Tailwind Creator on the Challenges of Open Source

Thank You! https://blacksmith.sh our sponsor today! Speed up your GitHub Actions AND pay less!
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🎙️ Hosts:
- TJ @teej_dv
- Trash Dev @trash_dev
- Prime @ThePrimeagen
🎯 Guest:
Adam Wathan - Creator of Tailwind CSS
https://adamwathan.me
https://x.com/adamwathan
https://tailwindcss.com/
📌 Chapters:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:04 - "Open Source is Pain" - Tailwind Creator
00:04:37 - Sponsor: Blacksmith - Faster GitHub Actions #ad
00:05:15 - The Reality of Open Source at Scale
00:10:55 - Cost of Full-Time Open Source
00:13:06 - Rust Rewrite & Performance Gains
00:16:29 - Sponsorship vs Business Models
00:22:48 - The Emotional Side of Open Source
00:30:15 - The Courage to Fire Users
00:37:46 - How Tailwind Spends Money
00:44:04 - How to Champion Open Source while making money
00:54:06 - Licenses in Open Source
00:58:00 - Tailwind is a hard business
01:00:14 - VC vs Lifestyle Open Source Projects
01:07:50 - Replication in Open Source
01:11:00 - Tailwind Fortnite Skins
01:16:00 - We agree on the words finally
01:18:00 - Thanks & Wrap Up
Key topics include:
- The reality of maintaining open source at massive scale
- Why sponsorship models often fail and what works instead
- The psychological challenges of community management
- How to build sustainable businesses around open source
- The future of developer tooling and AI's impact
🐬 Bonus Section 🐬
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