That's exactly the comparison I want: he took his time and demonstrated that it can be done give the time available to us. If you can only give six hours, then I guess it would take eight years. There's also another lesson to be learnt here: don't do everything form scratch :P
> and their family/girlfriend supported them
I'd replace a girlfriend that doesn't support me; I'd disconnect from a family who doesn't support me.
The unknowns where how much time it would take a single developer to make such an ambitious project and the degree of the payoff.
He worked on something over a long period of time knowing simply that it's OK for something to take time to complete. He understood the challenges ahead and planned his days accordingly.
The point of the Steph's article isn't to only think inside of eight hours, but to think about time management, patience, focus, and other key aspects as a whole, to get the better picture of the path forward.
It doesn't matter if it takes four months or forty years to make a project: it's making it that counts.
It actually runs counter to your point and aligns with mine better. His day job as an usher was not mentally draining compared to his work on Stardew Valley
And with an hour a day it would have taken fifty years...