After working in software for many years, I have to say that actually a lot of things are just the same. Both Java and JavaScript are 20 years old! (And linked lists and off-by-one errors will never die.)

But one thing that has changed, that I’m constantly reminded of when writing software now, is how open source has won. It didn’t always look like it would, and it took a lot of business model creativity to make it possible, but — amazingly — it has.

What is especially exciting now is that GitHub has made real connection between the people who write code possible. The GitHub community has raised the expectation that you see who contributes, and how, and when. People — yes, even programmers — are social animals, and subtly, by social pressure, learning, and reuse of ideas, this radically improves the way we build software (and perhaps, even, all technology). Stars are a very good thing. It’s great to see massive human effort shared freely, in the highly leveraged way digital creations can be, rather than divided up, and to appreciate those who save us all effort, and thereby let us achieve more.

Congrats, cheers, and here’s a star for your release.

— jlevy on GitHub