Comment by sandwichbop

I agree that side projects can be fun. But I feel that the broader issue for many developers, including myself, is that we're cash-strapped. The majority of my classmates in University don't do any side projects; they spend their time doing practice problems, applying for interviews, switching jobs, and so on. I'm not in high school anymore, things are getting more expensive, and I know better. I spend my time doing game dev and art when I should be building an emergency fund in the case of a climate disaster or an unexpected medical surprise. I would be financially better off building SaaS tools for niche enterprise users than spending most of my day having "fun" and knowing this makes it hard to have fun.