Open-source Maintainer – why do you do it?

Question

If you've written or maintain open source software, why do you do it? What's your motivation? And would you be more motivated if you got paid for it?

boyter · Accepted Answer

I wanted to learn how to solve the problem. I wanted to learn a new language. I figured since I was doing it anyway I might as well do it openly.Now I keep doing it because it starts conversations with others and I occasionally see it being used by others which is a big dopamine hit.

keikobadthebad · Answer

The motivation to write it was to do something useful the best quality I knew how.
To continue maintaining it, it's mainly a feeling of being stuck doing it the last years. Some of the practical aspects have become a huge burden.
Internal and external motivation are quite different.

Open-source Maintainer – why do you do it?

If you've written or maintain open source software, why do you do it? What's your motivation? And would you be more motivated if you got paid for it?

I wanted to learn how to solve the problem. I wanted to learn a new language. I figured since I was doing it anyway I might as well do it openly.Now I keep doing it because it starts conversations with others and I occasionally see it being used by others which is a big dopamine hit.

The motivation to write it was to do something useful the best quality I knew how.To continue maintaining it, it's mainly a feeling of being stuck doing it the last years. Some of the practical aspects have become a huge burden.Internal and external motivation are quite different.

I wanted to learn how to solve the problem. I wanted to learn a new language. I figured since I was doing it anyway I might as well do it openly.
Now I keep doing it because it starts conversations with others and I occasionally see it being used by others which is a big dopamine hit.

The motivation to write it was to do something useful the best quality I knew how.
To continue maintaining it, it's mainly a feeling of being stuck doing it the last years. Some of the practical aspects have become a huge burden.
Internal and external motivation are quite different.