Very interesting read, many thanks to the author for writing it. The part about how his reputation has changed how he can contribute to other projects was unexpected and eye-opening. One thing I’m curious to know is how his busy-ness relates to his income. From what I can tell, he is currently community-funded via Patreon? If so, would it be possible for him to pare down, or abandon, some of his projects if he wanted to focus on his personal life, without affecting his livelihood.
Personally, I think it would be great to be able to write FOSS full-time, and I would maybe be willing to take a pay cut to do it, but I would want to know that I could have a balanced personal life as well.
Author here. Thanks for sharing your kind words of appreciation.
Regarding my livelihood, I make additional income from sourcehut, which publishes financial reports you’re welcome to read, and through consulting. I plan my finances meticulously, live well within my means, and I’m far from being in dire financial straits. I’ve been poverse before, and the memory of what that’s like still weighs heavily on my heart - so I plan things very carefully and leave myself generous margins for error.
As another one-man band, I can sympathize as I’ve been there. Find maintainers for anything that is not central to your plan for the next year; you need to ruthlessly cut back those tasks. In my case, I don’t speak at confs, blog rarely and have few to no OSS projects I actively maintain anymore.
I think @ddevault should consider taking more care of himself, because the way that article is written, I don’t see how sustainable it might be, without taking a toll on his health :(
Very interesting read, many thanks to the author for writing it. The part about how his reputation has changed how he can contribute to other projects was unexpected and eye-opening. One thing I’m curious to know is how his busy-ness relates to his income. From what I can tell, he is currently community-funded via Patreon? If so, would it be possible for him to pare down, or abandon, some of his projects if he wanted to focus on his personal life, without affecting his livelihood.
Personally, I think it would be great to be able to write FOSS full-time, and I would maybe be willing to take a pay cut to do it, but I would want to know that I could have a balanced personal life as well.
Author here. Thanks for sharing your kind words of appreciation.
Regarding my livelihood, I make additional income from sourcehut, which publishes financial reports you’re welcome to read, and through consulting. I plan my finances meticulously, live well within my means, and I’m far from being in dire financial straits. I’ve been poverse before, and the memory of what that’s like still weighs heavily on my heart - so I plan things very carefully and leave myself generous margins for error.
As another one-man band, I can sympathize as I’ve been there. Find maintainers for anything that is not central to your plan for the next year; you need to ruthlessly cut back those tasks. In my case, I don’t speak at confs, blog rarely and have few to no OSS projects I actively maintain anymore.
Yes :)
@ddevault you should consider hiring an intern
I think @ddevault should consider taking more care of himself, because the way that article is written, I don’t see how sustainable it might be, without taking a toll on his health :(