I Learned Open Source the Hard Way

A few days ago, I made a mistake — the kind that hurts your ego but upgrades your brain.

I wanted to make a quick open-source contribution. The motivation was familiar: a merged pull request, a green square, something easy to point at.

The Shortcut Mindset

I searched GitHub for “good first issues” and found one quickly. The task sounded trivial: add JavaDoc-style comments to a C header file.

Instead of asking:

• What does this project do?
• Why does it need documentation?
• How does documentation work in C?

I asked a different question:

How fast can I finish this?

I copied the header file into an AI chatbot and asked it to generate comments. I didn’t review the output. I didn’t understand it. I didn’t even read the project README.

I opened a pull request.

The Reality Check

A few hours later, the maintainer replied.

Not only were the comments wrong — critical code had been removed. Out of roughly 700 lines.

That’s not a small mistake. That’s a trust-breaking one.

I apologized and said I would fix it.

Making the Same Mistake Twice

Instead of slowing down, I doubled down.

I went back to AI. Wrote “better prompts.” Trusted the output again. Still didn’t review it. Still didn’t understand it.

I opened another pull request.

This time, the maintainer was furious — and rightfully so. He accused me of using AI. I admitted it.

He told me not to touch his code anymore.

The Turning Point

After cooling down, I reread his comments.

This wasn’t arrogance or gatekeeping. This was someone protecting their project, their time, and their standards.

I asked for one last chance — not to look good, but to do it right. He gave it.

Doing the Actual Work

This time, I slowed down.

• Read the project documentation
• Learned what INI files are (it was an INI parser)
• Understood JavaDoc vs Doxygen
• Learned how documentation fits into C projects
• Made changes incrementally
• Reviewed every line

Within a few hours, I fixed the issue properly. I learned more than I would have from ten “easy” pull requests.

What This Taught Me

• AI accelerates work only when you already care about correctness
• Open source is collaboration, not a résumé farm
• Maintainers aren’t enemies — they’re guardians
• Owning mistakes earns more respect than pretending competence
• Public failure is brutal — and incredibly educational

I failed. I failed again. Then I learned.

That was my real first contribution.