Four months ago I released a piece of JavaScript. It was just a harmless bit of code geared towards a specific problem I had encountered. I tend to enjoy sharing my creations and, yes, that little “egoboo” one gets too.
The day after releasing it I noticed a tweet from an industry “hero” to the tone of “oh not another one”. You see, for the uninitiated, there is a certain worthiness of something derived from how it contributes to the landscape of the industry and the open-source community as a whole, and this worthiness is the only kind we’re supposed to care about.
If you do something to further your own understanding, for example, then you’d better damn-well keep it to yourself, because unless it’s a perfect pearl of engineering the dragons will descend and ensure every spec of self-worth you had riding on your pet project is demolished.
There were other messages of disapproval, one to the tone of “this problem has already been solved”. And: “you should be putting your efforts elsewhere”. It’s as if there is this delusion of a grand directive, as if we’re all aboard starship “free the world” and we’re the sole exercisers of revolution. We must all pull our weight contributing to the directive otherwise we’ll have wasted precious human resources.
I don’t buy that. There is no directive. We’re all running around solving problems that we care about and discovering new things to improve our understanding of the world, and that’s wonderful. We’re not automatons working in unison towards an absolute. And the world would be such a dull place if we were. So please go ahead and:
- Implement the 12th selector engine
- Make yet another templating solution
- Create a CSS3 creature just for fun
There are some that will grow furious at your wasted time. You see, this is all very serious to them. This is serious stuff indeed; really serious in-fact. You’d be forgiven for thinking that fairies and kittens die in anguish whenever a subjectively sub-par piece of code is released into the world. Fortunately though, nothing dies… other than the tad of self-esteem you foolishly placed on a petty side-project. A fool I am for trying.
Not to worry though. There are people here in this “community” who don’t take everything so seriously. If I was one for a sappy directive it’d probably go like this:
- Make stuff, share it, and then share how you did it.
- Embrace newbies and their willingness to participate.
- Don’t take anything too seriously.
So remember: there is no directive. It’s just you and other people trying to figure stuff out. Improve things, feel good about it, but don’t berate others for not subscribing to your particular brand of lofty idealism.
PS: Just to be absolutely clear: I am guilty of taking things too seriously. This post, and any others that seem accusatory and preachy, are almost entirely addressed to a previous version of me.
Thanks for reading! Please share your thoughts with me on Twitter. Have a great day!
I can’t think of a better answer than this:
http://catoverflow.com/cats/ZTPKhAI.gif
😀 Just kidding! But really, don’t take them too seriously.
Unfortunately there’s little correlation between been a rock star developer, well known in the community, and being a nice person.
I mean, everyone knows how much of an asshole Linus Torvalds is, right?
And, to stick to our field, what about the Doug?
So… who cares: haters gonna hate! 😀
http://i.imgur.com/Gq3F2.gif
Another point folks seem to overlook is that while we might not need another [insert technical item here], we do need additional people who understand how it works, know how to fix it, are able to innovate it further. We learn by creating. No one should ever be discouraged from doing so.
Well put. As a person who frequently wrestles with the hall of mirrors like array of my former, more foolish selves, you articulate the problem well–in a way that is not judgmental; so, thanks.
I think the initiative of a person who posts a piece of code to solve an issue that he has been facing should be appreciated, not judged, even though it maybe had been released before.
Someone who shares their solutions is helping the community, one way or the other either by providing a solution to an existing problem or by engaging others to follow their approach and do their part in helping the community.
As Val said, haters gonna hate, but this shouldn’t stop anyone from trying to help others.
Thanks for this perspective. I have strongly held myself to a standard of furthering human knowledge. The result? Zero output. Now I’m getting old, and I do what I do for my kids. When they present me with their original solution to a simple problem, I ask them to ‘help me’ with another ‘problem’ which further challenges their skills. When I get up the guts to share my coding, I hope for this kind of reception, but like I said, I’m getting old, and insensitivity mostly bounces off.