Good morning from JetBrains Berlin office!
Recently I moved to Berlin. Let me tell you about what I'm doing here.
As my open source career progressed, I started to realize that I'm increasingly doing more people work than code work. This first became apparent with interacting with issues/PRs and then writing documentation/blog posts. And nowadays it shows itself by doing livestreams, giving talks at conferences and building communities. I mean heck, I'm still dreaming of organizing a full blown terminal-oriented conference at some point.
I guess the weird part is, I enjoy doing all of these things although they sound stressful and even scary. For me, being public and interacting with people is something that I do naturally at this point. I believe I subconsciously learned the skill while trying to reach out to more people through my open source projects. These days when I combine this outreach and interaction with building creative things, I just have hell of a fun (e.g. building something that I have zero idea about on a livestream).
That is why, I asked myself:
Then, that question turned into an opportunity, and eventually a decision.
Well, here we are.
I am excited to announce that I have joined JetBrains as a "Rust Developer Advocate"!
I had a long-running relationship with JetBrains, both as a user and collaborator. I have been using their IDEs for years, before I even started writing Rust. And then RustRover was released, which showed me how much they care about Rust and the Rust community. But it is definitely not limited to that. I have seen them as sponsor for many Rust events, collaborated with many prominent Rust figures and overall produced a lot of content for the community.
They reached out to me last year to collaborate on a livestream. That was a great experience and we were both happy how it went. After that, they showed support for my personal projects and Ratatui which I really appreciated. And they have been sponsoring me since then <3
So, what are you going to do there exactly? What does "Rust Developer Advocate" mean?
I will be working closely with the Rust community to:
1. Create content (projects, blog posts, videos, livestreams, talks & more)
2. Improve Rust tooling (e.g. RustRover) by providing feedback and
collaborating with the team building it
I have already been doing the first one for a while. The second one will be a bit new.
Basically, I will be a bridge between the Rust community and the RustRover team, and more generally JetBrains, to help shape the direction of tooling for Rust developers, from a developer perspective as well. Additionally, I will be also representing JetBrains within the Rust ecosystem.
So I will be
That's why you should expect to see me in more places, events, livestreams & more!
Wait, am I also going to see you in my issue tracker? Are you quitting open source!??
I understand where this question is coming from. First, this role sounds like it's less technical and more people-oriented, so it is natural to think that I will be doing less coding.
Second, since I now have a job, you might say that I will have less time to contribute to open source. Both are somewhat true, but with a caveat.
While I was having conversations with JetBrains about this role, it was made clear that contributing to open source is a direct responsibility for this role. That means I will still be actively building projects, contributing to existing ones and collaborating with the community.
If anything, this role gives me more room to do that in a focused and sustainable way.
Of course, the scope might change a bit, and I might not be able to do as much. But this also means I will spend more time sharing ideas, experimenting in public and helping improve the ecosystem in general.
Also, just remember that open source is my passion. I am never leaving that issue tracker bro.
Let's address the rat in the room: what about Ratatui, Ratty and other projects?
Oh, you're concerned those are going to be abandoned? No way.
I have been on the team since the very beginning and I have been leading the project for a while. At this point I feel like it's my personal responsibility to keep it alive and thriving.
So no, nothing is going to change. We will keep cooking!
Everyone deserves a good terminal experience :)
Hold on. Aren't you leaving the terminal now that you're going to work with graphical IDEs?
Great question! Not at all.
The terminal is still my home base and I can't leave it. This will just give me another perspective and a chance to explore both worlds.
One other thing to clarify, JetBrains does not force me to use their IDEs by any means. But I personally think it would be make sense for me to use them, especially RustRover, to be able to improve the tool and provide feedback. I also think that it's a great opportunity to bring the community feedback directly into the IDE and make it better for everyone.
Wrapping up
This was definitely a big decision for me and I am super excited about this new chapter of my life. As always, I will keep you all updated about my journey and share my thoughts and experiences along the way.
Anyways, the day just started, let's get to cooking! 🐀🦀
Click here to read a bonus story.
After I collaborated with JetBrains, they wanted to send me some swag. They also let me pick and I wanted to get a Kodee Plushie which I thought it would look cool in the background during livestreams. Anyways, they have shipped the package.
Then thanks to the customs law in Turkey, I couldn't receive the package because it exceeded the price limit (25 euros at the time I think?). I let JetBrains know about the situation and they re-shipped the package with less contents. And right at this time there was a new law that said it's no longer possible to receive packages from abroad. So it was basically impossible for me to receive that gift.
This was extremely annoying... All I wanted was a plushie :'(
Despite all the hardships though, they have sent the package through a friend while I was in London for a conference. So I finally got it and now it sits on my shelf!
Shoutout to Lena from JetBrains for not giving up on my gift. Really appreciate it!
"So happy to hear you finally got your Kodee — thanks for letting me know! And you're right: with that backstory, it's definitely extra special. Hope it becomes your lucky charm. ☺️"