Please Let Me Monetize My Hobbies | Hacker News Reader

Please Let Me Monetize My Hobbies

naveenarun.wordpress.com

65 pointsbarbarr45 comments

I heard from n Planet Money story that 1 in 4 gen-z-ers want to be an influencer because they want to receive free products or play videos games and get paid. Which is great but the thing they don’t realize is they would be running a business and everything, including the parts they think is the main focus of the business, becomes second to actually maintaining the business.

Not trying to be disparaging to Gen-Z, that’s just an example of a mental trap we fall into. We tend to underestimate the time and effort of the things we don’t want to do and overestimate the time we will spend and then resulting enjoyment of the thing that we fine the most pleasurable.

This is why certain hobbies of mine will stay “pure” hobbies for me. The moment I start doing it for money and I’m the one doing business opts too, it becomes so much less fun, which was the point of me getting into that hobby.

Gen Z seems more anti-work than most generations, and I really hope that pushes them to be less apathetic than Gen X/Millenials with regards to worker's rights, reduced work weeks, universal healthcare, and possibly even UBI.

> I really hope that pushes them to be less apathetic than Gen X

I'm Gen X, I do take issue with your wide sweeping claim that we're apathetic with regards to workers rights. The current wide ranging strikes and support for workers rights within the UK are being driven by folks from the Gen X age group.

As a Gen Z I can vouch for this statement. There are so many times where I just look at what alot of my peers spend their time doing and I think I'm so out of place...Where is the work ethic?? the desire to improve. However I can also say that there are always some good apples in the midst of the bad ones and that we aren't all that bad!

People want to do meaningful work and improve their skills and lives.

However, incentives are not lined up to promote and reward this for quite a lot of people. Workers look around and see that working harder just means you get more work and maybe a pizza party. Raises don't beat inflation or are non-existent. They might be scheduled or classified in a way that makes them ineligible for health insurance. Pensions don't exist and "the market" ruined plenty of people's paths to retirement. Their free time is disrespected with inconsistent and last minute scheduling or with on-call duty. Their leaders can decide that inflation is caused by high salaries with layoffs as the solution and their employer obliges. They can work full time and still be in precarious positions when it comes to basic necessities like housing and healthcare.

I stopped at a McDonald's to use their WiFi and a group of high school kids were there, and I overheard a girl get very upset because her mom was laid off from the job she worked at since the girl was born, and can't retire, keep her health insurance or home. She was crying for her mom and herself. She yelled about how her mom worked crazy hours and put up with abuse. Then she said something to the tune of, "what's the point of giving yourself to your job if you will just be thrown out like that?" This was in a middle/upper middle class neighborhood.

Screw work ethic. We could all reap the benefits of AI by working a day less but instead it’s gonna get given to the machine owners who just lay everyone off and have them fight down to the bottom

They wisely took a look at us millennials, who worked ourselves to the bone and all we got was bony fingers, and decided they didn't want any of that shit. Good for them, honestly.

Something that I have thought is that gen z may be just like every generation except we know way too much. The same trend of a few winners that worked hard, a few lucky, and then a sea of misery.

I've found a few crazy hard working gen z, and im happy to be mentoring g one.

This comment is so close to “getting it”. Just for an instant. But you read it till the end and… nope.

In 20-30 years when Gen Z is the backbone of the working economy, what is it supposed to look like? Will there be doctors and lawyers? Specialist engineers and experts in various fields? Somebody needs to be working and learning now to have the experience and knowledge then. Not everyone in a generation can sit back and say “nope”, and those who don’t will be the new task masters/managers/CEOs. The vacuum will be filled by someone.

I think you may have missed the point of the comment you’re replying to.

To be honest alot of my reply was directed at the first part of it, but to answer the second part....unfortunately I don't think you'll see that 'apathy' towards issues that the Gen X / Millenials were fighting for. If anything, my generation finds new ways to get hurt about things that actually make us stronger as working career driven individuals. People want remote work, but also benefits, but competitive pay, and the list goes on

I'm sorry, are you saying that it's UNFORTUNATE that the younger generation won't be apathetic to workers' rights issues? Is that your actual position or did you just double-negative yourself by accident?

Where are you regularly interacting with people from Gen z?

They're just trying to take the well meaning but horrible advice of "do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life" (or some variation thereof) that they've been told their whole lives.

Unfortunately that advice is, well, shit, as they'll discover after embarking on that journey.

> "do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life"

(Because you’ll be unemployed)

For a comprehensive dissection of why that advice is shit, highly recommend "So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love", by Cal Newport.

His book titles got shorter over time.

Similarly, many people who are good at a sport in high school think "Hey, I can make it in the Pro leagues". The numbers don't bear this out.

One US-centric example - the NBA drafts about 60 people a year. You'd need to be not just the best person in your school or city, but the best person in the entire state to have a chance to make it, and then remain one of the best and avoid injuries, through 4 years of college.

It's really a numbers game, and people need to be realistic about the overall chances they may have.

> Not trying to be disparaging to Gen-Z, that’s just an example of a mental trap we fall into.

FWIW, I think of this concept and I hear the trope of wanting to start a restaurant or a bar without having any clue how hard and annoying that is, which seems to be an issue with humans, not "Gen-Z".

In my part of the world there's this saying: "it takes 10 000 pizzaiolos to make a football player"

I guess influencing is the new football.

Similarly, you can group prior generations’ rockstar, movie star, and unicorn startup founder into this category of “rare and successful” people doing the hip thing.

