Preface
This is my first blog post in English. Please don't mind a light weight mistake but I’m happy if you tell me the better expression when there’s something terrible wrong or something unsuitable.
Background of this post
Why I bought "How to Open Source: Learn the secrets of successful contributors"
I bought "How to Open Source: Learn the secrets of successful contributors". My goal to read this book was to overcome the unsustainability of my actions and to solve the problem of wanting to combine work and OSS but not being able to do so.
Triggers for Action
One day, Richard Schneeman, an author of this book, he asked readers if anyone wanted to pair work with Greg Molnar on an issue. I told them that I wanted to do it. That was my first remote pair working, between remote oversea areas, in English.
What I did with Greg
Make appointment
He's in Europe and I'm in Japan. The biggest problem is time zone, so I used this time converter to pick up time when were good for both of us. We had first pair working on one Saturday evening (in Japan).
Do pair working
Greg and I communicate on Slack. At first we used huddle, however we changed to Slack Call. Call is better to share screen, write memo and do on. Especially, even though my English skill is not high, symbols or marks that Greg wrote with his speaking helped me understanding what he said.
As it turns out, only one synchronous gathering. We couldn't reach the goal on Saturday pair programming. However, Greg gave me his code as sample, and Richard commented how we have to go on. These encouraged me to try.
Communicate on PRs
They reviewed and commented on Port tests over to GitHub Actions by neko314 · Pull Request #1 · gregmolnar/CodeTriage · GitHub and Port tests over to GitHub Actions by neko314 · Pull Request #1724 · codetriage/CodeTriage · GitHub before I finished to create PR. Greg also sent me Slack message to advise.
Richard says in his book “Remember even the best only bat 300. Don't afraid your PR to be rejected". Happily, In this time our PR has been merged🎉
Thoughts and Thanks
First of all, I appreciate to Greg, Richard, and every one who helped me.
Secondly, I’m so sorry that it was not my first contribution to OSS. But, before I met the book, I even feel myself skill-less programmer and has few confidence, especially in the point of "sustainable". Not only taking an action in open source but also trying remote pair working in English for the first time. I thought them were too reckless for me until start pair programming with Greg on Saturday. But I could. Additionally, I have some ideas and feedbacks the repo that I contributed. That makes sustainable, right?
Thirdly, I noticed that I was too afraid of my English skill. That's an actual thing my English skill is not perfect but Greg never criticized it. This made me enjoy communicating with him in English even more, and I wanted to be able to listen and speak English smoothly.
Finally, I want to tell Richard, Greg and everyone that I'll keep going on Open Source World Activity. Thank you for the opportunity to overcome my fear and get confidence to take an action.
