A pattern to grow an open source ecosystem: an illegible project that's open from the first commit.
- A pattern to grow an open source ecosystem: an illegible project that's open from the first commit.
- Because the first commits are boring, there's never a discontinuous "drop" where the code all becomes public.
- By making it illegible, you minimize the chance that people try to use it before it's ready.
- But you leave the upside of someone very motivated using it before you think it's ready, which would tell you that you had hit PMF before you thought.
- One key trick to keep an open source project illegible[zo]: have the README be in a private Google Doc.
- The README is the key that unlocks a project and makes it easy to dive in.
- It tells you what it's for, how to use it, orients you to the project.
- It's still possible to orient within a project without it, but it's much harder.
- People who orient themselves in the project without a README get through a kind of gauntlet: a self-selecting group.[zp]