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Discussion on: What do you build to learn a new language or style?

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Ben Halpern

I definitely do not have such a disciplined approach to building, but I think this is a great approach and I'd try it in the future.

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Justin Chew

Awesome, just read the article and I feel pretty keen to start this approach!

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Rob Hoelz

I like the idea of contributing to open source as a way to get into a language, with the caveat of trying to contribute to projects you actively use. That can really help with motivation!

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Luke Westby • Edited

i'm actually a little skeptical of this approach. there's a lot of variance in how a community's culture informs open source contribution, in how a particular maintainer or core team approaches contribution, and in the experience of the person taking this advice. i worry that someone who is new to open source or to programming in general might try to apply it to a project where pull requests aren't the primary way to contribute and then end up feeling discouraged by the results of that interaction.

that is to say, contributing to an open source project is more than just writing and reviewing code and treating it that way can be a net negative.

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David Muckle

I love this approach to learning a new language, but I've always had a hard time finding a project simple enough to build on. Any advice on how to go about that?