A Beginner‘s Very Bumpy Journey Through The World of Open Source

The world of open source software is a vast and awe-inspiring one. It‘s a realm where thousands of developers from all corners of the globe come together to build tools, frameworks, and applications that power much of the modern digital infrastructure. For a newcomer, it can be both exhilarating and overwhelming to contemplate jumping into this churning sea of code.

Just take a moment to consider the scale we‘re talking about. As of this writing, GitHub reports hosting over 200 million repositories, with more than 65 million developers contributing.[^1] The largest projects, like the Linux kernel, have codebases spanning over 27.8 million lines of code, with thousands of individual contributors.[^2] Even mid-sized projects often have hundreds of thousands of lines of code, contributed by hundreds of developers over many years.

[^1]: GitHub Octoverse 2022 Report
[^2]: Linux Kernel Development Report 2022

For a beginning developer, staring up at these towering edifices of code can induce a serious case of vertigo. Where do you even start? How do you orient yourself in a codebase that sprawls across countless files and directories, with complex webs of dependencies and interactions? It‘s like being dropped into a foreign city without a map, where everyone seems to be speaking a language you‘re still struggling to learn.

The Bumpy Road of Getting Started

When I first set out on my open source journey almost two years ago, I was filled with excitement and determination. I had visions of jumping right in and making an impact, proving my worth as a developer by squashing bugs and shipping features. Oh, how naïve I was!

My initial forays were timid and tentative. I would scroll through endless lists of GitHub issues, looking for ones labeled "good first issue" or "beginner friendly". More often than not, these turned out to be trivial tasks like fixing a typo in the documentation, updating a broken link, or correcting a misspelling in a comment. Not exactly the glamorous, impactful work I had envisioned.

But I dutifully worked through these minor issues, learning the mechanics of the GitHub flow – forking a repo, creating a branch, making a commit, opening a pull request. It felt good to be contributing, even in a small way. Yet as the weeks turned into months, I started to feel stuck in a rut. I was sharpening my skills with Git and GitHub, but I wasn‘t really growing as a developer. I was avoiding the hard parts, the actual meat of the codebase.

Every time I tried to venture beyond the shallow end of the pool, I quickly found myself drowning in a sea of unfamiliar concepts and unclear code. I‘d stare at the screen for hours, trying to trace the flow of execution, deciphering cryptic variable names and uncommented functions. More often than not, I‘d give up in frustration, feeling stupid and inadequate.

The few times I mustered the courage to ask for help, posting a comment on an issue to clarify some point of confusion, the responses were often disheartening. On one particularly memorable occasion, a maintainer curtly informed me: "If you can‘t figure out how to make the change, you‘re not qualified to make the change." Ouch. As someone already wrestling with impostor syndrome, this felt like a confirmation of my worst fears – that I was out of my depth, not good enough, and essentially unwanted. I slinked away with my tail between my legs, back to the safety of typo fixes and link updates.

Craving Guidance and Support

But despite these setbacks and bruised ego, I wasn‘t ready to give up on my open source dreams altogether. I knew I had the potential to make meaningful contributions, if only I could get over the initial hump. What I needed was guidance, mentorship from experienced developers who could help me navigate the overwhelming complexity.

So I started reaching out to developers I admired, cold-emailing them to ask if they‘d be willing to take me under their wing. To my surprise and delight, many were incredibly supportive and encouraging! They assured me that my struggles were completely normal, and that every developer goes through similar challenges when first diving into a large codebase. Their empathy and reassurance gave me a much-needed confidence boost.

However, I still felt I needed something more targeted – mentorship within the specific projects I was trying to contribute to. I wanted someone who could point me in the right direction, answer my "dumb" questions without judgment, and give me feedback on my code. That‘s when I stumbled upon Mozilla‘s "Good First Bugs" initiative.

The Turning Point: Mozilla‘s Mentored Issues

The premise of "Good First Bugs" is simple but powerful. Mozilla maintainers tag specific issues in their projects that they deem suitable for newcomers. These issues come with a commitment from the maintainer to provide active mentoring and support to anyone who wants to tackle them. It‘s like a big, blinking "Start Here" sign for aspiring contributors.

Nervously, I claimed one of these mentored issues. It wasn‘t a glamorous task – just a small enhancement to an error message. But it involved actually touching the code, not just the docs. I half-expected my claim to go unnoticed, lost in the sea of more important work.

