Hacker's Handbook

The Best Issue Ever Reported on GitHub

This one's a feature, definitely not a bug

Technical authors often brace themselves for GitHub issue notifications—each ping might herald a misplaced comma, a misunderstood explanation, or worse, a confusing typo deep within a critical code snippet. But once in a blue moon, amidst the expected barrage of bugs and nitpicks, an issue emerges that makes it all worth it.

Allow me to introduce my absolute favorite GitHub issue ever raised against The BEAM Book:

Issue #113: "Please continue being awesome."

I'm not making this up. Amidst a sea of requests for fixes, clarification, or added chapters—this is the issue I get:

"This book is ridiculously good. I have only read a few bits of it so far and have learned a lot already. Please continue being awesome! 👏👍💯🥇😀"

Now, you might say, "But Erik, that doesn't seem like much of an issue." And you'd be right—it's entirely the opposite of a problem. In fact, it's probably the best non-issue issue ever logged. After years of working on projects and books, receiving bug reports, pull requests, and feedback, this one stands out by virtue of being entirely supportive and shockingly wholesome. It even has a few emoji sprinkled in for maximum effect. I've seen applause, thumbs-up, medals, and even a 100% emoji before, but having them all together in one GitHub issue comment? That's some Olympic-level cheerleading right there.

Yet, there's still a certain irony here—this praise has lingered in my open issues queue since 2018, which technically makes me guilty of procrastinating on the task of "continuing to be awesome." Perhaps I’m subconsciously worried that if I close the issue, I’ll no longer have the mandate—or the responsibility—to maintain my awesomeness. Perhaps I worry it's a race condition; if I mark it "closed," do I automatically stop being awesome?

Either way, Issue #113 is still open. And it's likely to stay that way, as a cheerful, gentle reminder amidst the bugs and quirks of writing technical books that, once in a while, people appreciate your work—not despite its quirks, but perhaps even because of them. I have marked it as 'wontfix' now.

Thanks, Nathan, whoever you are. Your issue will probably never get resolved—but it will certainly never be forgotten.

Keep logging those non-issues, everyone. They’re my favorite kind.