It matters a lot... to them.

Is there anything better than to spend your time doing things that matter to you rather than needing some sort of external utility validation?

I do stuff that actually matters too! The FPGA Lisa is just a fun project that I work on in my spare time, but I'm also a PhD student and I like to think that I contribute useful stuff to the body of knowledge of computer engineering through research.

On 2, there's a surprising amount of very intelligent people that are really underutilized for all kinds of reasons.

Some don't like to sell themselves and compete.

Some have confidence issues.

Some have ADHD and an on-paper track record that looks terrible.

Some want nothing to do with corporate America.

>2

My personal philosophy on this is that in the grand scheme of things, there is almost nothing that "really matters". So you might as well spend as much of your time as is reasonable doing something fun.

Why doesn’t this project “really matter?”

I played a piano this weekend. That didn't improve the world.

I'm typing here on HN this morning. I could've been doing something more useful.

I'm about to put this down and play Animal Crossing. That isn't something that matters.

You could reasonably argue that I'm not as smart as this person, but I'm 100% behind his desire to have hobbies he enjoys.