I believe it sometimes happens organically. Code can be a very intimate affair. When taking on a new requirement that can be fulfilled by an existing framewor

I believe it sometimes happens organically. Code can be a very intimate affair. When taking on a new requirement that can be fulfilled by an existing framework, there's a lot more to consider than just "did someone already implement this"? In the corporate world, we often remind younger developers that most of the cost of the code is in the maintenance, not in the development, of software. Having to tackle feature changes dependent on 3rd party software can be really expensive. If I'm working on a hobby project, I don't have enough time to do a full evaluation of all options out there, nor do I have time to understand the intricacies of a given framework to meet my unique requirements. So, often, it takes just as much time to come up with my own mini-framework and build it up as my requirements increase. If I reach a certain level of functionality, then I may have something that I can share with other developers. Everyone always touts the benefits of open source, and I may want to get in on that, too. Besides, there's more glory in starting a project than being the 51st person to contribute. Disclaimer: I don't have my own framework, and has in the past been the Nth contributor to what was then a de facto standard framework.