Burnout Is Real in the OSS World, Says John-David Dalton, Creator of Lodash
Key takeaways
- For more than a decade, Lodash has been one of the most widely used libraries in the JavaScript ecosystem.
- But like many critical open source tools, Lodash began as the work of a single maintainer.
- Please note: This conversation was initially just a phone call, but was so powerful that we decided to turn it into a blog and share the audio via YouTube.
About About Projects Projects Blog Blog Community Community Become a member Community Burnout Is Real for Open Source Maintainers: A Conversation with John-David Dalton, Creator of Lodash Posted On: March 31, 2026Summarize with AI:Summarize with Claude Summarize with Chat GPTSummarize with Google AILodash creator John-David Dalton reflects on the project’s growth, the pressures of maintaining software used across the world, and the personal journey that led to stepping back and eventually rebuilding a sustainable path forward.
For more than a decade, Lodash has been one of the most widely used libraries in the JavaScript ecosystem. Its utilities appear in countless projects, often quietly working behind the scenes, and today has over 100 million npm downloads each day.
But like many critical open source tools, Lodash began as the work of a single maintainer. In a recent conversation, creator John-David Dalton reflected on the project’s growth, the pressures of maintaining software used across the world, and the personal journey that led to stepping back and eventually rebuilding a sustainable path forward.