a hobbyist's dilemma

[John Salerno]

Alex Martelli wrote:
> John Salerno <johnjsal at NOSPAMgmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Now that I've learned much of Python, I'm sort of stuck with what to do
>> with it. I'm not a professional programmer, so I don't really have a use
>> for Python now. But I really want to come up with some neat uses for it
>> (for fun, and so I don't just start forgetting it right after I learned it).
> 
> Instead of hacking away on your own, I suggest you look around
> sourceforge and other such repositories of open-source programs: find
> out what projects are written in Python and may be looking for helpers,
> prioritize them in terms of your interests, and email the admins of the
> top one offering to help -- if they politely decline, try the second
> one, and so forth.  The best and most fun programming is that done in
> teams; also, participating in an open-souce effort gives you extra
> motivation to keep at it when the going gets hard (if the going never
> gets hard then you're not tackling problems that are interesting
> enough!-) -- as you know you're helping others, not just putzing around,
> you'll feel that extra push towards sticking with the task!
> 
> 
> Alex

Great idea. It would be fun to actually contribute something to the 
community, but I don't think I'm quite at that level yet, unless it's 
more of an 'assistant programmer' role, i.e. get the programmer's 
coffee.   :)