2015-12-26 07:44:10 <Yu Wu> Yu wants to chat on Hangouts!
2015-12-26 09:13:26 <P14> Good morning ☺
2015-12-26 09:13:32 <Yu Wu> Hello P14!
2015-12-26 09:13:37 <Yu Wu> Thanks a lot for connecting:)
2015-12-26 09:13:42 <Yu Wu> Is everything ok?
2015-12-26 09:14:23 <P14> I think so. I'm across the street, and don't see smoke. Plus the fire department is there now, so they probably have everything under control.
2015-12-26 09:14:36 <P14> Thanks for checking!
2015-12-26 09:14:38 <Yu Wu> Great! Safe comes first :D
2015-12-26 09:14:46 <Yu Wu> So shall we start?
2015-12-26 09:14:58 <P14> Absolutely
2015-12-26 09:15:28 <Yu Wu> I'm wondering how many years have you been as a professional software engineer?
2015-12-26 09:15:46 <P14> Not that long. Around 4.5 years.
2015-12-26 09:16:19 <Yu Wu> What motivated you to create awesome-* project? What problems it tries to solve?
2015-12-26 09:19:01 <P14> I'm relative active in the meetup community in Vancouver. Talking to people, there is always a lot of talk about what makes a good culture; a good place to work. It's more than about having ping pong tables, for example ;) There is a strong demand for software developers right now, but we do have issues with diversity, too, which is definitely a cultural issue.
2015-12-26 09:19:37 <Yu Wu> Do you create the list so that you can frequently point to others?
2015-12-26 09:19:44 <P14> 100% yes
2015-12-26 09:20:05 <P14> Also, so that I could collect the links that people were sending me on Slack and via email
2015-12-26 09:20:27 <Yu Wu> Oh interesting! Why they don't send you through GitHub directly?
2015-12-26 09:21:35 <P14> I've often wondered this myself. Having contributed to some of the other awesome-* projects, it is a bit of a pain to have to fork (or even just clone) a repo, make a change, open a PR, get it reviewed, and so on, for one link.
2015-12-26 09:21:45 <P14> Easier to fire-and-forget over email :P
2015-12-26 09:22:07 <Yu Wu> Aha, so the Git features is kind of overkill for this type of work, right?
2015-12-26 09:22:14 <P14> Yeah
2015-12-26 09:22:34 <P14> The collaboration and control that GitHub have is really nice, but it comes with overhead
2015-12-26 09:22:54 <Yu Wu> So why hosting your project on GitHub? Why not say Wikipedia or you blog?
2015-12-26 09:23:33 <P14> Mainly, I was inspired by the existing awesome projects, which were on GitHub.
2015-12-26 09:23:43 <P14> So, it made sense to use the same format
2015-12-26 09:23:50 <P14> A Wiki would probably be better suited
2015-12-26 09:24:09 <P14> Sadly the GH Wikis aren't the first thing that people will navigate to
2015-12-26 09:24:46 <Yu Wu> Is your project listed in sindresorhus/awesome?
2015-12-26 09:24:56 <P14> Not yet ;)
2015-12-26 09:25:06 <Yu Wu> So you intend to, right?
2015-12-26 09:25:19 <P14> Yes. I just want it to be longer first
2015-12-26 09:25:46 <Yu Wu> Great! Is it the reason you format your list the current style?
2015-12-26 09:25:56 <Yu Wu> Conforming to the guideline of sindresorhus/awesome?
2015-12-26 09:26:09 <P14> Mostly, yes
2015-12-26 09:26:44 <P14> The only difference from most other awesome projects is that I have some links in multiple categories.
2015-12-26 09:27:06 <Yu Wu> interesting! Other lists usually avoid that?
2015-12-26 09:27:16 <P14> It seems so, from what I've seen
2015-12-26 09:27:28 <P14> Most technology topics break down pretty cleanly
2015-12-26 09:27:42 <P14> Culture, not so much :P
2015-12-26 09:28:00 <Yu Wu> Got it! You mentioned that you contributed to other awesome lists as well right?
