Now that I'm no longer super young, I am very much aware of the precious time every day where I can do valuable, creative work (outside work). From this subjective point of view I question if many open soure projects are truly worth it.<p>Valuable activities would
1. improve relevant, marketable skills
2. bring joy
3. help improve the world
4. make some money<p>It appears that many activities around maintaining a linux distro are mundane chores, compared to the learning process of, say, studying security issues deep inside the kernel. It certainly does not bring joy as reliable and immediate as, say, switching off the computer and going outside for some pickup basketball, and there are already plenty of linux distros out there, with marginal differences and little impact general progress. Nothing needs to be said regarding my #4.<p>So I will offer my unsolicited opintion: Life is short, focus your effort on things that are really worth it.