On 10,000 npm installs — Or what Open Source Software means to me

It’s Sunday night. Like most evenings, I was just writing some . Code that falls under one or more of the categories… code following I need it I think others might need it It’s cool (or so I think) Note: Extra greatness when the code I’m writing falls under all three of those categories! And also like most evenings, I get to a certain point where I find myself easily distracted. Or sometimes even begging for some distraction. For whatever reason, I checked (a super cool site that pulls npm install statistics by user or package). npm-stat Something special caught my eye this time… In the past 365 days . I paused, and let that number really sink in. I’ve just exceeded 10,000 npm installs Without a shadow of a doubt, there are leaders in the OSS space that have an order of magnitude more visibility on their code and projects. And rightfully so, it’s thrilling how amazing (and ) the OSS world is today. But it’s not a competition, not even close to it. The minute you start to think I suggest you take a step back and analyze why you are an OSS contributor. humbling “that other developer has a lot more downloads/installs/stars/forks/followers/* than I do :-(“ But what does it all mean? I digress. This number struck a deep chord in me. That’s a of installs with my code. That’s a pretty good feeling that, relatively speaking, I’ve programmatically impacted a lot of developers. lot But by what degree? How much did I help? Did they my code and then never do anything with it? And exactly how many developers are we talking about? 10,000+ installs, but is that just a few developers that have a particular workflow that does a large amount of installs? npm install This was instantly what my brain tried to do, obviously an impossible task outside of internal fiction telling. Then it dawned on me how I really feel… If my code helped developer at least … then it was all worth it. one once Why? Not because I’m an overly selfless developer, but because I constantly use OSS that has helped (and continues to help) me. is how hackers start their afternoons. We’re a part of the family. We are now and happy to opportunities. Hacker Noon @AMI accepting submissions discuss advertising &sponsorship To learn more, , , or simply, read our about page like/message us on Facebook tweet/DM @HackerNoon. If you enjoyed this story, we recommend reading our and . Until next time, don’t take the realities of the world for granted! latest tech stories trending tech stories