Sarah Christoff discusses her experiences and challenges as an open source maintainer with a focus on her work with the Porter and Zarf projects. Sarah shares insights into the frustrations and isolation often felt by maintainers, and emphasizes the importance of community and human connections in navigating these roles. We chatted about of Porter and its function in simplifying complex DevOps tool integrations. Additionally, Sarah talks about Zarf, a project recently donated to the OpenSSF aimed at facilitating air-gapped Kubernetes deployments.
00:00 Introduction 01:29 Challenges of Being an Open Source Maintainer 03:12 The Human Element in Software Development 05:45 Advice for Aspiring Maintainers 08:42 The Porter Project 11:10 The Zarf Project 13:09 The Importance of Community in Open Source 15:31 Women in Tech and Role Models 21:45 Animal Rescue and Community Building 26:10 Final Thoughts and Hot Takes on Open Source Guest: Sarah Christoff is a software engineer at Defense Unicorns who loves making complex code more digestible. She is the self-proclaimed founder of the Leslie Lamport fan club. When she's not bugbusting, she is running her animal rescue and competing in triathlons. She believes code should be like cats: intelligent, fluffy, and easy to take care of.