4 ms·

GitHub streak: End-game and post-mortem

40 points by Manishearth 11y ago

frewsxcv 11y ago
I can attest to this methodology for increasing self-motivation for OSS contributions. Great post!
- Manishearth 11y ago
  :D So that's why you went on a fuzz-all-the-things spree on Servo! (Btw, thank you for that fuzzing spree -- you got some interesting use cases for afl-rs and found bugs and now I want to do the same!)
  - non-sense 11y ago
    Great to see you and other work on rust-lang. It looks like a great open community!
daurnimator 11y ago
I wonder how you can go on that long. You can easily see in mine (https://github.com/daurnimator https://github.com/daurnimator) when I went on vacation for 3 weeks in November/December last year.
- Manishearth 11y ago
  Well, last summer I was doing GSoC so it was easy. During the semester I have to stay put anyway. Any weekend excursions I would be taking a laptop with me for studying (we have a lot of coursework, and I usually am overloaded with stuff so I need to allocate at least some weekend time for coursework) so I would squeeze in some programming and push it when I got access to internet again. Programming is a refreshing change from physics coursework (which I like too, but it gets tedious) and other stuff, so it's easy to do it daily. When I went on vacation to the Sunderbans I was filing issues and making minor fixes from my phone. This summer my internship is elsewhere, and while I do still contribute to Rust/Servo because I love doing it, as mentioned in the post I'll probably forget one day or just take a break. At this point, if I go on vacation or something I'm just going to drop it -- as I mentioned I don't care about the streak anymore and what I gained from it won't go away unless I take a really long break.
  - shubhamjain 11y ago
    Your streak is impressive. I have a question - Do you ever suffer from FOMO [1] while investing yourself in writing code everyday? Of course, I know, programming is fun but does it turn into anxiety when you see other people's achievements? [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_missing_out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_missing_out
    - Manishearth 11y ago
      Not really, no. As far as missing out on Real World social interactions and stuff; I make sure I get some sunlight and talk with people :) Living in a hostel I get a lot of that anyway. Plus, between organizing events and going to events of various kinds I don't miss out on much. As far as missing out on programmery things go; I don't mind. Part of this is because programming has been a hobby for most of my life and only recently did I start treating it as a viable career option. (I had thought of it as a "backup plan" in the past but didn't do much to maintain that). I'm not doing as many large contribs as I was doing last summer or this winter. And yes, that can get to me at times. I have this huge queue of things that I've planned to work on, and sometimes someone else picks it up. It's initially saddening, but then I'm happy because someone else wants to work on something I thought up, and if they hadn't, it would never have been done in the first place! In open source you're generally surrounded by awesome people so I'm used to it; I don't really have anxiety issues due to that.
      - shubhamjain 11y ago
        Awesome! That was quite inspiring - you managed to travel, contribute, write and go to events while still keeping up with all of your coursework. :) I often complained about lack of time for crossing-out things from my to-do list but it is my late realization that, one can be as productive as he wants and time is not really as big as constraint as it feels.
- ggreer 11y ago
  I'm not sure if you know, but GitHub's stats depend on the viewing user. Most who look at my GitHub profile will see a streak of only 13 days[1], but my coworkers see 171, and I see 871[2]. If the viewer can't see a repo, it won't show up in the stats. 1. https://github.com/ggreer https://github.com/ggreer 2. http://geoff.greer.fm/photos/screenshots/Screen%20Shot%202015-05-27%20at%2022.20.00.png http://geoff.greer.fm/photos/screenshots/Screen%20Shot%20201...
  - daurnimator 11y ago
    I always figured this, but never cared to confirm. Otherwise, you should take a holiday!
  - reidrac 11y ago
    Also if you contribute to a clone, it won't show in the stats. It is a metric for self-motivation, but I guess it can be wrongly used for other things. Is like the "GH is your CV" thing, ignoring that there are other code hosting environments and non public code.
monksy 11y ago
Its great to have a goal to increase participation. However, this seems to be a point of vanity than something beneficial at that point.
- Manishearth 11y ago
  Well, initially I started off by having a friendly competition with a senior of mine (both of us FOSS enthusiasts) after noticing my own inadvertant-streak. At that point it was less about vanity and more about competition and fun. Of course, when I reached 50 I was more than happy to boast about it :P At this point -- keeping it up would be mainly a vanity thing (but I'm not consciously doing so). For the past few weeks I haven't even thought about it unless I open my profile and notice ("has it been that long? Wow."). It's just continued with no conscious support -- I used to sometimes think "hey, did I forget to commit today" (the answer would usually be no, but the point is that I was still asking myself this). Now I don't. Not because I know I've committed, but because the streak doesn't matter.
