—ต๐˜† ๐—ฑ๐—ผ ๐˜†๐—ผ๐˜‚ ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜ ๐—ถ๐˜?
For the badge?
For the fucking LinkedIn validation?
For the stipend?

If youโ€™re doing it just for this,
youโ€™re going to get fucked out, my dear.

๐—•๐˜‚๐˜ ๐—ถ๐—ณ ๐˜†๐—ผ๐˜‚ ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜ ๐˜๐—ผ:
build real things
solve real problems
learn how real software is made

๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ป ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐˜ ๐—š๐—ฆ๐—ผ๐—– ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—ฎ ๐—บ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜.
Start contributing now, to any open source organization or project.

๐——๐—ผ๐—ปโ€™๐˜ ๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜€๐—ฒ ๐—š๐—ฆ๐—ผ๐—–. ๐—–๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜€๐—ฒ ๐—ข๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ป ๐—ฆ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ. Everything else follows.
GSoC is just a part of open source, not the whole thing.

๐—œ ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐˜€ ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ป ๐˜€๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—œ ๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ป ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐˜ ๐—š๐—ฆ๐—ผ๐—–.
โ€ข In 2022, I was an intermediate dev, building small projects.
โ€ข In 2023, I started building fullstack projects and became active in the open-source community.
โ€ข In 2024, I built 35+ real world projects, stayed obsessed, and still didnโ€™t get selected.
โ€ข In 2025, I finally became part of GSoC.

So, I survived only because I love building things, I love open source, not because I followed some fucking โ€œcrack guide.โ€

๐—ฆ๐—ผ ๐—บ๐˜† ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ,
Stop chasing programs.
Stop cracking.

Start just fucking building, building, & building.

Because, ๐—ข๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ป ๐—ฆ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ is a way of building and innovating together through collaboration.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashutoshkumaraashu/

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