How open source has made me and the stuff I make better

Kent C. Dodds

Utah

wife, 4 kids, & a dog

PayPal, Inc.

Please Stand...

if you are able ❤️ ♿️

What this talk is

  • How open source makes me better
  • How open source makes my software better

What this talk is not

  • How to write open source software
  • How to make your project super popular

Let's
Get
STARTED!

How has it made me better? 😎

Improve my development skills 🤓

  • Understanding and learning from code I did not write
  • Integrating my code with code I did not write
  • Using various tools, language features, and frameworks that I would not otherwise have taken the time to learn

Improve my interpersonal skills 🤠

  • How to communicate effectively with a team of distributed locations and priorities
  • How to ask proper questions
  • How to get answers from those asking questions

Has helped to get me noticed! 👀

How has it made the stuff I make better? 👍

Documentation is WAY better. 📚

Finding and fixing bugs is improved! 🐛

"given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow"

- Eric Raymond in "The Cathedral and the Bazaar"

Ideas come from others to greatly improve the software 💡

Learn where to draw lines in an abstraction 🙅

It's MUCH easier to say "no" now and "yes" later, than to say "yes" now and backtrack later.

Easier to build and test the component in isolation. ⚠️

With fewer concerns, comes a simpler setup and improved coverage.

Also, it makes you feel good. 💙

Join me for my KnowJS.org training and more!

Resources

Thank you!