[python-committers] Suggestion: A PSF grant for running a "Core Dev Mentorship Program"

[Tal Einat]

Hi Antoine,



On Fri, Nov 2, 2018 at 3:38 PM Antoine Pitrou <antoine at python.org> wrote:

>
> Le 02/11/2018 à 14:19, Tal Einat a écrit :
> >
> > I would also like to work towards these goals. I have recently invested
> > more time on the core-mentorship mailing list and Zulip stream, as well
> > as doing my best to mentor two promising developers. However, my free
> > time is becoming increasingly limited again, and I am learning that
> > effectively mentoring a developer requires being able to spend a good
> > amount of time nearly daily on such mentoring.
>
> I'd *really* like to know why that is the case.


I've recently been mentoring two experienced developers: Gus Goulart and
Jonathan Gossage. Initially, when their momentum was highest, every day at
least one of them had non-trivial questions to ask and/or PRs ready for
review. I attempted to be highly responsive to allow them to progress
unhindered, and found myself spending at least 30 minutes on this nearly
every day. I now spend less time on this simply because their momentum is
reduced, partially because at one point I was not able to keep up with
their progress.


> Most existing core
> developers didn't need "a good amount of time" to be spent "nearly
> daily" on their mentoring to get them up to speed.  Instead they
> progressed slowly on the contribution curve, with due feedback from
> senior core developers, but without requiring extended attention.
>

True, but this process is not suitable for many, and it does not seem to
currently be yielding as many regular contributors and core developers as
we'd like.

My personal experience is that it took me over a decade between beginning
to contribute to Python to becoming an active core dev. I believe that that
could have taken just a few months if I had had a mentor.


> Contributing to a large mature project like CPython requires dedication
> and significant prior experience.  If someone needs a large amount of
> hand-holding then that's a bad sign IMO.  There are much simpler and
> more approachable projects out there if they'd like to learn
> contributing to open source software.
>

There appear to be many experienced developers interested in becoming
contributors (and possibly core devs down the road). The two I'm now
mentoring are such; they don't require "hand-holding" in the sense of more
junior developers. No other core dev seemed to be available for mentoring
them when they first asked for mentoring.


> I'd also like to know what the current outcomes of the "Core Mentorship"
> program are.  How many core developers or seasoned contributors did we
> get from it?  The core-mentorship mailing-list has been existing since
> 2011, so we should have ample experience by now.
>

I'm looking for this info too!

- Tal Einat
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