To my delight, the project maintainer responded almost immediately. He seemed genuinely thrilled to have a newcomer express interest. He pointed me to the relevant parts of the codebase and patiently answered my barrage of basic questions. Emboldened by his support, I started digging in.

It was slow going at first. Even with the maintainer‘s guidance, I still felt disoriented and out of my depth. But whenever I got stuck, I forced myself to articulate what specifically I was struggling with. And every time, the maintainer was happy to fill in the gaps in my understanding, often hopping on a quick video call to walk me through a tricky concept.

Bit by bit, with the maintainer‘s patient mentoring, the pieces started coming together. I began to understand how the different modules fit together, how data flowed through the system. I learned how to use the debugging tools to trace the execution path and pinpoint the source of issues. After a few days of intense focus and frequent back-and-forth with my mentor, I had a working solution. With a mix of pride and trepidation, I submitted my pull request.

The maintainer reviewed my code with a keen but kind eye. He pointed out a few areas for improvement, but praised the overall approach. We iterated on the solution, refining and polishing. And then, the magical moment – my pull request was merged! I had officially become an open source contributor, with actual code running in production. I was elated.

Gaining Momentum and Paying It Forward

That first successful contribution was a turning point for me. Over the following weeks and months, I continued to take on mentored issues in Mozilla projects. Each one stretched me in new ways – diving into the frontend code, writing tests, optimizing performance. I was still very much a beginner, but I could feel my skills and confidence growing with each challenge.

As I became more comfortable with the Mozilla ecosystem, I started venturing out into other corners. I triaged bugs, reviewed code from other contributors, and even began mentoring some newcomers myself. Having been on the receiving end of patient, thoughtful mentoring, I felt a deep commitment to paying that forward.

I still vividly remember the specific moments of frustration and self-doubt from my early days – the times I nearly gave up because I felt I would never be good enough to make meaningful contributions. Whenever I‘m guiding a new contributor through a similar moment, I draw on those memories. I try to be the mentor I needed when I was in their shoes.

The Long and Winding Road

Looking back on my journey so far, a few key lessons stand out:

1. Embrace the discomfort. The feeling of being lost and overwhelmed is a natural part of the learning process. Don‘t let it discourage you. Instead, try to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

2. Ask for help early and often. Don‘t spin your wheels for hours trying to figure something out on your own. If you‘re stuck, chances are someone else has been stuck in the same place before. Most maintainers are happy to help, but you have to ask.

3. Seek out mentorship. Having an experienced guide can make all the difference, especially early on. Look for projects that have a strong culture of mentoring and a track record of welcoming newcomers.

4. Celebrate every win. The road to becoming an effective open source contributor is a long and winding one. It‘s important to acknowledge and celebrate your progress along the way, no matter how small. Your first successful build, your first passing test, your first merged PR – these are all milestones worth savoring.

5. Pay it forward. Once you start to find your footing, look for opportunities to help others who are just starting out. Becoming a mentor yourself is a great way to solidify your own understanding and contribute to building a more welcoming, inclusive open source community.

The Big Picture

As I continue on this journey, I‘m increasingly aware that open source is about so much more than just code. It‘s about community, collaboration, and collective growth. Every line of code we contribute, every bug we fix, every newcomer we mentor – these are all small acts of building and maintaining the digital infrastructure that powers our world.

It‘s easy to get intimidated by the sheer scale and complexity of the open source landscape. But it‘s important to remember that even the most towering codebases and impressive projects are built one contribution at a time, often by developers who started out just as lost and confused as any of us.

The beauty of open source is that it enables all of us, regardless of our background or experience level, to be a part of something larger than ourselves. By contributing our time, our skills, and our passion, we are not just improving a codebase – we are participating in the grand, ongoing project of human knowledge-building.

So to all my fellow open source beginners out there, I say this: Keep going. Keep pushing through the discomfort and the doubt. Keep asking questions and seeking guidance. Keep celebrating your wins, no matter how small.

The world of open source has room for all of us. Let‘s work together to make it a little more welcoming, a little more inclusive, a little more beginner-friendly. The journey may be bumpy, but it‘s one well worth taking. Happy coding, and see you on the other side of your first merge!