This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Abubakersiddique771
Yes, seriously.
In a world full of productivity hacks and wellness apps, it turned out that the green squares on my GitHub profile were the therapy I didn’t know I needed.
This isn’t a humblebrag about shipping 10x code.
It’s the story of how open source + AI experiments helped me recover from burnout, find meaning in my work again, and even make a few friends — all through public code.
😵 Burnout Isn’t Just Tiredness
I didn’t even know I was burned out.
I wasn’t overworked.
I just... didn’t care anymore.
- My side projects sat unfinished.
- Tutorials felt repetitive.
- Stack Overflow felt more like Stack Overwhelm.
- Even ChatGPT responses felt lifeless.
I kept asking: “Why code anything at all?”
That question haunted me — until I made a tiny, random commit.
⚡ The First Spark: “What If I Taught My Codebase To Talk Back?”
I was tinkering with an open-source LLM on GitHub when it hit me:
“Can I fine-tune this model on my own old repos, and let it talk like me?”
Weird? Maybe.
Meaningful? Shockingly, yes.
I picked:
- My very first Python repo
- A messy Django side project
- A collection of bash scripts from 2020
Using some GitHub Actions, a vector DB, and llama.cpp, I built a small local chat tool.
Prompt:
“Why did I do this weird thing in views.py?”
Response (generated):
“Looks like you were avoiding DRF because you wanted more control. You even wrote a TODO about it in comments.”
I laughed. I hadn't thought about that in years. But now... I remembered why I loved building.
That one exchange flipped a switch in my brain.
💡 How This Became A Personal AI Therapy Loop
I expanded it. Every week, I:
- Committed small things I cared about — tools, notebooks, mini-AI experiments.
- Logged reflections in my repo README — like a dev journal.
-
Trained a small local model on my code + journals using
LangChain+Chroma. - Built a CLI chatbot that could answer questions about my own thinking.
Suddenly, I had a "rubber duck therapist" — powered by my own open-source soul.
And GitHub? It wasn’t a performance metric anymore. It became a canvas for meaning.
🧠 Why It Worked (And How AI Helped)
Turns out, there's science here:
- Narrative therapy says that writing your own story helps reframe trauma or stagnation.
- AI-powered reflection can act as a journaling assistant, mentor, or even playful friend.
- Open source projects = long-term memory + public accountability.
When you combine:
- 💻 GitHub’s versioned memories
- 🧠 AI’s pattern recognition
- 🫀 Your own intentions
You build a mirror. And sometimes, mirrors heal.
⚙️ How You Can Recreate This (With Code!)
You’ll need:
- A few repos (preferably personal ones)
- A local LLM (like
Ollama,Mistral, orPhi-3) - A simple LangChain + Chroma vector DB setup
Step 1: Index your repos
from langchain.document_loaders import GitLoader
docs = GitLoader("path/to/your/repo").load()
Step 2: Store in vector DB
from langchain.vectorstores import Chroma
vector_db = Chroma.from_documents(docs)
Step 3: Ask questions
while True:
q = input("Ask your old self: ")
print(vector_db.similarity_search(q)[0].page_content)
You’ve just created a time-travel debugger for your dev life.
😂 Humor Time: Therapy, GitHub Style
🧠 Therapist: “How do you feel today?”
Me:git log -n 1🤖 My AI: “You commit impulsively when you're anxious.”
Me:¯\_(ツ)_/¯📅 Me: "Haven’t shipped in a while…"
GitHub: “No green squares this week.”
Me: burns toast while crying🫂 Old README.md: “Hang in there. We’ll finish this together.”
Me: sobs in VS Code
🚀 From Burnout to Breakthrough
That little AI tool changed everything:
- I started finishing projects again
- Rediscovered fun in code
- Even started contributing to other repos — not to impress, but to connect
In the end, the antidote to burnout wasn’t rest alone.
It was reconnection with purpose — and ironically, AI helped me find it in myself.
🛠️ What You Can Try Right Now
✅ Pick an old repo you love
✅ Commit something small today — even a README
✅ Build a mini tool that talks to your own code
✅ Reflect weekly: "Why did I build this?"
Don’t chase green squares.
Chase meaning. The squares will follow. 💚
✨ Final Words
GitHub isn’t just for showing off. It’s for showing up — to your own curiosity, creativity, and growth.
And sometimes, the best open-source contribution you can make…
is to yourself.
💬 Tired of Building for Likes Instead of Income?
I was too. So I started creating simple digital tools and kits that actually make money — without needing a big audience, fancy code, or endless hustle.
🔓 Premium Bundles for Devs. Who Want to Break Free
These are shortcuts to doing your own thing and making it pay:
🌍 I built a simple website for a local biz and got $500+ — No design skills. Just solved a real problem.
🚀 Launched a SaaS in 7 days — no code, no audience — It’s messy but it works.
🔌 Used public APIs to build tiny tools people paid $997 for — Took what was already out there and made it useful.
📦 $300 in 3 days from a simple resource vault — Just organized links + tools. That’s it.
📈 Ranked a local site without writing a single blog post — SEO doesn’t have to be hard if you do it differently.
🔧 Quick Kits (Take 1 Product That Actually Works for You)
These are personal wins turned into plug-and-play kits — short instruction guides:
⚡ $1K in a week using APIs I didn’t even build — Copy-paste logic, add polish, publish.
🔥 My $0 dev setup now earns $97+ daily — Took years to build. Now it runs quietly in the background.
💼 This SaaS starter kit sells itself for $499 — Turns out, people love skipping setup pain.
📚 I turned academic papers into real products — It’s all just buried gold if you know where to look.
💡 My dev portfolio became a $297 product — I just told my story and sold the assets I made along the way.
👉 Browse all tools and micro-business kits here
👉 Browse all blueprints here
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Abubakersiddique771
Abubakersiddique771 | Sciencx (2025-06-01T16:16:50+00:00) My GitHub Commits Helped Me Beat Burnout 😮💻🧠. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2025/06/01/my-github-commits-helped-me-beat-burnout-%f0%9f%98%ae%f0%9f%92%bb%f0%9f%a7%a0/
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