I've found the opposite of this sentiment to be true, at least in my case as youtube engineer / maker. If you can find a way to monetize your hobby it is:

1. A great motivator to actually finish projects

2. A good way to justify / fund more costly projects

3. A great source of joy if people enjoy what you make

I've been careful to not undermine my key sources of joy in making things (learning, doing hard things, making quality things) by keeping monetization at a lower priority to those things. In my opinion if you can find a way to monetize without undermining what you truly enjoy, you can thread the needle between job / hobby and I'd highly recommend it!

Finish?? :)

I've been trying to "finish" fastcomments for three years. People keep asking for more :)

There's nothing whatsoever wrong with monetizing hobbies. What's wrong is when you change how you approach your hobbies to appeal to the people paying you money. Following a content upload schedule and unironically begging your audience to like, comment and subscribe to your content are prime examples of ways to come off as a phony.

Did you read the post?

The post seems to be conflating the sheer act of making any money off the hobby with the bad things that come from it, and so I think bdw5204's comment makes sense.

Sounds like this was written by someone who already has plenty of money. Lots of creative types are great at what they do and would like to make a living at it, only to discover that they’re way underpaid compared to STEM.

I’m sure there is a trade-off here:

- going hard on monetization will train you in how to… well, monetize and run a business

- just enjoying yourself is the most sustainable way to build things quickly and strike upon your magnum opus

The ideal is to have something fantastic you can live off.

The extremes are both “poor sap grinding away at mediocrity” but one poor sap is happier than the other.

> Please, let me turn my relaxing gaming sessions into high-pressure performances with commentary. Who wouldn’t enjoy transforming a leisurely pastime into a taxing job, complete with an audience to please?

I have recently started uploading videos of myself revisiting two of my favourite games of all time to YouTube.[1] I have found the experience to be a lot fun, still relaxing, and not at all stressful, high-pressure or taxing. In fact, it's been a great experience to finally express my thoughts about these games and the themes they cover out loud.

I'll probably continue recording and uploading the games that I play, I am interested in watching back my first playthroughs of games in the future, watching back my reactions when my mind was blown by a plot twist, a new boss, or a new mechanic. I really wish I had done this the first time I played games like Elden Ring or Zelda: BOTW.

Maybe my wife, my children and grandchildren will watch these videos of one of the most childlike sides of me when I'm long gone.

Perhaps more relevant to the tone of the post, I am starting to feel this way about programming. Programming is perhaps my most creative hobby, and as more and more time passes I feel similar feelings towards writing code to massively enrich execs and investors, working on codebases for products I couldn't care less about.

[1]: Sekiro and Cloudpunk (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeai3-do-9O4MNy9_xjO6mg)

I monetize my hobbies for the tax deductions

Just a tiny bit of revenue like 5 years after lets you take tax deductions for consumptive spending related to things you’re interested in

More accurately it shields you from adverse outcomes in the future audit, since you can report whatever you want its more about winning an audit if you get picked

Might as well form an LLC for every niche you spend money on, damn near everything is tax deductible

Not tax advice, consider everything here apocryphal, YMMV

My understanding is that it’s only deductible against the relevant earnings. So if I can avoid paying taxes on $10 of YouTube earnings by claiming my gaming PC as an expense and getting a non-refundable $500 tax credit……I’ve still only saved $2 on my taxes by adjusting that $10 of earnings down to $0.

If the expense exceeds your business income, you may have a net loss for your business, which could potentially be used to offset other taxable income on your tax return.

as always it depends on the deduction and business and other things, but also the exception makes the rule. as in, once you find the exception, only do that.

I designed games for fun for most of my life. Now that I design games as part of my day job, it’s sort of lost its joy a little. In my free time now, I’m writing (Eg, a substack about writing) or doing other things, and generally avoiding designing games

I’m writing, but I’d rather avoid becoming a full time writer because of that dynamic

I think it’s better to let your hobbies continue to be hobbies

A story and cautionary tale of what happened to YouTube, and indeed all extant social media platforms that have been around for a while.

Define "monetize".

OP seems to imply that monetize equals "create an elaborate business plan that consumes your life.

But "monetize" could be as simple as adding a donate button to your website. As long as you don't have unreasonable expectations about living off a donate button, it costs you nothing to add one, most people don't think of doing it, and it may surprise you that many people often actually appreciate you giving them the opportunity to show their appreciation in a useful way.

What on earth? You're still free to enjoy your hobbies as you see fit. Just because someone out there makes a hustle out of it doesn't mean you have to.

I believe they were just expressing their general frustrations with the hustle culture and how it’s geared towards everything in life.

For a supposedly intellectual and thoughtful community, there sure are a lot of commenters here missing the point and instead jumping to defend the idea of making money from hobbies.

What are you reacting to? Have you even looked at the article?

Somberness and relevance aside, I can feel the disappointment in it, the writing is beautiful and a work of poetry.

Also I like how there is a counter on the github site.

It being a business, even if it makes $2/mo, can be part of the hobby. Reading about taxes and small businesses is fun for me.

It being commercially successful is not a concern for me. That would be the difference between a hobby and a job for me

It's absolutely possible to keep the pressure off while earning money from a hobby.

this article made me appreciate how great it is to be a programmer; it's the best toy where the limit is time and imagination and the cost is so close to zero, we are very fortunate.

I don't get it

google “overjustification”

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