[rthomas6]

I'm also someone who is coming from an outside field who like to program. I've only had success contributing to codebases that I actually want to use for my own projects. Especially libraries that aren't quite finished for all features, but are still much further along than anything I could build on my own. Then when I run into one of those cases where the library isn't quite done/has bugs for my usecase, I try to contribute.

So my advice is to start by making your own project and look for libraries that will help you get there. Then when you find bugs in that library, you'll have a strong and direct motivation to fix the problem for your own sake. Then submit a pull request so others can benefit too.