The Pep Talk
Yes, yes, yes, I know I haven't written in forever. I'll take a week off one of these days and write up the last N months.
In any case, I'm taking a moment to actually blog because I hope it will be useful.
I've talked to a few people, and I'm hearing that some students aren't planning to apply to Google SoC this year because they think their applications won't be good enough or, worse yet, that they can't measure up to the past successes of their friends who have already been in the program. Needless to say, hearing this is a total bummer.
So, I work with a former Slashdot editor, the Chairman of the Apache Software Foundation, two incredibly talented and witty Subversion developers, the former maintainer of Beagle, the PhD who founded the ArgoUML project, a Samba maintainer and the guy who is a GCC dev and a Subversion developer and an intellectual property attorney. And those are just the people with whom I share a team IRC channel.
No intimidation factor here, clearly. </sarcasm>
So the pep talk:
I feel your pain. But, say it with me people - open source developers, brilliant though they may be, are just people too. Sure that's cliched, but you'll soon discover that they also require hideous amounts of caffeine, love pizza and yum cha and are all for free as in beer. And freedom. And beer.
If you're struggling with your ideas, talk to the developers working on the projects that interest you. Chances are they really want want to talk to you. Hang out in the projects IRC channel, post to the forums, and talk to your classmates for help in writing your proposal.
Start interacting with some project communities. You might find out that you're talking to a member of their Board of Directors who had no experience developing open source software two years ago. Or that your potential mentor was a student last year, and he was also intimidated as hell about applying. Don't be so hard on yourself and don't be self-defeating. Get your ideas out there and feel the open source love. :)
I'll be around in IRC if anyone feels like they need a personalized version of the pep talk.
In any case, I'm taking a moment to actually blog because I hope it will be useful.
I've talked to a few people, and I'm hearing that some students aren't planning to apply to Google SoC this year because they think their applications won't be good enough or, worse yet, that they can't measure up to the past successes of their friends who have already been in the program. Needless to say, hearing this is a total bummer.
So, I work with a former Slashdot editor, the Chairman of the Apache Software Foundation, two incredibly talented and witty Subversion developers, the former maintainer of Beagle, the PhD who founded the ArgoUML project, a Samba maintainer and the guy who is a GCC dev and a Subversion developer and an intellectual property attorney. And those are just the people with whom I share a team IRC channel.
No intimidation factor here, clearly. </sarcasm>
So the pep talk:
I feel your pain. But, say it with me people - open source developers, brilliant though they may be, are just people too. Sure that's cliched, but you'll soon discover that they also require hideous amounts of caffeine, love pizza and yum cha and are all for free as in beer. And freedom. And beer.
If you're struggling with your ideas, talk to the developers working on the projects that interest you. Chances are they really want want to talk to you. Hang out in the projects IRC channel, post to the forums, and talk to your classmates for help in writing your proposal.
Start interacting with some project communities. You might find out that you're talking to a member of their Board of Directors who had no experience developing open source software two years ago. Or that your potential mentor was a student last year, and he was also intimidated as hell about applying. Don't be so hard on yourself and don't be self-defeating. Get your ideas out there and feel the open source love. :)
I'll be around in IRC if anyone feels like they need a personalized version of the pep talk.
Labels: work
posted by Leslie Hawthorn at 10:00 PM
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