> That's what I've been doing. :) I've pitched a couple of patches but they usually get turned down. I'm wondering if I should take a break or just accept that

> That's what I've been doing. :) I've pitched a couple of patches but they usually get turned down. I'm wondering if I should take a break or just accept that I won't be a good engineer. Don't blame yourself, there may be many reasons for that, I would try to find out why they were turned down, and then look at some patches that weren't turned down. I know it's hard not to feel bad about being rejected, even if it's just a patch to a project, but at least you'll have the benefit of learning from it. > Then I had the privilege of seeing a similar project for real and I wasn't even close Sure, there will always be competition, but is the project made to be sold, or is it made to have more experience apart from fixing bugs? If it's the latter, I don't think there's any way to lose. Study the other project and see what they did better, then try to implement them yourself :) "they are younger and better", that doesn't matter. Just try to get yourself better, there's always someone who's better than someone else! Edit: formatted the response to be a bit more readable