2015-12-26 09:28:15 <P14> Yes
2015-12-26 09:28:22 <Yu Wu> Is it that you know about some resources that might fit a certain list, and you just send PRs?
2015-12-26 09:28:53 <P14> Yes, so I have two use cases
2015-12-26 09:28:59 <Yu Wu> Is there a process to evaluate the relevance and quality of a resource for a certain list?
2015-12-26 09:29:08 <Yu Wu> Oh please go on
2015-12-26 09:29:18 <Yu Wu> very curious about the use cases
2015-12-26 09:29:22 <P14> Okay
2015-12-26 09:29:56 <P14> So, in one case, I've had some material that looked good to put in a project, so I forked and opened a PR
2015-12-26 09:31:28 <P14> The other case, an awesome list that I had starred started showing a bunch of open issues in the activity feed on the front page of GH. One of the things in there happened to be an issue to add one of my libraries, so that section stood out more than usual. So, I opened a PR linked to the issue, and it got merged.
2015-12-26 09:32:07 <P14> I think that opening Issues to have people add specific resources is a really wonderful way of getting things done by the community, and hadn't really considered it prior
2015-12-26 09:32:17 <P14> Which, being GH, should have been obvious
2015-12-26 09:32:32 <Yu Wu> This is great to know!
2015-12-26 09:32:43 <Yu Wu> I think for some list owners, they just left the sections blank
2015-12-26 09:32:52 <P14> Yeah, I've seen that, too
2015-12-26 09:32:54 <Yu Wu> and wish others would contribute
2015-12-26 09:33:06 <Yu Wu> open issues might be more specific
2015-12-26 09:33:14 <Yu Wu> and easier to manage
2015-12-26 09:33:32 <P14> For sure
2015-12-26 09:33:47 <Yu Wu> Ok, I'm wondering is there a process to evaluate the relevance and quality of a resource for a certain list?
2015-12-26 09:37:17 <P14> So, I'm currently reviewing everything myself. I make a point of reading/watching/listening to everything that comes in. I check that it doesn't violate the CONTRIBUTING.md, or the project policies (mostly around the resource being generally kind to humans). Then, I don't want the list to just be resources; they should be *awesome* resources, so I'll give it a subjective rating. Sometimes, I'll pull a few of my friends or people that I know in person into the discussion, especially when I know that they already have an interest in the area.
2015-12-26 09:37:23 <P14> Or, if they have expertise that I don't
2015-12-26 09:38:04 <P14> I've never been a CTO, for instance, so I have one friend in particular who I'll send topics that touch on being a good CTO or engineering manager to her for double checking
2015-12-26 09:38:07 <Yu Wu> Interesting, so some of the resources are peer reviewed?
2015-12-26 09:38:14 <P14> Quite a few, yes
2015-12-26 09:38:50 <Yu Wu> Got it! I'm wondering are there any other benefits the project brought to you?
2015-12-26 09:39:01 <Yu Wu> Besides easily communicating with other people
2015-12-26 09:40:20 <P14> Hm, nothing extreme aside from feeling that I'm doing some good, and having an existing list to point people at rather than fumbling around for resources ;) I haven't been offered employment or anything
2015-12-26 09:40:35 <Yu Wu> ahahah
2015-12-26 09:40:48 <P14> People seem pretty happy that the project exists, so I probably have gained some kudos in the community
2015-12-26 09:40:48 <Yu Wu> Maybe it is on the way :D
2015-12-26 09:40:57 <P14> :P Maybe
2015-12-26 09:41:43 <Yu Wu> What about drawbacks and difficulties? Did you capture any unsatisfactory part during creating/maintaining awesome-*?
2015-12-26 09:41:52 <P14> Actually, wait, that's a lie! I need to revise my last answer!
2015-12-26 09:41:59 <Yu Wu> Sure!
2015-12-26 09:42:05 <Yu Wu> go ahead please:)
2015-12-26 09:42:15 <Yu Wu> So you indeed receive job offer? ☺
2015-12-26 09:42:18 <Yu Wu> Just kidding ...
