I've spent a long time asking myself why open source matters so much to me, why I keep coming back to it. I once joined a company purely because they promised I could do open source full-time (it didn't turn out well). Before that, I was doing open source inside and outside of regular jobs. And now, in the age of LLMs, when the value of code itself seems to be declining, I'm still here, still doing this.

Recently it clicked. I do open source because it's social work—in the sense that it lets me participate in society.

Everyone wants to belong to some community, to connect with others. But I was never good at the usual ways of doing that. Social activities that came naturally to others were difficult for me. In school, I had few friends. After class, I'd stay home assembling Lego or reading books alone. Then I discovered coding.

Coding was a wonderful hobby for me, especially because I encountered it at the dawn of the internet era. The first programming languages I properly learned were Perl, PHP, and JavaScript—all languages of the internet age. The synergy was something else.

Gradually I fell into the world of open source. And there, even someone like me—awkward at conventional social interaction—could be social. My code helped people. I could collaborate by exchanging code. I could have conversations, mediated by code. IRC, mailing lists, forums—these became my social media. Over time, “the group I wanted recognition from” became the people in the open source world. I didn't care much about being recognized by classmates, but I wanted to be recognized by these people I'd never met face to face.

That mindset still shapes me now, approaching forty. I still care more about recognition from open source programmers than from colleagues. The social activity that happens in open source communities is, after my family, the most important social activity in my life.

The specific things I build, the technical details—those matter less than I used to think. I just want to do the kind of social activity that suits me, and open source happens to be the way I do it.

That's all, really.

@hongminhee You are a good person.

@hongminhee Well said, and thanks for sharing the "social" part. We each , still, get to choose how we can be social. And open source contributors like you have the deep admiration and respect of many users like me.

PS Minor edits for better spelling and grammar

Thank you for everything you do! <3

@hongminhee I think your experience resonates a lot with other people on the spectrum. We can learn to be social to some extent, but the very literal communication that takes place via IRC and other text-based channels really fits the way our brain works.

I see it in my son too - it's only now, at 16 years old, that he is finally starting to find his "tribe", and as a father, it's a blessing to see a boy, who has struggled making meaningful personal connections his entire life, finally having real friends.

@hongminhee So admire putting a meaning behind anything you do. Be it coding or not, be it open source or not, youve put a meaning in what youre doing... which esentially makes you happy : )
theres so much happiness and happy people we need in times like these in the world.

@hongminhee

The open-source world is full of people who are often labelled 'antisocial' (by themselves or others), but who actually do wonderful things for the greater benefit of society. 🙂

@hongminhee I really like what you wrote, it's positive in an age where positive things are rare. I'm going to add one more positive by disagreeing with you.

" And now, in the age of LLMs, when the value of code itself seems to be declining, I'm still here, still doing this."
I think you got it backwards. In the age of vibe coded, unmaintainable, over sized monstrosities, real code that is properly written, commented and follows proper and modern conventions is worth it's weight in gold. In a few years, whether bubble bursts or not, somebody will have to work on that code. They will have to adapt it or patch it and there is a limit to how much of that can be done by LLM before it collapses under it's own weight.

@hongminhee Well said, I had a similar experience, and my open source work helped build online communities, which really affected how I see the potential of open source and the internet. And the friendly community I found in open source taught my how to work with other people on a goal, I have been bringing that spirit to everything I do, and hopefully building communities of people who want to work and learn together in and out of the programming world.