Guido van Rossum, creator of the Python programming language, spoke at the
2023 Python Language Summit on the subject of open-source burnout, strategies for tackling it, and how to avoid it.
The first known case of burnout in the field of open-source software, van Rossum speculated, may have been Charles Babbage, who gave up the post of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics (the “Chair of Newton”) at Cambridge University in 1839.
“In 1839 the demands of the Analytical Engine upon my attention had become so incessant and so exhausting, that even the few duties of the Lucasian Chair had a sensible effect in impairing my bodily strength. I therefore sent in my resignation.”
— Charles Babbage, “Passages from the Life of a Philosopher” (Chapter 4)
Van Rossum described how the Python community had been hit multiple times by core developers, suffering from burnout, suddenly disappearing for extended periods of time. Van Rossum told the story of one core developer, previously one of the most prolific contributors to CPython, who had abruptly ceased contributing around a decade ago. He had hardly been heard from since.
Van Rossum himself, he recounted, had felt so burned out by the acrimonious debate around PEP 572 (proposing the “walrus operator”, :=), that it led to him stepping down from his post as Benevolent Dictator For Life (“BDFL”) of Python in 2018. Decisions about the language were ceded to a democratically elected Steering Council, which has governed Python ever since.
Burnout, van Rossum noted, was often connected to conflict – and it often didn’t matter whether or not you ended the conflict victorious. Merely having the conflict at all could be exhausting.
Van Rossum’s talk itself was fairly short, but was followed by a lengthy discussion among the assembled core developers on the experiences they’d had with burnout, and strategies that could be employed to tackle it.
Several attendees in the room commented that learning to recognise burnout in yourself was an important skill. Some participants in the discussion described times when they had suddenly realised that things that had previously been enjoyable had morphed into a source of stress. One core developer told the story of a conference they had organised, at which they had felt such extreme stress that they were unable to think of any of the things that had gone well. Instead, they found themselves fixated on all of the minor things that had gone wrong.
Learning to recognise burnout in others was perhaps an even harder problem to solve. Van Rossum noted that the developers most susceptible to burnout were generally those who were most active and engaged with the community. But how can you distinguish between somebody devoting their time to CPython because of the intense enjoyment they found in contributing to the project, somebody who might have formed an unhealthy addiction to open source, and somebody who was only continuing to contribute out of a misplaced sense of obligation?
Some developers spoke of strategies they used to decompress. Brett Cannon described how he periodically takes “open source breaks”, in which he forces himself to spend a period of time without looking at his GitHub notifications or thinking about his open-source commitments. Mariatta Wijaya spoke about how she found mentoring other Python programmers to be deeply healing. All agreed that it was crucial to talk to friends and relatives when you were feeling close to burnout.
It was agreed that the Python community needed to do better in many ways. We needed to become better, as a community, at understanding when other people said that they were unable to complete something they had previously committed to. And perhaps we needed to normalise questions such as, “Hey, you’ve been super productive and responsive for too long. When do you think you’ll burn out?”
Russell Keith-Magee remarked that systems with single points of failure were bound to lead to situations of intense stress. These systems would inevitably, at some point, fail. The transition from a single BDFL (with an indefinite term) to a five-member Steering Council with one-year terms had been a very positive change in that regard, Keith-Magee said. But there were still places in CPython development where there were single points of failure. Examples included various esoteric platforms where support from CPython depended on a single core developer being able to give up their time to review PRs relating to the platform.
Carol Willing agreed with Keith-Magee, pointing out that no matter who you were, you were rarely the only person who could do a certain task. You might be the person who could do it fastest or best – but sometimes, it was important to “see the people, and share the joy”.
Łukasz Langa spoke about his role as part of the current Code of Conduct Working Group, to which any violations of the Python Code of Conduct can be reported. Langa remarked that being part of the Working Group had brought to the fore parts of the community which he had previously been mostly unaware of. He encouraged everybody in the room to report toxic members of the community who were discouraging or aggressive online.
