What do you do at your job?
Building some random stuff that ultimately delivers no real value to the end-users?
Slogging your way through endless tickets, backlogs, ceremonies, and meetings, in the name of "agile"?
Being forced to cripple good software and engineering in the name of placating everyone, so that we all can dance around the fire and sing "kum ba yah"?
Is this really why you entered this field?
Did you not pick up engineering to build systems that can create real value from your code?
Did you not pick up design to make experiencing the world through software a bit more pleasant?
Did you not join this industry to use your creativity to solve problems, to build things that give you joy?
The unfortunate truth is that for many of us, what we're paid to do 8, 9, 10, 11, or even 12 hours a day,
kills the part of the us that was once passionate for the craft,
the part of us that gave us joy, the part of us that made us care.
Without it, we burn out, we no longer enjoy what we once did, and we no longer bother fighting for what we believe in,
because the corporate environment has grinded us away until we can no longer muster the strength to resist.
And this group exists to say - enough is enough.
It's about building what gives you joy.
It's about building what you see value in.
It's about being able to build it, on your own terms.
It's about rekindling the lost passion, not letting your golden time go to waste, not letting the creative part of your brain rot from disuse.
And, with such a system, comes happy and satisfied developers.
It's about building such an environment, so as to serve as a breeding ground for success and innovation.
Build whatever you want, however you want. Give up on it whenever you want. Involve whoever you want.
If it just so happens that it could be used in tandem with what someone else has built to create greater value, great!
If not, it's no big deal. It doesn't matter that it doesn't all build up to some value that someone else saw,
because there is value in having built it, value in the process in and of itself - your happiness.
And in the end, it's the only thing that matters.