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I guess doing things for fun is ok. I just newer see myself investing years in something just for fun. Supposing I'm rich and I don't need to work for money (w

I guess doing things for fun is ok. I just newer see myself investing years in something just for fun. Supposing I'm rich and I don't need to work for money (which is not the case) I still want to work on something that people will find value using. The more people finding that something useful, the better. Even when I wrote code just for learning or wrote a PoC, I tried to make it something usable by someone else. It's not that what I do is great, is that I derive more joy from building something useful than from the mere process of building something. To me code that sits unused is dead code and a loss of the most important human resource: time. So I can see a value in writing something like Minix or a RTOS for microcontrollers or even research OSes, but I can't see value in writing another OS, browser engine and building a programming language to rewrite the OS in without a clear purpose. There might be an entertaining value in it, a learning experience, fun but I guess you can derive all of that by working on something that has a purpose. It's not a critique of the author, who I am sure it's a nice guy, and I wrote this hoping to be contradicted, hoping that someone can give me reasons why endeavors like this might be valuable.

galaxyLogic 4y ago
They are "valuable" because people are paying for it. Maybe the value is only in learning how a project like this turns out in the end. But as long as people pay for it that demonstrates there is value in it.
saberience 4y ago
I find this take to be totally opposite to my way of thinking. Surely doing things for fun is the most important part of life? That is, if you don’t enjoy doing something then doing that something is a much bigger waste of time than doing something you genuinely enjoy. Are you suggesting the OP would be better off doing something boring or annoying or something he dislikes? Would you suggest to your children that they should do a job or work in a field they don’t enjoy? The world is moved forward by people following their passions and interests, and I would argue that the OP is likely to advance his life AND career much faster by pursuing his passions than doing something he dislikes.
- DeathArrow 4y ago
  >That is, if you don’t enjoy doing something then doing that something is a much bigger waste of time than doing something you genuinely enjoy. That is true and I can't contradict it. I was just saying that I need to work on something that is both fun and useful.
asddubs 4y ago
That's based on the assumption that Serenity will never get to the point where it is truly useful and able to be used as your primary operating system. And I can understand that assumption, but it's also never going to happen if no one goes and does it, even if the task is daunting and monumental. I think if progress keeps up at the current rate, it will still take many years, but this will absolutely turn into something more than just a novelty.
- DeathArrow 4y ago
  If the project would have building something usable as one of the objectives, I would totally agree.
  - varajelle 4y ago
    It is meant to be usable for the people who work on it.
adrianmsmith 4y ago
Doing things for other people is a big part of why I do programming as well, so while everyone should make up their own mind about what motivates them, I feel the same way as you. I worked as a software developer and CTO for a bunch of startups, most of which folded. You spend months and maybe years writing software and features, thinking about every last edge case and how to avoid bugs when weird things happen, then no weird things happen because nobody uses the software, so in a way you might as well not have bothered. At my current place, just working as a senior developer, I released a feature, which was an niche feature and only available to paying subscribers, but it was already discovered and used millions of times within the first few weeks, and there were forum posts where lots of people posted how useful the feature was to them, etc. The feature wasn't that technically complex, but I derived a lot of satisfaction from the fact it was highly-used and appreciated.
irusensei 4y ago
I wouldn't go as far as to say the software isn't usable by other people. They also seem to get revenue from Youtube videos therefore they are producing something usable by someone else, which is entertainment. BTW now that I've read more about SerenityOS I really want to run it.

galaxyLogic 4y ago

They are "valuable" because people are paying for it. Maybe the value is only in learning how a project like this turns out in the end. But as long as people pay for it that demonstrates there is value in it.

saberience 4y ago

I find this take to be totally opposite to my way of thinking. Surely doing things for fun is the most important part of life? That is, if you don’t enjoy doing something then doing that something is a much bigger waste of time than doing something you genuinely enjoy. Are you suggesting the OP would be better off doing something boring or annoying or something he dislikes? Would you suggest to your children that they should do a job or work in a field they don’t enjoy? The world is moved forward by people following their passions and interests, and I would argue that the OP is likely to advance his life AND career much faster by pursuing his passions than doing something he dislikes.

DeathArrow 4y ago
>That is, if you don’t enjoy doing something then doing that something is a much bigger waste of time than doing something you genuinely enjoy. That is true and I can't contradict it. I was just saying that I need to work on something that is both fun and useful.

asddubs 4y ago

That's based on the assumption that Serenity will never get to the point where it is truly useful and able to be used as your primary operating system. And I can understand that assumption, but it's also never going to happen if no one goes and does it, even if the task is daunting and monumental. I think if progress keeps up at the current rate, it will still take many years, but this will absolutely turn into something more than just a novelty.

DeathArrow 4y ago
If the project would have building something usable as one of the objectives, I would totally agree.
- varajelle 4y ago
  It is meant to be usable for the people who work on it.

adrianmsmith 4y ago

Doing things for other people is a big part of why I do programming as well, so while everyone should make up their own mind about what motivates them, I feel the same way as you. I worked as a software developer and CTO for a bunch of startups, most of which folded. You spend months and maybe years writing software and features, thinking about every last edge case and how to avoid bugs when weird things happen, then no weird things happen because nobody uses the software, so in a way you might as well not have bothered. At my current place, just working as a senior developer, I released a feature, which was an niche feature and only available to paying subscribers, but it was already discovered and used millions of times within the first few weeks, and there were forum posts where lots of people posted how useful the feature was to them, etc. The feature wasn't that technically complex, but I derived a lot of satisfaction from the fact it was highly-used and appreciated.

irusensei 4y ago

I wouldn't go as far as to say the software isn't usable by other people. They also seem to get revenue from Youtube videos therefore they are producing something usable by someone else, which is entertainment. BTW now that I've read more about SerenityOS I really want to run it.