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yes but there is still an opportunity cost. As I said I still do it because I like it but I also have a life outside just computers. Any time i spend on my home

yes but there is still an opportunity cost. As I said I still do it because I like it but I also have a life outside just computers. Any time i spend on my homelab is also time I take away from other things. Also there is learning but a lot of the time is spent on doing menial system admin tasks or helping solve "user problems" (i.e. figure out why my partner's friend cannot access jellyfin anymore). So it does become a chore over time and there is always a cost. You can justify it by saying you are getting value out of it but in my experience, this is true for every activity. Everyone has limited time and spending it importantly is important to me.

swed420 1mo ago
> yes but there is still an opportunity cost I would call it more of a set of tradeoffs > a lot of the time is spent on doing menial system admin tasks This is the refreshening opportunity for us non-admins, and a learning opportunity to automate as much of it as possible. Other benefits not mentioned include not signing your data or life away to whatever Google's lawyers or marketers have decided is best for them, contributing to FLOSS even if only as an end user, not being a victim of rug-pulls...the list goes on. Obviously this isn't for everybody, because there's no denying it takes time. The point is that for many, this is a very easy tradeoff to make when factoring in all of the other benefits.
- buran77 1mo ago
  > I would call it more of a set of tradeoffs This is mostly wording. It is a commitment, it has an opportunity cost, there are tradeoffs. > This is the refreshening opportunity for us non-admins, and a learning opportunity to automate as much of it as possible. So many opportunities but the day is still 24 hours long. You still have to choose your opportunities wisely, and give up something else in the process. And if you look at the big picture those who choose to take this opportunity are not so many compared to those who just pay with data so they don't have to pay with time and effort. Everyone pays money in the end.
  - swed420 1mo ago
    > This is mostly wording Right, but the distinction is relevant in the context of the original claim: > People setting up homelab often talk about money saved but never account for the time they have to spend My point was that many of us do account for this time in the aforementioned ways. Plus, once it's set up, it practically runs itself if you have a sane backup methodology and are only running upgrades every couple months.
  - rc5150 1mo ago
    If you have to jump through this set of hoops to come to the conclusion that you want to outsource the effort of self-admin, just save the trouble and deal with not being the target audience.
    - buran77 1mo ago
      Was it a full moon or what's with the dick attitude? It's a few sentences that basically say "you can't have all the hobbies, some people choose something else, everyone pays with whatever they can afford". What's the point of your reply other than the attempted jab at the end? > jump through this set of hoops And a weak jab that was for someone who's overwhelmed from trying to parse a couple of sentences. If you thought it's objectively wrong you would have already pointed that out loudly and offensively. So you just took the opportunity to feel like a big boy and tell me "this admin stuff is not for you". Good for you big boy, glad you got that out of the system. Of course, you also outsource the effort for almost everything around you (even your reading comprehension), to someone else - an expert, the person you're talking to, or your parents. But you can download a compose file and import it in what's probably a NAS with a nice "import" GUI so welcome to the "target audience". I'm a big boy too, you see, one with actual reading comprehension ;).
  - dingaling 1mo ago
    > You still have to choose your opportunities wisely It's odd that you've gone off on this as opposed to people who spend their 'opportunity time' on Netflix, Call of Duty or D&D. Sysadmin is a hobby I enjoy and I don't consider it lost time, or wasted opportunity, when so many of my colleagues go out getting drunk or watch football.
nickthegreek 1mo ago
Good news, my coding agents can access my proxmox and HA and immich and make having a homelab easier than it ever has been. I actually just used codex to help me find dupes across multiple user libraries in immich and quarantine them. In immich, I can only dedupe across a single user library. I used codex to find grid based images that I needed to convert into animated images from back in my iphone 4 days. It located the images, wrote software to convert to webp and handled it. Codex reviewed my immich setup and recommended I change things the clip model, came up with a better backup strat and found holes in my system. My codex will ADB into my NVIDIA Shield and proxmox and setup accounts, install packages, create Home Assistant integrations to tie it all together. As a hobbyist, these are things that I would never even think about taking on. I bought a hdmi-cec controller for my projector last week. Firmware didnt work with the PX3-pro, but it was tied to my ESPHome. Codex diagnosed the issue, rewrote, tested and uploaded the firmware OTA. All done from my phone while I was waiting in line at a store.
- KetoManx64 1mo ago
  Ans we're just in the first year of agents taking off. Imagine what the next 5 or 10 years will be when it comes to automation for the everyday people. What a great time to be alive

