It's far from a fortune, and its future is uncertain, but I've been earning a bit via donations with my writing/podcasting for almost 20 years now: https://www.damninteresting.com
I'm also working on diversifying, starting with a free daily word game that I hope gets a little traction on Patreon: https://omiword.com
I have a few other projects-in-progress, if I'm lucky, one will earn a dollar or two.
Hey DI! I haven't seen that site in years! I remember the audio podcast versions of excellent stories. Very neat, odd stories that aren't taught in history books.
Perhaps post on various podcast-like platforms and do the merch thing? Keith Olbermann posts audio-only episodes to Youtube. Thom Hartmann does Deezer, Tidal, Spotify, SoundCloud and so on.
I know it's not always noticed, but the little touches (like the menu, when clicked, spinning to become the x to close the menu) make this absolutely delightful. I hadn't heard about omiword and will be giving it a go.
I make Reflect with my partner. I do it on the side, they do it fully. It’s a private, local-first app to track and analyze your own personal data and run N=1 experiments.
A couple months ago I made a partnership with a kiosk bar in Copacabana beach/Rio and brought a group of expats there for a party, me and a friend got 10% of the bar consumption.
Some 300 people showed up so it was a good money for a side gig, planning on continuing doing these meetups.
hey!Found it here and been playing your game since yesterday, quite entertaining! I hope you succeed in growing the fanbase!
I'm actually quite tempted to create a similar game based in my hometown that is related to mining. But 5 years I guess I don't have the capacity for that haha.
I spun off geek-themed speed dating to geek themed singles mixers. They have party games, couch co-op and vs games, karaoke, and get-to-know-you games to encourage strangers to talk to each other. A drink is included with the ticket.
> A personal one-on-one Zoom call with me to talk hi-fi and music stuff, 60 minute max, once annually after 3rd month of membership, I will not be drawn into an argument about speaker wire
Probably because of this definition from Dictionary.com:
n. a fortification set mostly below the surface of the ground with overhead protection provided by logs and earth or by concrete and fitted with openings through which guns may be fired.
While they aren't below ground or provide overhead protection. They are made to protect players from getting shot by other players.
Independent consulting (as in, I tell you what to do, not you tell me what to do) for AI integrations (whether and how to add AI to your product/systems, and how to effectively use AI for coding).
There's so much BS in AI that there's value in someone you trust telling you what does and doesn't work. Of course, there's no shortage of people doing exactly that, so the clients come through extended network (word of mouth, purely inbound).
Previously I developed crypto-centric web apps and games for clients, which eventually pivoted to security testing and bug bounties (several apps were in a legal grey area and willing to pay higher than average).
These days not doing anything actively making money but slowly working on a Discord trading card game platform that is free and open source but will have a premium version with hosting, additional features, etc.
I buy and sell older electronic musical instruments mostly from the long tail.
It is a rationalization of my GAS, gives me an excuse to take things apart, provides the satisfactions of repair, creates an opportunity to learn new skills, and makes a little money.
Side gigs aren't worth it. If you're at a decent company, my boss feeling slightly more enthusiastic at my potential could mean tens of thousands of dollars more in bonus/stock at the end of the year. I'd rather work harder on work.
It's a good practice to question the premise of the question when writing an answer. (In this case interpreting the question as "how do I make money on the side.")
There are indeed other reasons for side gigs, but the parent question here does seem to be focused on the financial side of things.
I would agree that work-related progress is likely to be more profitable in the long run. IF (and it's a big IF) there is a route at work to more compensation then that is likely the best use of your time.
Of course not all jobs offer that path, and in some organizations it can take a bit of detective work to find out where things pay better, or where more value can be recognized.
Exactly. I would have said the same 3 years ago, but these days, work hard, ship products, get laid off, and management pats themselves on the back for increasing productivity.
>You're never going to get moderately rich working for someone else, especially at a corporation without a union
I don't know what you mean by 'moderately rich', but I know multiple people who have saved millions of dollars (including myself), some of which who were able to retire early by working for 'someone else' - also none of which are union shops.
Do you really not know that many people have gotten quite rich working for FAANG companies? Do you also not know these people are much richer than union workers?
MS+MAANG only. That's a survivor-biased anecdotal example, not a widely-applicable strategy. Most people outside of the supersized corporations make around $60-100k, not $250k-1m+ TC at MS+MAANG. Founders exiting make much more, usually/hopefully several million per (successful) exit. I was making $10k/week doing tech consulting 10 years ago. Ordinary people, in specialized fields like contingent tax credit audit accounting, make much more on their own rather than working for someone else. This type of worker is, by far, more numerous in the real world™ of America than software engineers on HN.
>That's a survivor-biased anecdotal example, not a widely-applicable strategy
There's what, half a million or more engineers at these companies? You think there are just as many software consultants or entrepreneurs making it rich? I think both cases are not widely-applicable strategies.
If you can get rich being an entrepreneur, congrats, that's great. Making ~40k a month doing tech consulting is fantastic, good for you.
But saying "you'll never get rich working for someone else" when many of us have half a million to a million unvested shares (or many more, if at Meta or Nvidia) we are waiting on is just false.
But not all in the US. 300k tops. 1.3M SWEs in the US. That's 1M SWEs and a few million more other kinds of engineers and knowledge workers who don't have the luxury of being in MS+MAANG.
I did some work for a civil engineer who did ASME boiler and pressure vessel code consulting who made $60k (2000 dollars) for 1-2 hours worth of work. He did between 30 and 50 of them a year.
Top talent turning a side-hustle into a sellable business can easily double one's lifetime income.
I think you're just stuck that your way is "right" and cannot accept contrary data.
If you happen to find yourself in that gap you can become moderately rich over a period of several decades by living frugally and investing in index funds with excess cash.
Or don’t do that and don’t become moderately rich. That is fine, too! It’s not impossible but you must prioritize the goal of becoming moderately rich over other goals.
That's a lot of added work and extremely limiting constraints when you can just get a better job continually rather than getting complacent and grow one or more side-hustles.
I'm also working on diversifying, starting with a free daily word game that I hope gets a little traction on Patreon: https://omiword.com
I have a few other projects-in-progress, if I'm lucky, one will earn a dollar or two.