This morning OpenSource.com published my new article: How to become and amazing contributor to an open-source project.
Someone asked me: why did you write that one must “have a real problem to solve, business need, or some type of commercially-driven motivation” as the number one item in your list? It’s because I am not an idealist. Don’t be fooled by my Soviet roots, I am against most types of socialism. Every successful open-source contribution has always been born in real need. Creativity may be sparked by a grander vision, but hard work is usually the output of real pressure to make something useful.
I wanted to personally thank Nicolas, Rami and Neil for agreeing to be quoted in this article. In a way, this is an open-source contribution of sorts. I also want to thank the dozens of other developers that commit to my open-source projects that were not mentioned. For the rest, I hope you find the article good enough to motivate you to make your first commit into an open-source project!