h1 Rust 2019
- 2019-01-15

Hey everyone! Two days ago I released my plans for 2019. Earlier today I wrote about what I’d like to see for Rust WASM in 2019. This is my post about what I’d like to see happen with Rust in 2019.

However unlike my two previous posts, I’d like to keep this one short and sweet.

Speaking is silver

I’ve been drafting this post for the past two months. However none of it felt right. I think it’s probably because others have put my feelings into words better than I’m currently capable of. There are two posts I’d like you to read:

First off is Boats’ post on organizational debt. It touches on how we organize ourselves, and the problems we’re facing. I feel it distills so well which challenges we face as an organization, and feel it ought to set the tone on what to prioritize in this year’s roadmap.

The second post is Gattozzi’s post. It feels very personal and it’s focused around his experiences with the people in Rust. I recognize myself a lot in those experiences. The community is changing, and we’ll have to think of how we plan to change with it.

Have you read the two posts above? Yes? Great! Thank you for your time. From here on out it’s desserts only.

No silos, no heroes

My main joy in programming stems from curiosity. I love learning new things, figuring out how things work, and trying to improve them. The more open systems are, the better this works. Which is why I got involved with open source in the first place, and Rust with its RFC process later on.

However this becomes harder when systems are closed. When decision making is opaque, code is hard to understand, or people use their status to justify their actions. Every community has to deal with this, and Rust is no different.

I encourage everyone to reflect on who they look up to, and why. Which pieces of code we think are cool, but don’t understand. Which crucial projects are lead by people, not teams. We should think about what kind of community we want to be, and how we can ensure we can get there, together.

Inclusive behavior

I often think about this tweet by Aurynn:

Diversity is an emergent effect of inclusive behaviour.

I’d describe “inclusive behaviour” as behaviour that makes people feel valued, welcome, and not threatened. Perhaps even simpler: behaviour that doesn’t actively exclude people (except people that exclude others).

I know we’d all like to believe the Rust community is a shining example of what a programming community should look like. But have we truly reached the pinnacle of behavior. Is there collectively no more room for improvement?

This definitely ties back into the two posts I linked to at the start of this post. But instead of proposing directions for the core team to take: I’d like this to be a call for each of us to reflect on how we interact with other people.

Being welcoming is our collective responsibility. The way we behave reflects on our peers. And the way our peers behave is a reflection of us.

Wrapping Up

And that’s it for this year! I hope this has been useful! I’m starting to get a taste for writing posts, so perhaps I’ll write about more things going forward. But anyway, it’s late here, so I’m going to call it a night for now.

Hope you’re well / have a good eve!