About this Episode

How do you create meaningful change with open source software and what role does mentorship play?

In this episode, Joe Petrowski (Research Analyst, Parity) talks to Ben Kampmann (Core Developer, Parity) about the role of mentorship, learning, and values in the open-source community. They also discuss Open Tech School, a non-profit organization Ben created for open source education, as well as recent Substrate developments, including Substrate LFS (Large File Storage).

For more info on Ben Kampmann and his work, check out his recent People of Parity showcase on the Parity Technologies blog: https://www.parity.io/people-of-parity-benjamin-kampmann/

Highlights:

01:28 - The vast potential impact of these technologies

02:00 - Building for startups vs established teams, how to promote positive change

06:18 - Importance of economic considerations and incentives in blockchain engineering

09:09 - Role and importance of mentorship

15:00 - Dealing with constructive criticism vs negative criticism

18:10 - Importance of not trying to learn too much too fast

22:00 - Open Tech School

26:35 - Most important skills for quick pivoting

29:55 - Substrate and its value for developers

33:30 - Sustainable open source business models and the role of money

40:47 - Status of Polkadot and Substrate

43:37 - Substrate LFS

46:00 - Hacktoberfest

Links:

Hacktoberfest

Ben on Github

Ben on Twitter

Key Quotes:

“Learning itself is a very hard job. You’re asking your brain to rewire itself.”

“Don’t believe that you can’t program because you don’t know logic or math. I didn’t study any of this either. And don’t give up.”

“You need to be willing to throw away what you know in order to learn.”