VieElm 11y ago
Using a lack of GitHub contributions as a way to disqualify candidates sounds like a really bad idea. Does anyone do that? Seems like a strawman argument.
- Manishearth 11y ago
  I honestly don't know; I'm still a student and have never had the chance to experience this first-hand. Various people have mentioned similar things though. https://twitter.com/sarahmei/status/597276242887348224 https://twitter.com/sarahmei/status/597276242887348224 https://twitter.com/nick_r_cameron/status/597328012787384320 https://twitter.com/nick_r_cameron/status/597328012787384320
  - austenallred 11y ago
    I doubt it, that's a very silly measuring stick. It's nice when we have a candidate with a GH history, but I'd venture a guess that 90% of the best code written by the engineers we hired was written for some other company in private repos. I can't imagine that being too far outside the norm.
    - geofft 11y ago
      Sadly, there are a lot of absolutely silly measuring sticks in widespread use in tech industry hiring. Remember when everyone was asking logic puzzles because they heard that's what MS did?
      - Manishearth 11y ago
        What do you mean "remember"? They still do that! :/
        deleted 11y ago
        [deleted]
        geofft 11y ago
dustincoates 11y ago
I've written in the past about how I love streaks as a motivating tool.[0] It gives a motivation to get up and do something, when you'd rather do nothing. One thing I try to do on goals that require an action, is not to add stipulations to it like the OP eventually did in the beginning. If you make the hurdle too large you're more likely to break the streak and more likely to fall into inaction, so allowing a small contribution to continue the streak is a net positive. For me, I want to study French every day and I accept that somedays I'm going to be so busy with work that I can only afford five minutes. That's fine--it keeps me motivated the next day and that day likely won't be just five minutes. I've found it doesn't work for everyone. I personally see it as a game/challenge whereas when I speak to other people they find it overwhelming. As always, there's no one-size-fits-all when it comes to motivation. It looks like it worked for OP to get to where they wanted to go, though. [0] http://blog.hellopico.com/the-seinfeld-method-dont-break-the-streak/ http://blog.hellopico.com/the-seinfeld-method-dont-break-the...
- thoman23 11y ago
  I myself find steaks to be a motivating tool. Or at least I'm motivated to eat them.
  - MaulingMonkey 11y ago
    Steaks for streaks?
- Manishearth 11y ago
  > is not to add stipulations to it like the OP eventually did in the beginning. Agreed; in retrospect setting rules was a bad idea (I wanted to keep it "pure" but that was a very arbitrary standard and hard to keep up). Later in the process I was able to maintain the streak with small things when I had lots of other commitments -- but that didn't make me downspiral into only small contributions -- I bounced back -- which was the important part. > you're more likely to break the streak and more likely to fall into inaction This was what I was mostly afraid of once I was well-past the 100 mark. By then I knew that I had gained a lot from it. But I was still afraid that breaking the chain would let me break it again, and again, until it's back to being random bursts (but more regular bursts). Now, I'm no longer afraid of that, because I know that the streak isn't motivating me at all anymore. I'm being motivated by -- whatever it is, I don't really know :P > there's no one-size-fits-all when it comes to motivation. Big +1
zatkin 11y ago
FYI, the GitHub streak can be manipulated.[0] My apologies for the lack of documentation. Basically, since you can modify the author and commit date in Git, you can trick GitHub into thinking you've committed something several years in the past[1] or the future[2]. Some people have written things that allow you even write messages into the commit graph[3]. [0] https://github.com/zg/streaker https://github.com/zg/streaker [1] https://github.com/zg/streaker/commits/master?page=710 https://github.com/zg/streaker/commits/master?page=710 [2] https://github.com/zg/streaker/commits/master https://github.com/zg/streaker/commits/master [3] https://github.com/jbranchaud/commitart https://github.com/jbranchaud/commitart
- Manishearth 11y ago
  Yeah, I know. In fact I have a bunch of commits on my github account that predate the account itself because of commits imported from a project that used to be on svn. As I mentioned in the post; the streak is useful as a personal metric; so if you're cheating, you know, and it's pointless :)
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

40 points by Manishearth 11y ago

frewsxcv 11y ago

I can attest to this methodology for increasing self-motivation for OSS contributions. Great post!

