Even solo devs have a backup team of hundreds; Have you thanked them lately?

Recently I listened to a podcast featuring A.J. Jacobs, author of Thanks a Thousand: A gratitude journey. In it, A.J. ventures out to thank a thousand people who were responsible for his morning cup of coffee, including but not limited to:

• The barista who served it to him.
• The people who bag and sell the coffee.
• The designer who made the logo.
• The farmers in South America who harvest the beans.
• The Pennsylvania steelworkers who manufacture the steel used in the machines the farmers use.
• The person who invented the cardboard cup sleeve thing, which as it turns out is called a zarf.

Hearing about this journey made me think about all of the people that make my life possible, and how often they go unthanked. So, I wanted to try a similar exercise this week.

All during Thanksgiving week, I’m taking the time to reach out to people who build and support the npm modules and rails gems I rely on daily. I work on a small team at my company, but the number of people who wrote at least one line of code in our project is in the hundreds, if not thousands.

And to say thanks to you, for reading taking the time to read this so far. (this was originally written as one of weekly letters. Subscribe here if that sounds interesting to you.) I know that your time is valuable, and I’m grateful you spent a little bit of it listening to what I have to say.

And thanks to @BenHalpern for creating Dev.to. I'm grateful that you have created such a wonderful online community of developers.

Studies have shown that gratitude increases happiness, so you have another reason to be more grateful yourself. It’s ok it seems like that means you are doing it for selfish reasons, but it isn’t. It’s just how humans work.

So during this holiday season, I have an ask: time some time to reflect on all that’s going well, all of the things that make your life better and be grateful. Tell the people who have helped you along the way how thankful you are for them. And share in the comments what you're thankful for this holiday season!