# Balancing Open Source Passion with Corporate Motives

DevFeed: [Balancing Open Source Passion with Corporate Motives](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/blurred-lines-35149.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://blog.jessfraz.com/post/blurred-lines/>)

Published: 2016-09-17T15:09:26Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Jessie Frazelle](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/jessie-frazelle.md>)

Topics: [Open Source](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/open-source.md>), [Docker](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/docker.md>), [Job](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/job.md>), [GitHub](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/github.md>), [Pull Request](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/pull-request.md>)

Tags: [blog](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/blog.md>), [blog-post](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/blog-post.md>), [docker](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/docker.md>), [github](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/github.md>), [job](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/job.md>), [open-source](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/open-source.md>), [open-source-software](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/open-source-software.md>), [pull-request](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/pull-request.md>)

## AI overview

This opinion article examines the tension between personal passion for open source software and corporate motives when contributors are paid by a company. It shares lessons from evolving the Docker core team, including hiring from the community and preserving contributors' commitment to the project.

## Source excerpt

Last week, I gave a talk at Github Universe and afterwards several people suggested I write a blog post on it. Here it is. This post will cover intricacies of "choosing your battle" and how personal passion for a project might conflict with corporate motives. I have experienced open source from the side of the contributor, the side of the maintainer, and the side of the corporate-backed maintainer and contributor. The latter is what really comes into play here but a lot of the passion I talk about is obviously present in the former and of course important for empathy for those on the other side. Passion Passion is a driving force behind involvement in open source software. People who believe in a project and use it are the ones who contribute and give back most heavily. Open source is this rare opportunity to work with people who want to achieve the same things as you. If you have contributed to an open source project before, you know that feeling when your first pull request to a project is merged. It is magical. In that moment you have become a part of something so much bigger than yourself. What happens to this fiery passion when it is fueled by a paycheck from a company? This is where things get complicated. When should you fight? When should you compromise? The goal of this post is to show that you can stand up for what you believe in and keep your job. Getting paid to work on open source is a rare and wonderful opportunity, but you should not have to give up your passion in the process. Your passion should be why companies want to pay you. Lessons Learned In my talk (which I will link to the video when it comes out), I told a brief history of how we evolved the Docker core team during my time there. We even had three different names: core, meta, engine (yet kept the same team members the entire time). I'm not going to go over all those stories so I suggest you check out the video, but these are the lessons we learned. Hire from the community. Previous to joini