Watermill: from a hobby project to 8k stars on GitHub

Episode notes: http://threedots.tech/episode/history-of-watermill/Quick takeawaysSolve real problems first - successful open source projects start by addressing actual needs, not by looking for problems to fit a solutionKeep breaking changes minimal - Watermill stayed on v1 for 6 years with no breaking changes in the core library, building trust with usersExamples and documentation are crucial - provide real-world examples with automated tests, not just simple “hello world” demosPromotion matters - creating a great library isn’t enough; you need to actively share it through conferences, blog posts, and communitiesBe patient with growth - Watermill took 7 years to reach 8,000 stars; overnight success in open source is rareIn this episode, we share the story of how Watermill, our event-driven library for Go, grew from a side project to a popular open source library with over 8,000 GitHub stars and 100+ contributors.We discuss the key decisions and strategies that helped make Watermill successful, from focusing on solving real problems to maintaining backward compatibility and building a community around the project.Watermill documentation — our open-source event-driven architecture library for GoWatermill repositoryGo Event-Driven training that complements WatermillReal World Examples

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Based on nearly 20 years of working together on various projects, we discuss when it makes sense to move fast rather than aim for perfect code, and how to avoid technical debt that can kill your project. We focus on making mindful engineering decisions instead of blindly following rules like “always do X” or “never do Y”. Different situations need different approaches to code quality.