How to read this book

The task here is stimulate the critical thinking process.

You are free to read chapters for the topics that interests you. While not strictly necessary, I recommend reading the chapters in the specified order, so that you get a more coherent understanding.

Due to the nature of the concepts mentioned so far, this book makes use of analogies, where similar ideas overlap from the outside of the subject, like politics, sociology and psychology, so be prepared to ponder upon things without jumping to conclusions.

This book may not provide definitions to all of the concepts outside of the subject, therefore you may need to refer to other sources of information. If something feels a little bit off or out of place, it might be the case that you need to read the rest of the chapters.

Please note that the information presented in this book, particularly in the Organizational Culture section, may appear obvious or mundane to some readers. However, if you happen to hold an anti-corporate sentiment, this information could be beneficial and relevant to you, especially for maintainers of Open Source projects.

Conventions

Throughout this book, you’ll see banners such as these:

💡 Water is wet!

These are used to clarify, summarize, consolidate, or ease the comprehension of new concepts.

New and important terminology is denoted with bold italic font. You can refer to Glossary page for some definitions. Terminology may be specialized in accordance to the context of this book.

The contents labeled with keywords such as Waiting or Blue Robot refers to Godot Engine. 😉

When referring to Juan Linietsky, the co-creator and lead developer of Godot Engine, his name may be used in a collective sense. For example, the phrase “Juan seldom completes features” may be generalized to a larger group of loyal Godot maintainers, also known as collective Juan.

Note to Godot followers

If you’re a Godot follower reading this book, please take this as an opportunity to reflect upon what happens in Godot community. You may feel highly repulsed by ideas presented here. But try to persevere: doing so may yield useful insights for yourself and the rest of the open-source community, especially when you choose to share and discuss those insights with others, and, if necessary, take appropriate action. The fact that you read this makes you a curious person, so I really appreciate this!