Completely tangential anecdote: --- At one point, a little software business/hustle of mine had run its course, and I needed some steady income while I figure

Completely tangential anecdote: --- At one point, a little software business/hustle of mine had run its course, and I needed some steady income while I figured out my next move, so I got a job as a retail computer salesperson. The store was located in Toronto's financial district, and we got a lot of lawyers, bankers, accountants, &c. buying computers and software, which we sold in boxes. Those days are long gone, of course. One day, some of my colleagues were snickering to each other, and when I asked "What's up," they giggled and told me there was a customer who was asking for me. I was the only employee who owned a Mac, and my colleagues took great delight in sending me Apple customers. Well, to digress, if a customer was asking about a laser printer for their Mac, my colleagues would ask me for my help, but keep the sale and its commission for themselves. But f a customer wanted a box of 3.5" floppies for their Mac, my colleagues thought it was great fun referring the sale to me out of teh good ness of their hearts. This was another "goodness of their hearts" referral, for as I approached the customer, I realized at once that there was a personal hygiene thing going on. The customer was also dressed in a very shabby attire relative to the business norms of the 90s, and had trouble making eye contact. Once I realized this was a prank referral, I resolved not to let them get my goat, so I played it straight, treating them as I would any lawyer in a power suit shopping for a half dozen PCs to automate their office. The customer was browsing development tools, and so I asked if they wrote software. I was told they did, but I hadn't heard of anything they wrote. "Why ever not," I asked. "Oh, I write software for pipe organs," was the reply, "It's a very small industry, and if you know who the major manufacturers are, you probably already know who I am." The customer actually worked on contract for some European manufacturers, and personal habits aside, was the real deal. After answering a number of questions about text editors—Anybody else remember when it was commonplace to pay big money for an editor? We still do pay for some editors, but it doesn't seem to be a common thing any more, thanks to OSS—the customer spend maybe $700 on tools as they were upgrading their entire development setup. I never saw them again, but I have also never forgotten that our industry has many, many "niches" that can support independent contractors or even entire businesses. It's not all FAANGs. --- And that's my pipe organ software story.