Speaking personally, for a moment: I tried to take an open-source break earlier this year, when I felt myself close to burning out on some of my open-source commitments. I can’t say it was fully successful – my addiction to GitHub was too great for me to resist glancing at my notifications occasionally. But it was helpful, and re-energising, to spend some time doing a creative activity that bore with it a 0% risk of people shouting at me on the internet about it:
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The first known case of burnout in the field of open-source software, van Rossum speculated, may have been Charles Babbage, who gave up the post of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics (the “Chair of Newton”) at Cambridge University in 1839.
Van Rossum described how the Python community had been hit multiple times by core developers, suffering from burnout, suddenly disappearing for extended periods of time. Van Rossum told the story of one core developer, previously one of the most prolific contributors to CPython, who had abruptly ceased contributing around a decade ago. He had hardly been heard from since.
Van Rossum himself, he recounted, had felt so burned out by the acrimonious debate around PEP 572 (proposing the “walrus operator”,
:=), that it led to him stepping down from his post as Benevolent Dictator For Life (“BDFL”) of Python in 2018. Decisions about the language were ceded to a democratically elected Steering Council, which has governed Python ever since.Burnout, van Rossum noted, was often connected to conflict – and it often didn’t matter whether or not you ended the conflict victorious. Merely having the conflict at all could be exhausting.
Van Rossum’s talk itself was fairly short, but was followed by a lengthy discussion among the assembled core developers on the experiences they’d had with burnout, and strategies that could be employed to tackle it.
Several attendees in the room commented that learning to recognise burnout in yourself was an important skill. Some participants in the discussion described times when they had suddenly realised that things that had previously been enjoyable had morphed into a source of stress. One core developer told the story of a conference they had organised, at which they had felt such extreme stress that they were unable to think of any of the things that had gone well. Instead, they found themselves fixated on all of the minor things that had gone wrong.
Learning to recognise burnout in others was perhaps an even harder problem to solve. Van Rossum noted that the developers most susceptible to burnout were generally those who were most active and engaged with the community. But how can you distinguish between somebody devoting their time to CPython because of the intense enjoyment they found in contributing to the project, somebody who might have formed an unhealthy addiction to open source, and somebody who was only continuing to contribute out of a misplaced sense of obligation?
Some developers spoke of strategies they used to decompress. Brett Cannon described how he periodically takes “open source breaks”, in which he forces himself to spend a period of time without looking at his GitHub notifications or thinking about his open-source commitments. Mariatta Wijaya spoke about how she found mentoring other Python programmers to be deeply healing. All agreed that it was crucial to talk to friends and relatives when you were feeling close to burnout.
It was agreed that the Python community needed to do better in many ways. We needed to become better, as a community, at understanding when other people said that they were unable to complete something they had previously committed to. And perhaps we needed to normalise questions such as, “Hey, you’ve been super productive and responsive for too long. When do you think you’ll burn out?”
Russell Keith-Magee remarked that systems with single points of failure were bound to lead to situations of intense stress. These systems would inevitably, at some point, fail. The transition from a single BDFL (with an indefinite term) to a five-member Steering Council with one-year terms had been a very positive change in that regard, Keith-Magee said. But there were still places in CPython development where there were single points of failure. Examples included various esoteric platforms where support from CPython depended on a single core developer being able to give up their time to review PRs relating to the platform.
Carol Willing agreed with Keith-Magee, pointing out that no matter who you were, you were rarely the only person who could do a certain task. You might be the person who could do it fastest or best – but sometimes, it was important to “see the people, and share the joy”.
Łukasz Langa spoke about his role as part of the current Code of Conduct Working Group, to which any violations of the Python Code of Conduct can be reported. Langa remarked that being part of the Working Group had brought to the fore parts of the community which he had previously been mostly unaware of. He encouraged everybody in the room to report toxic members of the community who were discouraging or aggressive online.
Speaking personally, for a moment: I tried to take an open-source break earlier this year, when I felt myself close to burning out on some of my open-source commitments. I can’t say it was fully successful – my addiction to GitHub was too great for me to resist glancing at my notifications occasionally. But it was helpful, and re-energising, to spend some time doing a creative activity that bore with it a 0% risk of people shouting at me on the internet about it: