Episode 34: Staying Hum-Babel with Henry Zhu

Sponsored By:

Panelists

Pia Mancini | Justin Dorfman | Eric Berry | Richard Littauer

Guest

Henry Zhu
Babel

Show Notes

[00:01:30] Henry explains how he got involved in Babel and how it’s funded.

[00:03:18] Eric wonders if Henry wishes he could just step away and just cut ties with it and go do something completely different and how tight is he with this project. He gives a great answer to this!

[00:04:39] Pia was wondering if Henry’s relationship with the project itself or his view with Babel changed since he started working full time there. In the beginning, Henry started this as a side job while he worked at Adobe.

[00:08:06] Since a lot of maintainers may get to a point in their lives where the issues stack up, but not putting into perspective how big this project is, Justin asks Henry how he deals with this since this is such a huge project and he explains.

[00:011:18] Justin wonders how Henry deals with Devs that are coming in and just saying, “Fix it, now,” and hit and run issues.

[00:13:06] Henry talks about how as maintainers view each other as extremes. He brings up the quote from “The Dark Knight” as a reference to what he talks about.

[00:15:10] Henry mentioned earlier about how Open Source communities could look at faith communities, religion, or church communities. Pia wonders if he has anything in mind from his experience that he wants to share, which he does.

[00:20:14] Justin makes a right turn and wants Henry to go into his involvement with TC39 and how it helps him, Babel, and the sustainability with the JavaScript language as a whole. Also, he talks about what he’s accomplished since he joined.

[00:24:57] Justin asks Henry about travel expenses and if anyone pays for them.

[00:26:42] Pia brings up some good points about how we can learn how to heal and support ourselves during these troubling times. She wonders if Henry knows any ways that the community is supporting each other and where can we best spend our time and energy helping the members of our community going through what we’re all going through now.

Spotlight

• [00:34:56] Richard’s spotlight is “Hope in Source” podcast.
• [00:35:03] Justin’s spotlight is openfoodnetwork.org.
• [00:35:38] Pia’s spotlight is mutualaid.nyc.
• [00:36:07] Richard has another spotlight which is Gary Snyder’s poetry.
• [00:36:50] Henry’s spotlight is his favorite gospel, which is Mark.

Quotes

[00:14:04] “You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become a villain.”

Links

Henry Zhu’s Twitter

Henry’s Zoo

“Hope In Source” podcast

Babel

Maintainers Anonymous

TC39

Open Food Network

Mutual Aid NYC

Gary Snyder

Credits

• Produced by Justin Dorfman at CodeFund
• Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound
• Show notes by DeAnn Bahr at Peachtree Sound
• Ad Sales by Eric Berry at CodeFund

Special Guest: Henry Zhu.

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