Dayenu for Open Source
Every Passover, Jews around the world sing Dayenu, which translates roughly as “it would have been enough”. The lyrics are basically a list of things God did for the Jewish people, any of them alone would have been enough. “Taking us out of Egypt, that alone would have been enough. Giving us the Sabbath, that alone would have been enough. Giving us the Torah, that alone would have been enough.”
There are a lot of blog posts complaining about the burdens of open source maintainership, such as entitled users. These are real issues, and I hope people continue to direct energy towards addressing them.
But, in the spirit of the season, I wanted to say some positive words about my experience as an open source maintainer:
- Giving me a large social circle, many of whom are now my close friends. Dayenu!
- Giving me numerous career opportunities. Dayenu!
- Giving me the opportunity to travel around the world. Dayenu!
- Giving me the ability to have an impact on an untold number of developers' experiences. Dayenu!
While open source is no panacea, I’m incredibly grateful for all it has given me.
חג שמח / Happy Passover