swed420 1mo ago

> yes but there is still an opportunity cost I would call it more of a set of tradeoffs > a lot of the time is spent on doing menial system admin tasks This is the refreshening opportunity for us non-admins, and a learning opportunity to automate as much of it as possible. Other benefits not mentioned include not signing your data or life away to whatever Google's lawyers or marketers have decided is best for them, contributing to FLOSS even if only as an end user, not being a victim of rug-pulls...the list goes on. Obviously this isn't for everybody, because there's no denying it takes time. The point is that for many, this is a very easy tradeoff to make when factoring in all of the other benefits.

buran77 1mo ago
> I would call it more of a set of tradeoffs This is mostly wording. It is a commitment, it has an opportunity cost, there are tradeoffs. > This is the refreshening opportunity for us non-admins, and a learning opportunity to automate as much of it as possible. So many opportunities but the day is still 24 hours long. You still have to choose your opportunities wisely, and give up something else in the process. And if you look at the big picture those who choose to take this opportunity are not so many compared to those who just pay with data so they don't have to pay with time and effort. Everyone pays money in the end.
- swed420 1mo ago
  > This is mostly wording Right, but the distinction is relevant in the context of the original claim: > People setting up homelab often talk about money saved but never account for the time they have to spend My point was that many of us do account for this time in the aforementioned ways. Plus, once it's set up, it practically runs itself if you have a sane backup methodology and are only running upgrades every couple months.
- rc5150 1mo ago
  If you have to jump through this set of hoops to come to the conclusion that you want to outsource the effort of self-admin, just save the trouble and deal with not being the target audience.
  - buran77 1mo ago
    Was it a full moon or what's with the dick attitude? It's a few sentences that basically say "you can't have all the hobbies, some people choose something else, everyone pays with whatever they can afford". What's the point of your reply other than the attempted jab at the end? > jump through this set of hoops And a weak jab that was for someone who's overwhelmed from trying to parse a couple of sentences. If you thought it's objectively wrong you would have already pointed that out loudly and offensively. So you just took the opportunity to feel like a big boy and tell me "this admin stuff is not for you". Good for you big boy, glad you got that out of the system. Of course, you also outsource the effort for almost everything around you (even your reading comprehension), to someone else - an expert, the person you're talking to, or your parents. But you can download a compose file and import it in what's probably a NAS with a nice "import" GUI so welcome to the "target audience". I'm a big boy too, you see, one with actual reading comprehension ;).
- dingaling 1mo ago
  > You still have to choose your opportunities wisely It's odd that you've gone off on this as opposed to people who spend their 'opportunity time' on Netflix, Call of Duty or D&D. Sysadmin is a hobby I enjoy and I don't consider it lost time, or wasted opportunity, when so many of my colleagues go out getting drunk or watch football.

nickthegreek 1mo ago

Good news, my coding agents can access my proxmox and HA and immich and make having a homelab easier than it ever has been. I actually just used codex to help me find dupes across multiple user libraries in immich and quarantine them. In immich, I can only dedupe across a single user library. I used codex to find grid based images that I needed to convert into animated images from back in my iphone 4 days. It located the images, wrote software to convert to webp and handled it. Codex reviewed my immich setup and recommended I change things the clip model, came up with a better backup strat and found holes in my system. My codex will ADB into my NVIDIA Shield and proxmox and setup accounts, install packages, create Home Assistant integrations to tie it all together. As a hobbyist, these are things that I would never even think about taking on. I bought a hdmi-cec controller for my projector last week. Firmware didnt work with the PX3-pro, but it was tied to my ESPHome. Codex diagnosed the issue, rewrote, tested and uploaded the firmware OTA. All done from my phone while I was waiting in line at a store.

KetoManx64 1mo ago
Ans we're just in the first year of agents taking off. Imagine what the next 5 or 10 years will be when it comes to automation for the everyday people. What a great time to be alive