Get In The Arena

Several months ago I had a need to cache function results across multiple executions of an API client. A quick web search revealed several solutions, the best fit being cachier. However, it was still missing a few important features I needed, and thinking it was the quickest solution, I wrote up a wrapper to implement these features and published it on PyPI.

One of the features was particularly tricky to get working without modifying cachier itself. Though I did get it working, I regretted not instead simply seeing if I could build my needed capabilities into that library itself and avoiding the wrapper altogether.

Turns out I had some additional free time, and took a crack at an integrated implementation of three key features, and turns out the maintainer of cachier was grateful for the contributions. I was also able to make additional improvements, which benefit all of cachier’s users, not just the one user (i.e. me) of a wrapper which is unlikely to get popular.

This experience was a good reminder that open source software is not built by a mysterious group of “other people” but by ordinary folks who graciously offer their limited time for the public good. Considering how much I’ve benefited from such generosity throughout my career, I’ve been thinking about what responsibility I have to the broader community. I’m not the only one. Do I have a professional obligation, or even a moral one, to contribute? Quite possibly, but either way, it’s something I’m going to do as long as I’m able.