In a message of Fri, 24 Aug 2007 00:07:32 CDT, Jeff Rush writes: >I've just been frustrated lately across several spheres of life with how >very >hard it is to get people, in general, to get involved, to take on meaning >ful >projects even those they agree are valuable. The explanation eludes me a >nd >keeps me awake at night and I ask those I meet from other walks of life w >hy.
One reason is that having ideas is easy. Work is work. One thing that I have found that has had a limited amount of success -- though better than near 0 success, as was before -- is for you to step in, take the idea, and break it down into tasks that would need doing before it is implemented. This may need collaboration with the idea-haver, but not always. Then organise something -- a sprint, say to go make code out of the idea. People are justifiably afraid of getting involved in a project that could suck up all their available free time and more, and give them a responsibility that they will be stuck with forever. If the thing starts out as shared, there can be some trust that it won't become an intolerable burden later -- and that ducking out later to do something else that is interesting won't damage a community that in some way has become dependent on you. Laura _______________________________________________ Edu-sig mailing list [email protected] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig
