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Burned out creating public software

The author reflects on their experience of burning out from creating public software, describing the emotional toll of maintaining open-source projects and dealing with user expectations, criticism, and the pressure to keep building. They share personal lessons about the unsustainable nature of unpaid public work and the need to prioritize mental health over community demands.

Background

This is a personal essay by a software developer about the emotional toll of building and maintaining open-source (public) software — code that anyone can use, audit, and criticise for free. The author describes feeling drained by relentless user demands, unpaid maintenance work, and a culture where creators are treated like service workers. The piece reflects a growing conversation in tech about "open-source burnout": the exhaustion that comes from giving away valuable work while fielding complaints, entitlement, and even hostility from users who have no financial stake. Key references include GitHub (where open-source code is hosted and issues are filed) and the broader indie-developer economy. The essay doesn't name specific projects but touches on a dynamic familiar in communities around tools like Homebrew, Vue.js, Babel, and others whose maintainers have publicly grappled with burnout.

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Burned out creating public software

Background

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