Manishearth 11y ago
:D So that's why you went on a fuzz-all-the-things spree on Servo! (Btw, thank you for that fuzzing spree -- you got some interesting use cases for afl-rs and found bugs and now I want to do the same!)
- non-sense 11y ago
  Great to see you and other work on rust-lang. It looks like a great open community!

daurnimator 11y ago

I wonder how you can go on that long. You can easily see in mine (https://github.com/daurnimator https://github.com/daurnimator) when I went on vacation for 3 weeks in November/December last year.

Manishearth 11y ago
Well, last summer I was doing GSoC so it was easy. During the semester I have to stay put anyway. Any weekend excursions I would be taking a laptop with me for studying (we have a lot of coursework, and I usually am overloaded with stuff so I need to allocate at least some weekend time for coursework) so I would squeeze in some programming and push it when I got access to internet again. Programming is a refreshing change from physics coursework (which I like too, but it gets tedious) and other stuff, so it's easy to do it daily. When I went on vacation to the Sunderbans I was filing issues and making minor fixes from my phone. This summer my internship is elsewhere, and while I do still contribute to Rust/Servo because I love doing it, as mentioned in the post I'll probably forget one day or just take a break. At this point, if I go on vacation or something I'm just going to drop it -- as I mentioned I don't care about the streak anymore and what I gained from it won't go away unless I take a really long break.
- shubhamjain 11y ago
  Your streak is impressive. I have a question - Do you ever suffer from FOMO [1] while investing yourself in writing code everyday? Of course, I know, programming is fun but does it turn into anxiety when you see other people's achievements? [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_missing_out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_missing_out
  - Manishearth 11y ago
    Not really, no. As far as missing out on Real World social interactions and stuff; I make sure I get some sunlight and talk with people :) Living in a hostel I get a lot of that anyway. Plus, between organizing events and going to events of various kinds I don't miss out on much. As far as missing out on programmery things go; I don't mind. Part of this is because programming has been a hobby for most of my life and only recently did I start treating it as a viable career option. (I had thought of it as a "backup plan" in the past but didn't do much to maintain that). I'm not doing as many large contribs as I was doing last summer or this winter. And yes, that can get to me at times. I have this huge queue of things that I've planned to work on, and sometimes someone else picks it up. It's initially saddening, but then I'm happy because someone else wants to work on something I thought up, and if they hadn't, it would never have been done in the first place! In open source you're generally surrounded by awesome people so I'm used to it; I don't really have anxiety issues due to that.
    - shubhamjain 11y ago
      Awesome! That was quite inspiring - you managed to travel, contribute, write and go to events while still keeping up with all of your coursework. :) I often complained about lack of time for crossing-out things from my to-do list but it is my late realization that, one can be as productive as he wants and time is not really as big as constraint as it feels.
ggreer 11y ago
I'm not sure if you know, but GitHub's stats depend on the viewing user. Most who look at my GitHub profile will see a streak of only 13 days[1], but my coworkers see 171, and I see 871[2]. If the viewer can't see a repo, it won't show up in the stats. 1. https://github.com/ggreer https://github.com/ggreer 2. http://geoff.greer.fm/photos/screenshots/Screen%20Shot%202015-05-27%20at%2022.20.00.png http://geoff.greer.fm/photos/screenshots/Screen%20Shot%20201...
- daurnimator 11y ago
  I always figured this, but never cared to confirm. Otherwise, you should take a holiday!
- reidrac 11y ago
  Also if you contribute to a clone, it won't show in the stats. It is a metric for self-motivation, but I guess it can be wrongly used for other things. Is like the "GH is your CV" thing, ignoring that there are other code hosting environments and non public code.

monksy 11y ago

Its great to have a goal to increase participation. However, this seems to be a point of vanity than something beneficial at that point.

Manishearth 11y ago
Well, initially I started off by having a friendly competition with a senior of mine (both of us FOSS enthusiasts) after noticing my own inadvertant-streak. At that point it was less about vanity and more about competition and fun. Of course, when I reached 50 I was more than happy to boast about it :P At this point -- keeping it up would be mainly a vanity thing (but I'm not consciously doing so). For the past few weeks I haven't even thought about it unless I open my profile and notice ("has it been that long? Wow."). It's just continued with no conscious support -- I used to sometimes think "hey, did I forget to commit today" (the answer would usually be no, but the point is that I was still asking myself this). Now I don't. Not because I know I've committed, but because the streak doesn't matter.

