I was recently shocked to discover that sindresorhus, one of the most prolific oss devs of all time (I think), only has around $14k/yr of app revenue. It sounde

I was recently shocked to discover that sindresorhus, one of the most prolific oss devs of all time (I think), only has around $14k/yr of app revenue. It sounded like he was saying that it was a majority of his income, so I pressed him how he could possibly live on it. He said he had GitHub sponsorships and open collective donations, and then mentioned he was living in a country with low expenses. I ended up feeling... amazed, really. I was going to say sad, but if the most prolific oss dev can’t make more than an entry level salary from 2008 on community support alone, it’s not sad — it’s simply how it is. People need to think of open source as something they do for themselves. I put stuff out for people to use. You don’t like it, you can use something else. I try to give as much help as I can, but only because it makes me happy to do that. The recipe for burn out is, you’re not putting yourself first. You should! Most people do open source the way a jazz pianist does a jam session on the weekends, but it sounds like your typical jazzist (jazzer?) ends up happier than most of us. It’s worth taking a hard look at why. Don’t do it to yourself. Life’s worth more. I understand why they left a lengthy apology here, saying “I let the community down” and such, but it’s just not true. Everyone who makes their code available for others isn t a letdown — you’re a hero to 12yo me, who would’ve given anything to get a glimpse of any closed-source gamedev engine. That’s what OSS is all about: letting people build on your work, not working yourself to death for other people.