I think something missing here is return on investment and opportunity cost. People here are using survivor bias to indicate what has went from a hobby to a fu

I think something missing here is return on investment and opportunity cost. People here are using survivor bias to indicate what has went from a hobby to a full time career. While nice - not relevant for most young people these days. Truth is - very few can turn a hobby into a real profitable profession. This isn’t because they lack talent, dedication, or smarts. It’s because they lack timing (being born when a house in SV wasn’t $2.5m), lack the right hobby to monetize (e.g. dancing - a notoriously poorly paying job unless you’re in the top 0.01%), or lack the social capital necessary (again - many reasons for why this might not be possible for you. Your race, gender, orientation, class, and looks really could be holding you back here. In the case of dancing - you often need to be good looking too). If you’re working in SF as a software eng making $400k/yr - just enjoy your hobbies and stop trying to monetize them. If you’re struggling for money - leetcode, system design, and being a rule following brown noser will do you 200x on your time investment. Personally - I have no interest in trying to monetize my hobbies. There’s no chance they will ever have any return on investment that will make it worthwhile compared to what I get paid at my job. They are for pleasure and for enrichment of the mind.