
Ask HN: Tips to overcome fear of opening up my personal projects? - parennoob
I have a Github and Bitbucket account, but all my Bitbucket repos are set to private. My Github account has almost nothing on it, because every time I start something and think of pushing to Github, I&#x27;m worried that I&#x27;ll be vulnerable to snap judgements by other people &#x2F; prospective employers. Think, &quot;Ugh, his C syntax looks like a child&#x27;s, and he doesn&#x27;t clean up his whitespace. And look, he clearly doesn&#x27;t understand how linked lists work. No way I would hire him&quot;. I&#x27;m at the point where I can barely write code and get by, and feel a bit intimidated when people casually post crypto tools or large C++ web frameworks to HN.<p>Any tips to get around this? I think it&#x27;s possible to clean up git commit history after it has been pushed to Github, so maybe that is one solution (although I hear that you are not supposed to rebase commits you have pushed to a public server).<p>[25-year old Asian male, in case my demographic provides any info.]
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johngalt
Don't optimize for self esteem. Optimize for total progress over a given
amount of time. If you're afraid that people will judge you an amateur, then
use that fear to drive you by posting _everything_ public. Learning is
basically an exercise in being embarrassingly wrong about a succession of
things over years.

There are harshly critical people online, so what? Make them _work for you_.
Most people at a high level are humble and non-judgmental about beginners.

~~~
sarciszewski
I'm one of the harshly critical people who opens issues and sends pull
requests on github. This person is correct. If something is bad/ugly, I'm more
inclined to suggest a fix (with our without snark) than just say "this guy
sucks and deserves to be poor".

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dkarapetyan
Most people that make things have a fear of exposing it to the world but
here's a secret, nobody is going to care. That might sound cold but it's the
truth. I can't remember what the top project was on HN last time there was a
Show HN post and these people are actively trying to get more eyeballs on
their projects. What are the chances someone is going to notice your Github
projects if you don't actively try to expose them to the world.

As for being judged by other people and prospective employees. That's another
phantom fear. This is again coming from personal experience. I always update
my resume to list my latest projects with links to the corresponding Github
repos. I've never had any negative reactions. People usually think it's cool
and leave it at that. No judgement or even engagement beyond that.

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papaf
Use a handle (such as parennoob) and then you can decide to attach it to your
real name after you become used to the idea of your code being public.

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brudgers
The many things I wish I had done differently can often be seen from public
roads for many years. Most people don't notice or care.

Anyway, a commit history that shows that a person went back and refactored
their code all on their own is a positive...on the unlikely assumption anyone
is going to care enough to go through your commit history looking at syntax
and whitespace.

At the point where a prospective employer is looking at your code, you're well
past the point where people are looking for reasons to reject you. Instead,
you're at the point where people are rationalizing their formed opinions.

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joeld42
Nobody is going to care.

Sometimes I do look at candidates github repos before an interview (if they
provide them on their resume). Even when the code is not great, it's still a
positive sign because it lets me know they are writing and pushing code, not
just talking about it. I don't think I've ever had less of an impression of a
candidate from looking at their github, although I've had some confirm my
expectations from their resume.

Worst case, let's say I was looking at someone's code, and I thought, as your
example, maybe he doesn't understand linked lists.. hmm. I wouldn't dismiss
them, I would ask that as an interview question.

If you're still nervous, ask a friend or colleague to give your code a quick
code review (email me if you'd like my opinion), and grant them bitbucket
access. Ask them if you think the code needs any cleanup before making it
public.

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jordsmi
I'd argue that having things up on your github with minor syntax/whitespace
errors is better than having nothing to show.

Also everyone has to start somewhere. Post what your working on now, and as
you get better it will be more noticeable since it can be compared to your
older stuff. Then you can go back and refactor your old code if needed to show
how your skills have evolved.

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oweiler
I once asked a similar question on SO:

[http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/150159/fear-o...](http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/150159/fear-
of-releasing-a-hobby-project-how-to-overcome)

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jp
Just write code that creates a massive security hole and your syntax problems
will feel like a gentle breeze.

