People are stronger when they are together
It's been already some time since I heard about open-source. The first time I got in touch with the idea closer was when I was doing an online course on web development — The Odin Project. Although I eventually quit it (After 2 years. Yes, I took it really slowly...) and I left behind all my ideas for such a career, I am sure that experience opened my eyes in more ways than I had thought it would. For a guy that is often used to studying on his own without any distractions in the form of people, it was truly unbelievable to discover the power of shared knowledge.
Perhaps, my fundamental approach to studying alone in my room has not changed much. But since then, I have been more aware that knowledge must be passed along. As much as stories about big inventions and changes sound inspiring, I do not think I am the guy who can discover anything extraordinary that would change this world. But what if I don't even have to do so? Instead I could actually rely on past achievements of others and remind at least a few people about them. I have a feeling that some great things have actually been overlooked in the past 10-20 years. It is like in the pursuit of something greater, humanity stopped keeping track of all the good stuff it created at some point.
Public education is something that has been around for many centuries. Granted, compared to the previous couple centuries, we have moved forward so much. To get any education used to be a privilege. Only the rich could afford it, which both created a huge division in society and sparked some out-of-the-box thinking in unknown heroes at that time. Looking at our opportunities now, it feels unfair to complain about something. The internet, despite its risks and weirdness, furnished people with so much to get started in whatever they need. Yet these opportunities still slip through their fingers.
Unfortunately, when I imply that anyone has the right to get an education nowadays, I may be wrong. There are still some underdeveloped corners in this world; what seems obvious and easy to me, may not so to someone else. That's just the world we live in. I don't know, it feels wrong to be ignorant to that. But realistically speaking, changes always take place only if more members of a community start taking action. With the internet, it became so easy to voice our opinions. You create an account on any social media of your liking. And boom. You have a voice. In fact, you can talk non-stop. But with that, I think many great ideas get lost or actually overshadowed by the less quality ones. Just because, well, ideas started losing their value in such amounts. People became less intentional with their words — I have the right to say what I want, so I will just use it; I don't care about how I come across...
Anyways, I've actually decided to change the tone of this piece. I began reflecting on open source and how amazed I am at this concept. And I continued with problems I see in our society. But I want to put something more positive into this space at the moment. I can't change the world but I can influence mine and those around me. People united by the idea of growing together and making each other's lives better is that type of world I want to create around myself.
I often like to say that society changes start from an individual. If you want others to be on the same page with you more, you may sometimes need to lead by example. Even though it is unrealistic to be accepted and understood by everyone, I think you can still find things that bring more folks together. Whether most people realize it or not, but each of us influences the logical and physical order of our one big home — Earth. Our words and actions may seem insignificant on a large scale; however, they truly do matter.
History knows so many cases when monumental discoveries ensued from one person's vision, which others found a great interest in soon. As an example, I would like to mention here the Linux operating system in computer science. It started with one Finnish student named Linus Torvalds in 1991. The guy wasn't satisfied with how things ran in other operation systems available at that time. So he decided to program one himself. Linus was lucky that the World Wide Web (WWW) had been invented two years prior to that in 1989. During his development, Linus wrote a Usenet post asking for features that potential users would want to see. He made it clear though that this project was just a hobby for him and he was going to share it with the world.
He eventually released his own operating system. And it got a lot of attention from other computer enthusiasts. The number of contributors was increasing quickly. Linus himself admitted that he did not know most of the people who helped with new features. Apparently, his "little hobby" project shaped into something bigger than just him and his university in Helsinki, where he studied computer science. One day, he wanted to create something and share it with others. And he succeeded. But little did he know how many like-minded individuals would work on his operating system in the future. The fact that anyone who had knowledge in that area could potentially suggest a change for Linux sounds so powerful and exciting to me.
The tech industry has seen dozens of truly life-changing collaborations. But I am sure so have other areas. Honestly, it is not even about industries and inventions. It is about people coming together to work on something that will benefit more of us. I personally started thinking of such an attitude more to see ways in my own life how I can unity with others. It does not mean that I refuse to work on myself when there's noone around. What it actually means is that I choose to be around people more because I see how strong that one unit can become. If there's something I think can be done better and I want to change it, why not start doing it myself? And it doesn't have to be the next big operating system. It can be as simple as organizing an event for people who find the same activity interesting.
Never underestimate the impact of small things! And remember that your ideas and actions affect this world — through interactions with other human beings!