Month 1-2: Good First Issues
- Fix: "Add error message"
- Fix: "Improve documentation"
- Your role: Execute instructions

Month 3-4: Independent Bug Fixes
- Find your own bugs
- Design the fix
- Get it reviewed
- Your role: Problem solver

Month 5-6: Feature Development
- Identify missing features
- Propose solutions
- Build with minimal guidance
- Your role: Feature engineer

Month 7-12: Architecture & Leadership
- Redesign systems
- Review others' code
- Mentor new contributors
- Your role: Architect

Most contributors stop at month 3.
The top 1% make it to month 7+.

Good first issue approach:
- Maintainer tells you what to fix
- You fix it

Advanced approach:
- You READ the code
- You notice: "This could be faster"
- You propose it
- You implement it

Example:
"I noticed the cache invalidation
calls database 3x on every update.
We could batch them and reduce to 1 call.
Proposed change: [design doc]"

Maintainer reaction: "This person knows our code."

git grep "TODO\|FIXME\|XXX" src/

You'll find:
- "TODO: Handle edge case"
- "FIXME: Performance issue"
- "XXX: Refactor this"

You can:
1. Implement them yourself
2. Propose a design first
3. Get feedback before coding

Many projects have performance problems
that nobody optimized.

You can:
1. Profile the code (find bottlenecks)
2. Propose optimization
3. Implement & measure
4. "Improved X by 40%"

This is advanced work that stands out.

Most projects have test gaps.

You can:
1. Run coverage tool
2. Find uncovered code
3. Write tests for it
4. "Increased coverage from 70% to 78%"

This is valuable and doable.

Beginner task (Month 2):
Issue: "Add validation for email field"
Work: 20 minutes
Impact: Small

Advanced task (Month 5):
Issue: "Email system is broken in 3 different ways"
Analysis: Takes 3 hours researching
Design: Write RFC showing the problem
Solution: Refactor entire email validation
Impact: Fix root cause, not symptom

Month 3 approach: "What does the project need?"
(Ask maintainers, get assigned work)

Month 7 approach: "Here's what's broken"
(Find it yourself, propose solution)

Maintainer difference:
Month 3: "Here, fix this"
Month 7: "Wow, I didn't know we had this problem. Great find!"

Title: Optimization: Reduce N+1 queries in user profile

Problem:
- User profile loads user data
- Loads user's posts (1 query)
- Loads post comments (N queries, 1 per post)
- Total: 1 + 1 + N queries

Impact:
- Loading profile with 50 posts: 52 queries
- Currently takes 2.3 seconds
- Should take 200ms

Proposed Solution:
- Use SQL batch loading
- Load all post comments in 1 query
- Result: 3 queries instead of N+2

Estimated Time: 6 hours
Testing Approach: Load test + new tests

Timeline:
Month 1-3:   "Good first issues" (assigned)
Month 4-6:   Independent bug fixing (self-directed)
Month 7-9:   Feature development (leading small work)
Month 10-12: Architecture decisions (influencing project)
Month 13+:   Mentorship & leadership (training others)

Recognition:
Month 3: "New contributor"
Month 6: "Regular contributor"
Month 9: "Expert in [area]"
Month 12: "Trusted advisor"
Month 18: "Core team" or "Maintainer"