| I've been struggling with some sort of variant of this. I'm a prolific FOSS contributor, but a few years ago I switched to a very time-intensive day job and we had our first kid, and my FOSS contributions have waned a fair bit as a result. I still need to do tech stuff outside work to have an extra creative hobby outlet, so I've been doing HW/SW DIY projects like [1] and [2] that don't put me into the critical path of anyone. They're fun, and I open source them, but I'm permanently stressed and a bit guilt-ridden that compared to my previous spare-time output they're not really of much use for anyone else. My "personal software" dies alone at home, whereas previously it was used by millions. I'm working on a DIY toy robot now[3], and I'm trying to find a middle ground there by launching a new project with a library, tools and tester GUI to control serial servo motors by various vendors that the robot is the dogfood-test for. I'm hoping this is the solution: Build "personal software", but clearly pull out the parts that are usable for everyone into a module that you put in a little extra effort to make it more available for general consumption. E.g. with the e-ink newspaper, I should look into making the display driver code I wrote into a lib as well I guess ... 1 = https://github.com/eikehein/hyelicht 2 = https://imgur.com/a/diy-automatic-e-ink-newspaper-using-rust... 3 = https://mero.ng/i/MHgQziFC.jpg |
