Don't Contribute to Open Source

Great video, the right way to look into any open source project as a new developer is with genuine interest and curiosity, not just as a means to an end.

This changed my mindset! Such insightful and valueable video.. Thankyou!!

I really appreciate you taking the time to explain the harm in contributing to open source, just for the sake of getting a job or mentor. As a self-taught web developer, it has been tricky navigating the waters. In the process of building my portfolio website, and am already running into issues/problems. So your video really helped educate me on the reasons one should get involved in open source.

I am an newbie dev with a few years of experience in the industry. My main issue with personal projects is that they don't have meaning. I wrote a web application that no one is going to use. I wrote a file system from scratch that I eventually just discarded. This aggravated when I joined my first job. Now whenever I think of a new project I just go "Uggh what's the point, no one is going to use it anyway" Opensource however are projects that are actually being used by real people. There's a sense of satisfaction in knowing that my code is live and being used while also giving me a chance to learn new things.

This was an amazing video. I really learned something and I think this video opened my mind to the right way of learning to code and going forward. Thanks

This was a great video, straight to the point, and very helpful to a beginner like me. And you were right in the intro, I was think to myself "Why not? Open source seems rather helpful." Then I watched the video and realized that you weren't actually discouraging open source contributions entirely, you were just discouraging the belief that it is 100% necessary to get a job and to improve as a programmer.

made the perfect follow up video to this. If you want to do open source RIGHT, I think this is a must watch. /watch?v=JF8F7uaGfV8

I think that real problem is job offers that require candidates to contribute to open source.

I was thinking about how to get involved in open source when I found this. It's great advice, thank you.

People are desperate for jobs/ a future and will grasp for anything that they think can improve their chances in their careers. As long as people see OSS as desirable while hiring, it will always attract people looking to use it as a means to an end.

8:40 this point about how inexperienced programmers don't understand the difference between a bad goal and a good goal is excellent and IMO worthy of its own video. A lot of introverts without friends who program will be trying to learn programming without any goal better than "I should learn Python" will sabotage themselves over completing something like a Udemy course or introductory book and then losing motivation. It's a strange thing to feel a failure when you've accomplished something and should feel success and it's not something anyone who has experienced it is eager to ever discuss. This was really helpful, thanks for making this video. Best wishes.

Thanks for the video. I tried to learn programming but stopped because I did not find my passion for programming but like after 1.5 year after using popular photo and video editing and 3d animating software that many youtubers suggest like Gimp,kdenlive, Blender, etc I realized that this programs have many features that I do not need. After that I started searching for simple programs for their replacement.I spent many days for finding them tried many programs and found simple photo editing software, video editing Software and 3d animation software that suits me. Then I understood that I want to make simple programs targeting general people. Now I am learning programming and I am member in forums of software that I use and love. I have not helped them by writing code but I do little bug reports , request a feature, ask help, take part in making tutorials for helping others not for having great number of views or subscribers and try to understand how these programs functions. Now also whenever I need a new software for different neccessity I search the web for a good amount of time for finding simple programs . and when I find them even if they are old software and are not developed and updated anymore I use them if they are useful.🙂

Seing the caption I assumed this was a rant about big tech buying community projects such as redhat etc. Bjt it turned out actually being informative and insightful.

It's not activity for noobs for sure, the problem is that the entry point for a junior or a trainee developer is getting higher and higher. So how can we address that? In my case I went to a vocational school for two years, I'm about to finish, one month of exams that will be quite rough but fun... in a way... And then the internship which I hope paves my way to a job. Camps that cost like 5000€ and promise that you will be a fullstack in 3 months have thrived here but it feels like they saturated the market with people that in a lot of cases doesn't seem to have what It takes to be a dev, and hirers are not taking them in anymore unless yo go to the expensive ones... I guess part of what you pay is paid to the company and then that's the money they use to pay your first salaries until they decide you're adequate or not, if not congrats, you got idk, a month or two of experience and guess what, that maybe help you land your next gig lol So yeah, it's difficult to standout if everyone is doing portfolios with the same projects, a lot of people just wanna get a better job and are putting a lot to stake for this, maybe they saved money for like 4 or 6 moths and are drilling more than 12h per day, how someone in that situation is expected to be creative and find a niche to bloom where they're trying to fool proof an entry point to a new career? This is partially my story, but it's also what happened to a lot of people I met along the way, I'm lucky I could go back to my parent's home and study in the community college and that in Europe we do have vocational training endorsing your knowledge. Otherwise I don't know what other thing I could be doing right now to leave the mediocrity of unqualified jobs. I choose this because for the past 30 years we had an enormous growth everywhere for IT companies and within the industry this seemed to be the most fitting , but man, it's hard to swallow the fact that 5 years ago with a camp of 3 months I'd be working now and now I have to do a 2 year qualification for the same thing and while it's true that in this past 2 years I learned a lot and became more proficient, I feel a lot of my time was wasted as well because I already knew half of what I had to study here... I know this feel like I went on a tangent, but understand where all this people stand and try to give them a better alternative or at least I hope more people don't deceive them to go into open source without understanding the repositories they're trying to contribute with.

Glad I watched it through. I understand you. People want to take a shortcut instead of learning every little thing. It’s something I had to learn when becoming a tech. Start at the bottom and learn the trade

You look like you are from portland

I'm not even really a coder but "goals come from things you understand" is such a universally applicable adage that I never properly considered.

maybe title your video "Don't Contribute to Open Source if you're a beginner" but I guess that won't be a click-bait enough title for YouTube. But yeah I completely agree with your point in the video. Also I've never once thought about contributing to open-source projects just for the sake of contributing. Like if I don't even understand the project, it won't be a meaningful contribution. But I guess it does happen. Thanks for bringing light to this.

so it was clickbait afterall

Sorry this is a bad take. How about instead of telling newbies not to contribute, give them advice on how to contribute effectively. Why does it matter HOW you find a project to contribute to? And whether or not you are using it to bolster your portfolio for a job - who cares? Everybody benefits.