I have gotten to a point now where I realize my open source work is not sustainable in combination with family. I have spent a ton of time over the years developing ideas, learning, sharing and engaging with the open source community. It has been a lot of fun, but also exhausting. There is a dark side to doing open source, at least for me. Even though it is a recipe for learning I have also been spending most of my time lost in thought. Thinking about ideas, issues and craving recognition for the stuff that I share. It is not a healthy way to live your life. The cost/benefit was okay for a long time as the only people who were affected by it was my partner and myself, but now with 2 kids I have to stop... I should have stopped when we had our first kid. Sitting for 30 min next to our 4 year old daughter and not even noticing it, because I am working out this new idea in my head. Being impatient and annoyed at our 10 month year old son, because I am amped up by some bug I can not stop thinking about. Cutting my partner short when she just needs some understanding, because I am borderline depressed about not being able to follow through on my own ideas. As you can imagine I am not the greatest person to be around at times and I have decided to change that. I tried reducing my engagement, but it just makes me feel bad about not following up on stuff. I have to go cold turkey on this thing and rather put my open source efforts as part of my work at https://codesandbox.io.
Both çerebral and overmind are mature libraries with locked APIs, but they could need someone who has time and energy to maintain them. If there are any questions I am of course open to help, but I can not engage anymore with fixing issues and generally feeling responsible for the community. I have to focus on my family and start paying more attention to the actual experience of life.
Thanks a bunch for all the amazing shared experiences doing open source and keep an eye out for what is happening at https://codesandbox.io, exciting stuff ahead! :)
Please reach out by email or Discord if you want to help!
Thanks a lot @christianalfoni you've been a true inspiration. The reason I started following you is because of your awesome work in the open source community. I'm planning to start my own OS project soon and been watching a lot of your videos for inspiration. Besides not earning money from OS, you proved to me that it can be a great way to learn. Just know you inspired me, all the from Zimbabwe, Africa to do something great 😄
Too bad I'm only starting out and not confident yet, would've jumped at the opportunity to maintain Overmind.
All the best with your family and future endeavours.
P.S. I love being challenged and obsessing over improving and learning new things. Someday soon I'll apply at https://codesandbox.io