[komali2]

It's only a failure if you judge success by monthly income. I'm not saying that's not a good way to measure success, just pointing out that it doesn't have to be the only measure. A therapist told me this recently when I was struggling to find meaning in life.

Success can be tons of stars on GitHub - I would feel very good if I had positively benefited that many people. I think a major downside of capitalism is how it attempts to attach a price tag to both the concrete and the ephemeral - how can you put a price tag on the good feelings one gets for creating something useful from the world? But nah every side project has to be a hustle and if it isn't making you money, drop it in a second.

As for support requests, you don't really have to reply to them. You have control over your level of involvement in a project.

How much less enjoyable does your backyard garden become if every weed you pull you think "excellent, I've just increased the value of my house by .12$. Ah shit there goes inflation, hold on, my weed pulling nets me less than a dollar an hour, maybe I should do some contracting with this time instead?"

[kevinventullo]

I remember having a conversation with coworkers a while back about what we do if we didn’t have to worry about money. So many people talked about starting a business! I guess the upside is that businesses can be self-sustaining long after you’ve passed, but from my perspective, the vast majority of good one can do for the world is not easily or practically monetizable.

[slfnflctd]

Backyard gardening is riddled with inefficiencies in every imaginable way, and is not for everyone. The only tangible benefits I see are for people who receive positive benefits from the actual experience of doing the hard work and somehow use it to benefit others (directly or indirectly). If you're not sure that applies to you, stay away.

Same goes for a lot of other things. Sometimes you have no choice but to do stuff that sucks and really isn't helping anyone, yes. Try to keep it to a minimum.

[komali2]

I think this doesn't cover all the positives of gardening.

Getting sun (vitamin D, a tan, mood stabilizing effects of sun, sleep cycle stabilizing effects)

Fresh air (dopamine)

Increased backyard beauty (every time you look out your window you get to enjoy it)

Sense of accomplishment

Potentially fresh vegetables

A little bit more post-apocalypse skills lol

Contributing to local bee health

[nonbirithm]

Maybe the stuff doesn't universally suck, but would be soul-crushingly boring for one person yet completely engrossing for another. It might not change the fact that doesn't help anyone, but I would say there's no need to say it's always the goal to be productive in working towards something or have it be helpful to others in the end. Sometimes I just enjoy building things in itself.

[slfnflctd]

I guess I'm coming more from the perspective of someone who's played with a whole lot of different things and is starting to realize the personal value (for me) of targeting my efforts better. I tried to be clear that I'm not saying it's a bad idea for everyone, but that at this point in my life it's counterproductive. There are other ways I can get the same benefits micro-scale agriculture provides with much greater potential rewards attached.

[cableshaft]

We dabbled with container gardening for the first time this year (just growing some plants out of pots that are sitting on our patio table). Our broccoli, spinach, and cilantro plants were failures, but our red pepper and basil plants are doing pretty well.

We harvested a bit of our basil again today and put it on a pizza we made, and it tastes amazing. That has made all the effort worth it.

We might try expanding our gardening efforts next year, but I'm not entirely sure of that. We'll at least keep the basil going indefinitely, just bring it inside during the winter, and plant more peppers next year, but not sure if I want to graduate to making a full garden yet.