As someone currently in a similar situation to the article author, I can wholeheartedly agree that regaining your own agency and being able to determine technol

As someone currently in a similar situation to the article author, I can wholeheartedly agree that regaining your own agency and being able to determine technology and product decisions is a huge relief and opens up greatly enjoyable and satisfying opportunities for growth. Developing a product takes a lot of time and effort, especially for a small/solo team - and yes, by pure financial metrics it may seem like success is a long distance away. In much of the world it also takes a degree of good individual (or family) fortune and savings to be able to embark on a journey like this, and I think it's important to be aware of that privilege. That's not a criticism, but something worth keeping in mind especially when discussing and explaining these projects. Not everyone in society can make this kind of leap (despite what those who tend to profit from inspiring and leading bright young developers might tell us) due to the anxiety involved in paying recurring bills. This is even more true in the U.S. with the additional bundled decision complexity (HMO vs PPO, etc.) and financial cost of selecting and paying for healthcare, versus taking the gamble that you'll be one of the lucky members of society not to require medical care. Well-educated and well-compensated folks such as the audience of HN are likely among the people most able to take the risks required. Anyway, despite the argument that this might not be an economically rewarding project at the moment: value creation is a different, harder to measure metric, and I'd argue the author is creating value for themselves and for their community they're building tools for. (Upvoted both parents of this reply, since I think this is a really important and interesting trend and topic, regardless of any argument positions taken)