I sometimes find solutions to specific problems on GitHub which are stale. i.e. years since they had any work done on them.
If the underlying code looks solid and useful to me, then I might try to use it. But in most cases, I keep looking for something that is reasonably lively.
The key thing I keep in mind is that open source means that the developers primarily wrote the software to scratch their own itch. In time priorities change and it is unreasonable to expect them to support something they have lost interest in. In most cases, "better" solutions have emerged and thence their loss of interest.
Smartness is a multi-dimensional attribute. For example, a smart motor mechanic and a smart software developer are both smart in their respective fields, but neither is likely to be seen as smart in the other person's domain.
As a very broad brush generalisation, you become smart by learning from those who are smarter than you in your chosen field. You could accomplish that by reading, seriously studying, being mentored and most critically practising your "craft".
If you simply just learn a huge pile of facts and are able to regurgitate them at will, then most people will think you are a "smart alec", which is probably not what you want to be known as.
In my experience many people use Windows computers are their work. Because they don't know anything about computers, they find the somewhat different way of doing things on ChromeOS too hard to come to grips with.
I have had the misfortune of supporting users across all common operating systems, the many versions of Windows, Mac OS/X, various Linux distros, etc.
Based on my experience 10% to 20% of computer users shouldn't be given a computer to use. They have absolutely no understanding of the simplest concepts and are totally disinclined to understand. In many cases they are using systems that haven't been updated since they purchased them and have made so many mistakes along the way that their work areas are a mess. For these people, the best recommendation would be to "step away from that computer!".
If the underlying code looks solid and useful to me, then I might try to use it. But in most cases, I keep looking for something that is reasonably lively.
The key thing I keep in mind is that open source means that the developers primarily wrote the software to scratch their own itch. In time priorities change and it is unreasonable to expect them to support something they have lost interest in. In most cases, "better" solutions have emerged and thence their loss of interest.