A lot of people have expressed desires to get involved with core, but don't exactly know where to start. If you are one of those people, this post is for you! Here are three helpful tips.
#drupal-contribute
If you can, hang out on IRC in the #drupal-contribute channel on freenode (IRC blocked? Try this handy webchat IRC). This is where most of the "action" is regarding day-to-day core development conversation, before it makes its way into the issue queue. It's a great way to stay up to speed on initiatives that are happening and opportunities to pitch in, as well as get to know better some of the faces behind the software you use daily. :)
Core Office Hours
Tuesday, 04:00 - 06:00 UTC (convert this to my timezone) and Wednesday, 16:00 - 18:00 UTC (convert this to my timezone), there are Core Office Hours, which is time specifically set aside where core development team members are around to answer any questions you might have about getting started, and to recommend things to work on. This isn't just code stuff either: writing issue summaries, testing fixes, and even doing basic triage are all really helpful as well!
"Novice" issues
There is a list of issues that are short and quick, "low hanging fruit" kind of tasks that have been tagged as Novice. These are the perfect issues to cut your teeth on if you're looking for something small to start on before you rise to your inevitable rockstar greatness!
Hope to see you in the queue and in IRC! :D