VieElm 11y ago

Using a lack of GitHub contributions as a way to disqualify candidates sounds like a really bad idea. Does anyone do that? Seems like a strawman argument.

Manishearth 11y ago
I honestly don't know; I'm still a student and have never had the chance to experience this first-hand. Various people have mentioned similar things though. https://twitter.com/sarahmei/status/597276242887348224 https://twitter.com/sarahmei/status/597276242887348224 https://twitter.com/nick_r_cameron/status/597328012787384320 https://twitter.com/nick_r_cameron/status/597328012787384320
- austenallred 11y ago
  I doubt it, that's a very silly measuring stick. It's nice when we have a candidate with a GH history, but I'd venture a guess that 90% of the best code written by the engineers we hired was written for some other company in private repos. I can't imagine that being too far outside the norm.
  - geofft 11y ago
    Sadly, there are a lot of absolutely silly measuring sticks in widespread use in tech industry hiring. Remember when everyone was asking logic puzzles because they heard that's what MS did?
    - Manishearth 11y ago
      What do you mean "remember"? They still do that! :/
      - deleted 11y ago
        [deleted]
      - geofft 11y ago

dustincoates 11y ago

I've written in the past about how I love streaks as a motivating tool.[0] It gives a motivation to get up and do something, when you'd rather do nothing. One thing I try to do on goals that require an action, is not to add stipulations to it like the OP eventually did in the beginning. If you make the hurdle too large you're more likely to break the streak and more likely to fall into inaction, so allowing a small contribution to continue the streak is a net positive. For me, I want to study French every day and I accept that somedays I'm going to be so busy with work that I can only afford five minutes. That's fine--it keeps me motivated the next day and that day likely won't be just five minutes. I've found it doesn't work for everyone. I personally see it as a game/challenge whereas when I speak to other people they find it overwhelming. As always, there's no one-size-fits-all when it comes to motivation. It looks like it worked for OP to get to where they wanted to go, though. [0] http://blog.hellopico.com/the-seinfeld-method-dont-break-the-streak/ http://blog.hellopico.com/the-seinfeld-method-dont-break-the...

thoman23 11y ago
I myself find steaks to be a motivating tool. Or at least I'm motivated to eat them.
- MaulingMonkey 11y ago
  Steaks for streaks?
Manishearth 11y ago
> is not to add stipulations to it like the OP eventually did in the beginning. Agreed; in retrospect setting rules was a bad idea (I wanted to keep it "pure" but that was a very arbitrary standard and hard to keep up). Later in the process I was able to maintain the streak with small things when I had lots of other commitments -- but that didn't make me downspiral into only small contributions -- I bounced back -- which was the important part. > you're more likely to break the streak and more likely to fall into inaction This was what I was mostly afraid of once I was well-past the 100 mark. By then I knew that I had gained a lot from it. But I was still afraid that breaking the chain would let me break it again, and again, until it's back to being random bursts (but more regular bursts). Now, I'm no longer afraid of that, because I know that the streak isn't motivating me at all anymore. I'm being motivated by -- whatever it is, I don't really know :P > there's no one-size-fits-all when it comes to motivation. Big +1

zatkin 11y ago

FYI, the GitHub streak can be manipulated.[0] My apologies for the lack of documentation. Basically, since you can modify the author and commit date in Git, you can trick GitHub into thinking you've committed something several years in the past[1] or the future[2]. Some people have written things that allow you even write messages into the commit graph[3]. [0] https://github.com/zg/streaker https://github.com/zg/streaker [1] https://github.com/zg/streaker/commits/master?page=710 https://github.com/zg/streaker/commits/master?page=710 [2] https://github.com/zg/streaker/commits/master https://github.com/zg/streaker/commits/master [3] https://github.com/jbranchaud/commitart https://github.com/jbranchaud/commitart

Manishearth 11y ago
Yeah, I know. In fact I have a bunch of commits on my github account that predate the account itself because of commits imported from a project that used to be on svn. As I mentioned in the post; the streak is useful as a personal metric; so if you're cheating, you know, and it's pointless :)

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]