Recently Theo Browne released a video on why you probably shouldn't contribute to open source work, and I wholeheartedly agree with him. Though I understand why people are so desperate to contribute! It's a great way to get your name out there and have something shiny on your resume.

But the truth is, a good quality PR is hard to come by, especially if you're just starting out! Even for my very first PR, I had to spend a good week or two just to understand the codebase, so I don't embarass myself in front of Shu Ding (my absolute favorite dev).

My first contribution - Satori!

Who could have guessed, it was of course for Vercel! Here's the PR in question, and the code was very simple! However, having Shu Ding say thanks to you is a feeling that's hard to beat haha...

Eventually I did try to contribute to other PRs on Satori, such as enhancing the Satori Playground, I really loved how me and Shu Ding bounced back and fourth on the idea... but sadly, the PR was never made as I got frustrated with the imperfection of my own implementation :( and as I'm writing this, I wonder if I should pick Satori back up and try again. You know what, I'll do just that after this!

More OSS work?!

Eventually, life was terrible for awhile, had to dealth with interpersonal issues, my mom's cancer (she's fine and alive now btw! God bless...), job hunting and blah blah blah... but after nearly a year of intense character development, I'm back in a space where I want to code and challenge myself again!

At a coincidental moment, Gui reached out to me and asked if I wanted to collaborate on a project with him! Of course I said yes! Now with my first PR for the project up and ready to merge! I'm excited to see where this goes! Feeling better than ever!

In the midst of "It's so over," I found there was, within me, an invincible, "We're so back. We're so fucking back!"

What contributing taught me?

1. At work, our product velocity is so fast that tests are often not written as the test would probably be outdated by the time the feature is released. But in OSS, tests are a must! It's a safe-guard for you to not break existing functionality with your PR!
2. Contribute to projects that you use and are passionate about! I use Satori for OG Image generation on NextJS!
3. Don't rush it. I've seen so many PRs that are just a mess, and I've been there too. It's better to take your time and do it right, than to rush and do it wrong.