How to use and develop open-source products to achieve financial and personal success

TL;DR: Using and developing open-source is like investing in yourself. This article gives you a mindset — my mindset — for developing open-source products. The core idea in this article is that the current digital economy is stuck in some kind of premature capitalism (what some refer to as post-capitalism) where companies focus on monopolies and their competition. The following article describes how using and simultaneously contributing to open-source software can offer a way out into a more mature capitalism that is aligned with democratic values. Open-source values are put into context with stoicism, standard business values, and personal well-being.

As we observe the digital economy, it is clearly seen that the economy is governed by a few big players. Some people, like Peter Thiel argue that this is the desired state for a company in capitalism. But I am not sure about it. Through a project, I started in university, called Lean Drug Development, I was eager to explore how a company can work that is not focused on achieving and maintaining a monopoly.

I failed many times (can’t count), but I stuck to that core belief that freedom, and ownership can walk hand-in-hand with capitalism. More, those values need to walk hand-in-hand with capitalism. This led me to the…