I value my free time far too much to work for a living. So your model is correct on that count. I had planned to be mostly unemployed with occasional freelance programming jobs, and generally keep costs down.
But then a couple years ago my hobby accidentally turned into a business, and it’s doing well. “Accidentally” because it started with companies contacting me and saying “We know you’re giving it away for free, but free isn’t good enough for us. We want to buy a bunch of copies.” And because my co-founder took charge of the negotiations and other non-programming bits, so it still feels like a hobby to me.
Both my non-motivation to work and my willingness to donate a large fraction of my income have a common cause, namely thinking of money in far-mode, i.e. not alieving The Unit of Caring on either side of the scale.
Yeah, I know exactly who you are, I just didn’t want to bust privacy or drop creepy hints. I didn’t know that VideoLAN projects were financially independent of each other, so that explains where profit comes from. It’s just that I didn’t expect two guys in a basement to make that much, and you’re too young (and didn’t have much income before anyway) to have significant savings. So they’re more money in successful codecs than I guessed.
you’re too young (and didn’t have much income before anyway) to have significant savings.
Err, I haven’t yet earned as much from the lazy entrepreneur route as I would have if I had taken a standard programming job for the past 7 years (though I’ll pass that point within a few months at the current rate). So don’t go blaming my cohort’s age if they haven’t saved and/or donated as much as me. I’m with Rain in spluttering at how people can have an income and not have money.
i.e. not alieving The Unit of Caring on either side of the scale
I don’t, either—possibly because I’ve never been in real economic hardships; I think if I had grown up in a poorer family I probably would. (I do try to be frugal because so far I’ve lived almost exclusively on my parents’ income and it seems unfair towards them to waste their money, though.)
I value my free time far too much to work for a living. So your model is correct on that count. I had planned to be mostly unemployed with occasional freelance programming jobs, and generally keep costs down.
But then a couple years ago my hobby accidentally turned into a business, and it’s doing well. “Accidentally” because it started with companies contacting me and saying “We know you’re giving it away for free, but free isn’t good enough for us. We want to buy a bunch of copies.” And because my co-founder took charge of the negotiations and other non-programming bits, so it still feels like a hobby to me.
Both my non-motivation to work and my willingness to donate a large fraction of my income have a common cause, namely thinking of money in far-mode, i.e. not alieving The Unit of Caring on either side of the scale.
Yeah, I know exactly who you are, I just didn’t want to bust privacy or drop creepy hints. I didn’t know that VideoLAN projects were financially independent of each other, so that explains where profit comes from. It’s just that I didn’t expect two guys in a basement to make that much, and you’re too young (and didn’t have much income before anyway) to have significant savings. So they’re more money in successful codecs than I guessed.
Err, I haven’t yet earned as much from the lazy entrepreneur route as I would have if I had taken a standard programming job for the past 7 years (though I’ll pass that point within a few months at the current rate). So don’t go blaming my cohort’s age if they haven’t saved and/or donated as much as me. I’m with Rain in spluttering at how people can have an income and not have money.
I don’t, either—possibly because I’ve never been in real economic hardships; I think if I had grown up in a poorer family I probably would. (I do try to be frugal because so far I’ve lived almost exclusively on my parents’ income and it seems unfair towards them to waste their money, though.)