The ecosystem of everything…

Even before retiring I have been more or less giving things away for free or at a loss even (especially when you consider my time). Software, hardware…

Another commenter calls it altruism, I just call it my hobby. (No one expects to get their material bike investment back when they take up mountain biking, right?)

So perhaps 800 hours or so to write a game which nets me about $500 on Steam. You can do the math to figure out my wages on that one—but I was able at least to justify picking up a Steam Deck from the proceeds (which I likely would not have done out of pocket).

More recently: perhaps about $4K and another 800 to 1000 hours invested in an analog computer kit and I'll be lucky to ask for $20 profit and will be surprised if I sell 25 of them.

It's okay though. I know already going into it that 1) it is niche and 2) that, as I said, it's a hobby.

(And when I use AI or clipart for the artwork in the project it's because I'm not likely to find an artist willing to partner with me and lose money on the whole venture, ha ha.)