The biggest problem with many open source projects is that they are built by very clever people, trying to show other very clever people just how clever they are.

spot on man

Not sure if you're joking or if you don't know the principles of open source software :p it's not really a show off kind of thing but more of a contribution to the community while building software you needed anyways. Usually just a bit more polished ^-^

I have an open source bot that is not clever and I made it for fun, I don't think I'm Linus Trovalds' clever 😐

Yeh, I'm currently using a closed source programming language. I kind of miss using well designed tools with excellent documentation... Now it's half featured tools with very little documentation.

Half the time I can't tell if something is a bug or a feature.

@Zixalf
I think you kinda missed the whole point.

Im with OP here, nothing fuels my imposter syndrome like looking at OSS

The term "clever code" is NOT a compliment!
Understanding code requires more of your brain than writing it in the first place.
This means that Clever Code works until it suddenly doesn't, then no one will be able to fix it!

To expand, it's a dig at how over-engineered some things are in some open source projects.

There's been a couple of instances lately where the same goal is achieved in propriety apps with a single function and intelligent use of arguments. The open source code on the other hand requires a ton of conditions in the view template. It's the difference of 1 line vs 15 lines to do the same thing.

And it's not like the propriety software doesn't have those conditions. They're just hidden away in the function. For me, elegant, intelligent code is code that requires the end user (in this case another developer) to use the least amount of code possible to achieve the desired outcome.

All to often, I've found that that isn't the case in *some* OSS. Rather the logic is front and centre, screaming "hey y'all! Look how clever I am"!

Not all OSS projects fall into this category of course.

@Arlekin haha ok i guess that's a good thing then :p OSS inspiring people to do cool stuff is always awesome :)

Interesting pov. @frontendben can u give some examples?