Thoughts On Open Source

Please do not read the following as a rant against individuals or certain contribution ethics. Instead, take it as a passionate plea for keeping an eye on the things that make contributing to open source special.

I have had the privilege to contribute to Open Source projects for the last 10 years and I think Open Source is beautiful when we give it a chance to be.

While I had shared code before, GitHub is what enabled me to really get started in Open Source.

The beauty of Open Source is that you can do whatever the heck you want with it. There’s no boss, no market, no requirements.

Open Source has made me a better programmer, a better team member, a better communicator and trainer. Sharing knowledge and expertise freely is what led me to professional success as well.

Sometimes people mistake these

“I owe at least part of my professional career to Open Source”

stories for a recipe for success. Naturally, it is not.

Seeing people use a library or tool I helped create is something magical.

But it is not an end goal in and of itself.

P.S. The world seems to be facing bigger problems at the moment than the ones discussed in this post. I am aware of that. This post is just me using my blog to keep a kind of journal (and a sane mind).