What Is This "Contributing"?

You know that folder on your desktop? The one labeled "project_ideas_final_v3_ACTUALLY_FINAL"? Yeah, that's your entire GitHub profile. Contributing to someone else's repo means dealing with their code review standards, reading documentation, and—worst of all—following their CONTRIBUTING.md guidelines. Starting your own project means you can use whatever naming conventions you want, commit directly to main at 3 AM, and abandon it guilt-free after the initial dopamine rush wears off.

Sure, one option builds your portfolio and helps the community. But the other lets you create yet another half-baked todo app that'll sit at 47% completion for eternity. The choice is obvious.