I quit my job in January. I haven't worked for 6 months, I live off savings and investments and I don't really know what to do with myself except that I finally have time to finish all my pet projects and I'm really doing them one by one, which makes me feel the best I have in years.

Moneywise, I've thought about writing a book or a game, but I mostly just ride my bike or Netflix and chill and do literally nothing.

I'm almost 40 and I feel like I was 18 but very, very sleepy - all the time.

Thoughts?

Also, I asked AI and it assumed I'm a woman. I find that funny.

scary. this is the type of life i fear to the core of my soul, that i fight not to end up as. fuck. i need to get the fuck out of this matrix bullshit and get my bag up. i need to make bank

@b2plane what?

sleepy probably could be dysregulated cortisol

anti oxidants will give you loads of energy and age ya backwards

exercise normalizes cortisol cycles and produces anti oxidants but there's other ways too

My thought: if you're doing it for the money, DO NOT WRITE A BOOK!

I've had 13 tech books published (well, 13.5 - one of them was a second edition), and I assume that's the type of book you're talking about... to put it bluntly: even if I had written them all in a single year and got paid for them all at once, it wouldn't have been enough to pay my bills.

Unless you manage to write an absolute hit book - which almost never happens with tech books - money should NOT be a motivating factor (at least not a PRIMARY factor).

Actually, two thoughts...

I've also written over a dozen games over the years. Great, GREAT experiences all, I always highly recommend game programming to developers for many reasons, but I've made nowhere near enough to live off of from them. You of course can hit the lottery and have a real hit that makes you rich, but the odds are NOT good.

Books and games are fantastic things to do for many reasons, but money IS NOT one of them for MOST people.

@fzammetti I upvoted that but then realized idk if it's good to believe stuff like that

lotta people say prospects are grim which then leads to people never trying. I went thru a phase where I was like "if I hadn't listened to people I would've actually tried"
it causes depression and self doubts even before you get started, and is that really better?

the other thing I'm reminded of is this guy I went to college with. wicked smart, and I'm smart so saying something. he plays puzzle games to 100% completion on steam to this day, like hacknet and whatever factorio shit. he complimented my code once and suggested me Haskell, which he knew prior to 19 yr and etc. well he and his sister decided to try making games, so you'd think they'd make something rad? he actually sent me the links to them. he told me making games doesn't work. but he made the most low-effort stupid games, like you just pop balloons in one of them. well why would anyone want to play that? no wonder it didn't work.

thinking on it more I think when people have tried something I would rather they said the things they learned from the experiences rather than communicate that they failed and everyone else could never try anything differently than they did

I think information in regards to others' failure is tremendously valuable to someone who wants to go the same way, but to tell someone they shouldn't try because you didn't make it is kind of a dick move

I don't know why the culture has regressed to this. I feel like some business books must've set the culture this way at some point to be anti-competitive and now everyone is just happy to be in the "in-club" consolation prize band where they get to superiorly tell people not to try things because then it validates the fact they failed and gave up at a certain point

it's like its own version of gatekeeping, by psychology. must've been what everyone said when people sailed west. instead they could've built a map or some navigational system

You're still thinking about programming. If I were you I would do drugs. Like honest to God, no cap and stuff. I ( you ) have served the industry and starved my soul. This is my veterans welfare benefit or something.

I try to write something that made sense until I start typing.

drugs are fun

specifically psychedelics. everyone should try them at some point, provided you're feeling up to it cuz that shit is a ride

nothing like it, makes you think a lot, totally changes lives

@jestdotty I think you may have misunderstood what I said.

I 100% support people writing books or games. Especially games I'm a strong proponent of. In fact, nearly every one of my books has a project that is a game because I view it as such a valuable exercise for any developer.

And if writing a book is something someone truly wants to do then I 100% encourage them to do so because it, too, is a valuable experience for the writer, and may well wind up being the same for readers.

What I was saying though is that if money is your PRIMARY motivation for doing either, which means you're going to judge your success on how much money you make from your efforts, then the odds are you're setting yourself up for a big failure because MOST books don't make much money and MOST games don't either.

So, if the non-monetary benefits are what you're interested in, then absolutely do it! I'm all for it! But if money is all you care about, then there are better ways to use your time.

A thought is to not worry about it as much. For work go do something totally different. Work on a boat, work at a resort or something that puts you in contact with a lot of people you wouldn’t normally be in contact with.

Good for you OP

@jestdotty Wow. Haha, just, wow. Have a nice day.

@fzammetti Nah, I'm fiddling with two sci-fi ideas for years now and I think it's time to put them on paper. I don't count on them to pay my bills but maybe get something like $20/month per book on Inkitt or similar e-publisher. Games would be an interactive medium telling the same story with 1 or 2 cool mechanics per game sold for something like $2 on Steam. I'm saying "moneywise" but it's intended as something that might bring money in a far far future or at least enrich my resume if I ever decide to "work for the man" again.

Also, I'm assuming Itch - link please!

@jestdotty You can do something for main two reasons. 1st, passion. 2nd, maximizing efficiency by whatever measure (including money). The 2nd rarely works and guessing by the balloon popping game I assume it's the approach your smart friend took. I'm rather passionate about my ideas. That's what killed my work spirit, TBH.

@NaturalStupidiy I was thinking about Marry Jane lately because she's still illegal where I live but recently medical prescriptions became available. I do have that recurring back pain, you know...

@jestdotty I once tried speed at a party and thought it does literally nothing to me... Year later I found out the antidepressants I was on made it impossible to work. The only effect it had on me was the hangover.

@jeeper A foreign resort is actually a really good idea. I'm good with languages, I lately enjoy meeting new people and I love different countries. Gonna look at offers in Canary Islands tonight!

@cprn I think that's the right attitude. Do it for you first, and let whatever happens, happen. Every work is valuable, even if it doesn't lead to riches - but you can never be sure which might lead to riches either. So good luck, and most importantly, enjoy the experience!