Continuous Learning

So, you want to do open source programming? The open source ``scene'' (to use a term from the 1960s) is always in motion. You have to learn every day. You have to try to use new tools. You have to use a new language, learn a new skill. You have to dive into projects you don't understand and ``come up to speed'' very quickly. You have to be comfortable with being lost, with making public mistakes, with getting ``flamed'' for ``newbie'' errors. It's all part of the learning process.

In a corporate culture you can ``sort-of'' learn a skill, say, networking. You play at the skill for a few years, get some seniority (i.e. survives a few downsizings) and retire into management. You don't have to be good at your skill. You don't have to learn new things. You don't have to have any management training. You don't even have to learn how to manage. You just have to survive job cuts.

There are no ``retirement'' jobs in a gift culture. You have to learn and get rich or you get left behind and drop out.