What they forgot to teach you about becoming an open source contributor
summary
A path from passive consumer to project maintainer is described, noting it often takes six or more years of using libraries before first contribution. Concrete entry routes include the first-contributions repo (R fork exists), targeting issues labeled good first issue or help wanted, and contributing to packages you use (first contribution was to broom). Expectations shift: pull requests act as conversations, work on Apache Arrow R packages requires rigorous testing, avoiding extra dependencies, and following participation guidelines.
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chapters (10)
- 0:00Open source intro
- 1:54Benefits of contributing to open source
- 2:55Barriers to starting
- 4:19Choosing where to contribute
- 6:28What to work on first in open source
- 7:50Social dynamics in projects
- 10:59Pull request process
- 13:47Code vs task mindset
- 14:48Non-code contributions
- 15:10Summary
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