[sdiy] Discrete OTA

[Olivier Gillet]

> If you get into making synths for a living you'll start hating it.

As someone who has been making synths & kits for a living for a few
years, I can say that this is not true.

There are things that I am much less enthusiastic about as the
business grew - mostly, providing step by step assistance to DIY
builders who became less and less experienced as the user base grew ;
and designing in the "DIY kit" format - but I am still super excited
about it. I actually started new hobbies because I needed a break from
my "work" activities, but it doesn't mean that I am getting tired of
synths.

The negative aspects cheater00 highlighted are not specific to the
synth business - you'll experience them (or not) whatever business
you'll run. This is a warning against entrepreneurship and doing the
things you love in life - this has nothing to do with synths. The
overall argument actually sounds quite silly to me, it's like the
people saying "don't marry this girl you love, don't let the hardships
of marital life ruin this wonderful love". Sometimes you just have to
make shit happen.

There are a couple of things peculiar to the synth business, though:
* It doesn't have the growth potential of a software startup
(http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html). This won't make you a
Zuckerberg. On the plus side, the chance factor is much less important
than if you were trying to launch an iPhone app (or if you were
entering any crowded mass-market); and you won't have to scratch your
head about a business model.
* It is very unlikely you'll be able to do that as an employee. The
job market is just a handful of open positions a year. You'll have to
design under your name, or be visible enough to do consulting for
bigger companies - entrepreneurship is the way to go. This is not for
everyone - but an academic background surely helps (setting your own
goals, managing your time & budget, steering projects over 2-3 year
long cycles, accepting setbacks that can last for quarters or
semesters, sometimes being accountable to the people whose money
you're "wasting"...).
* It will not pay as much as a job in which the same skills (embedded
systems, electronics design, signal processing...) would be put to use
for other industrial and commercial applications. The reward will be
in the happiness you get from doing your job and/or from not doing
another job in which your skills would be put to uses incompatible
with your values.

Regarding switching to this (or to any other) career: http://sivers.org/tarzan

Best,
Olivier

On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 11:30 AM, cheater00 . <cheater00 at gmail.com> wrote:
> If you get into making synths for a living you'll start hating it.
> It's simple as that. Your fear of being copied/ripped off is a fairly
> strong sign of things to come if you go down this route for any sort
> of financial support, even if not primary. Simply don't do it for
> money and all will be well. You will have fun and you will be able to
> do when you want, at the pace you want. If you start depending on it
> for money, very negative aspects come into play: anxiety, fear,
> disappointment, hatred, envy, ...
>
> Do you really want to turn something you love doing into something you
> will ultimately hate? It will only make you a worse person. There
> isn't a lot of money to be made in synthesizers. Find a mass market to
> make money on. Nothing related to making music is a mass market.
>
> D.
>
> On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 10:51 AM, Neil Johnson <neil.johnson71 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Roman Sowa wrote:
>>> no way of protecting anything. Neil has already spelled out the options.
>>
>> Some more thoughts from Paul S on MW:
>>
>> http://www.muffwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1192107&highlight=#1192107
>> http://www.muffwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=662394&highlight=#662394
>>
>> Neil
>> --
>> http://www.njohnson.co.uk
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