What a lot of folks might not get is that there isn't one thing that can be called "contributing to Open Source", which is why setting that as a goal is somewha

What a lot of folks might not get is that there isn't one thing that can be called "contributing to Open Source", which is why setting that as a goal is somewhat vague and difficult to accomplish. If you can find a project that you want to contribute to, then that's awesome. If you can't, that's understandable. > There’s no certification, ceremony, or merit badge That's part of the point. Anyone can code, design, document, whatever. There's nobody telling you you're ready and there's nobody telling you you can't. > It’s not obvious where to start. If you don't have an obvious starting point, that's okay. Most Open Source contributions are coders solving problems that interest them. If you don't have one of those right now, that's no big deal. Not contributing to open source isn't the end of the world, it's just one of many ways to sharpen your skills. > Open source is for people who are > better at this than me. Gotta start somewhere though. In my experience, a project's owner usually gives invaluable feedback if you send in a patch that isn't quite there yet. > Trying to contribute and failing makes me feel stupid. I have the same problem. For lots of projects, I'll never meet the maintainers, so I just hold my breath and click send. What's the worst that could happen?