2015-12-26 09:43:12 <P14> So, when I was interviewing for my current job, they were looking for someone who cared about culture, in addition to being a good software developer. They were impressed with the fact that I did the meetups, and that I curate this repo.
2015-12-26 09:43:22 <P14> So, it probably helped me get my current position
2015-12-26 09:43:29 <Yu Wu> oh wow!
2015-12-26 09:43:31 <Yu Wu> So indeed!
2015-12-26 09:43:56 <Yu Wu> This is awesome ☺
2015-12-26 09:44:12 <P14> Okay, so to your other question RE difficulties:
2015-12-26 09:44:29 <P14> Time. Time is hard.
2015-12-26 09:44:47 <Yu Wu> What do you mean by time? Find time to maintain the list is hard?
2015-12-26 09:45:02 <P14> Digging through all of these resources takes time, and I'm usually pretty time constrained.
2015-12-26 09:45:23 <P14> Watching 10 TED talks that people sent me that week is pretty time consuming
2015-12-26 09:45:26 <Yu Wu> That's for sure. To make sure the resource is good takes time
2015-12-26 09:45:50 <P14> Getting people to contribute on the repo directly has also been a challenge for the reasons cited above
2015-12-26 09:46:24 <Yu Wu> So do you have a ratio for (number of resources in your list)/(number of resources you evaluated)
2015-12-26 09:46:41 <P14> It doesn't make a huge difference, I guess, but it would take some of the pressure off, I could find co-curators, etc. Also, having more contributors on the repo always gives it some weight
2015-12-26 09:47:13 <P14> Ugh, I don't have a specific number, but it would be around 1 accepted for 5 reviewed
2015-12-26 09:47:30 <P14> Probably depends on the week ;)
2015-12-26 09:47:37 <Yu Wu> Ahaha, got it
2015-12-26 09:47:47 <Yu Wu> Do you plan to maintain the project for a long time?
2015-12-26 09:49:07 <P14> Yes. As long as possible. I don't see cultural issues going away completely. It's an issue in every industry, and being a set of soft-skills/techniques, it'll never be totally solved.
2015-12-26 09:49:36 <P14> I wouldn't mind sharing the responsibilities, and then passing it on to someone else down the line, but I really care about the quality of the resources right now
2015-12-26 09:50:09 <Yu Wu> Awesome! I think for your case it would be pretty hard, because you are organizing the meetup
2015-12-26 09:50:38 <Yu Wu> Unless someone can help you do both the meetup and filtering resources
2015-12-26 09:51:09 <P14> Yeah, exactly
2015-12-26 09:51:21 <Yu Wu> If you have a similar idea in the future, would you do the same thing? I mean creating/maintaining a list on GitHub
2015-12-26 09:52:40 <P14> Probably, yes. Awesome lists seem to get a higher number of views than my (now defunct) blog, for example. Despite being a bit more work to have other contribute to, it is where the interested people seem to be.
2015-12-26 09:53:09 <Yu Wu> Got it:) Thanks a lot, P14! I pretty much covered all I want to discuss.
2015-12-26 09:53:14 <Yu Wu> Do you have comments or suggestions?
2015-12-26 09:54:11 <P14> Nothing that I can think of. It was a real pleasure, I don't generally get to talk about the nuts and bolts of my side projects in this detail ☺ Thank you!
2015-12-26 09:54:46 <Yu Wu> My pleasure :). If something comes up in the future, can I followup with you?
2015-12-26 09:54:55 <P14> Absolutely
2015-12-26 09:55:17 <Yu Wu> Great! Let's keep in touch!
2015-12-26 09:55:23 <P14> For sure!
2015-12-26 09:55:42 <P14> Let me know when the project is complete; I'm interested to hear your findings!
2015-12-26 09:55:51 <Yu Wu> I will definitely keep you posted
2015-12-26 09:55:59 <P14> :D
2015-12-26 09:56:12 <Yu Wu> Ok, I'll see you later! Have a nice weekend!
2015-12-26 10:06:10 <P14> You too!