Contributing to open source at GitHub

Ariel Deitcher, a Senior Software Engineer at GitHub, shares his journey of contributing to open source projects, detailing the challenges and lessons learned along the way. Initially overwhelmed by the vastness of open source, Deitcher found it difficult to find a suitable project and struggled with self-confidence, leading him to defer his open source contributions. His opportunity arose while working at GitHub, where he contributed to the GitHub CLI, addressing technical debt in the merge command and integrating support for the Merge Queue feature. This experience taught him the importance of aligning open source contributions with his professional responsibilities and leveraging support from colleagues. Despite facing impostor syndrome, he encourages others to contribute to open source projects, emphasizing the value of working on issues related to their existing work commitments.