[sdiy] Discrete OTA

[Roman Sowa]

That is so well said, I agree with every word of it.
Print it, frame it, hang it on a wall and memorize.

As for Tarzan thing - I quit the "day job" only about 8-9 years after 
selling my first product, so it took quite a while.
Funny thing, the same day my wife has stopped calling my business an 
"expensive hobby" and started to name it "a job".

Roman


W dniu 2014-04-02 14:36, Olivier Gillet pisze:
>> 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
>