I’ve been working on a programming language for a while, and this is one of the key bits of advice I’ve had in the back of my mind during that time.<p>People have come along and contributed occasionally, but for the most part, I’m doing <i>everything</i>: writing the compiler, standard library, documentation, editor integration, blog posts, evangelism of the programming paradigm, and so on. Despite the fact that <i>I</i> don’t scale, I’ll happily sit down with someone who’s trying out the language, help them get up to speed, and fix all the bugs and usability issues they report. It’s that kind of connection to people that not only drives interest in the project, but drives <i>me</i> to stay motivated.<p>I can’t say I fully understand my own success…or even whether it’s success. I’m not selling anything, just making the language I want to use. Maybe a few hundred lines of code have been written in the language by someone other than me. I’ve accumulated >450 stars on GitHub for a product that <i>doesn’t even do anything yet</i>. It’s certainly surreal, but it’s been pleasant. :)
Spent a month in university libraries handing out candy and asking groups of students to try out our sharing platform. We then would take what we learned that day and code changes/fixes before we left or when we got home so we could go out again in the morning.