For me hustling is currently a better source of income than I could otherwise achieve. I'm pretty convinced that the Big 5 wouldn't even take me in.

Yes! Lately, I realized being an indie maker is fucking hard and why to build a small tool (scope/growth/money) if it's going to take an insane amount of hours anyway. I somehow thought making less money with a very niche down idea would be comparatively easier, which I am realizing might not be the case (I haven't done any paid product launches yet though). Shooting for the biggest hunt that I can, is better.

Also, if I was paid hourly (that I was in consulting) for all the work I have done on my products, I would have been sitting at a lot of money right now. So, a part-time remote job / consulting sounds better, considering freedom is all that I want. I do want to call myself as a serial maker but when does too much hustle and less gains make it not worth it anymore?

Well, last Friday was my last day at Uber, so I'm in the opposite position right now and am just starting as a Indie Hacker. But I think I can provide some interesting views.

I just spent 4 years at Uber. I joined early 2014 as the 99th engineer, when there were like 400 employees. Coming from a 10 people startup (Exec) it felt huge, but compare to today's Uber, it was pretty small.
Despite the size difference, the work at Uber then was pretty similar than the work at Exec, while we had only 2-4 engineers at a time. You still end up hustling, working your ass off and wearing a lot of hats. It's great.
It's hard work, both because you work a lot of hours, and the work is actually pretty hard and stressful, but it's also very rewarding. I don't think I've been happier in my life then my years at Exec/early Uber. Working very hard, late nights, weekends, BUT having a big sense of ownership. Not feeling like I was working for someone else, but really driving our own destiny. Being part of something and owning it. Knowing that if I screw up, it won't only be a small dent, but can have a huge negative impact. Just like if I succeed at something, it would have a great positive impact on the business.

So yes, very hard work, but very rewarding.
I never created my own business but I do believe how I felt then is comparable than when it's your own business.

If I compare that to the past 2 years at Uber, while we've reached huge valuations, over 10k employees (close to 20k now I think) and thousands of engineers - well, I don't really matter anymore. My contributions are smaller, less noticeable, even to myself, because impact is smaller. Early days I felt bad about taking vacations, because I knew finishing my projects earlier would mean a substantial increase in an important metric. Now, well I see plenty of people taking 3-4 months sabbatical and it's totally fine. I just quit. The project I worked on is going to be delayed by a few weeks until someone else finishes their own project and takes over, and it's totally fine. Nothing will change.

It's great in a sense. At that point I was even working remotely, so waking up and doing a good 3-4hrs of productive work in the morning was more than enough. No late work, no weekends. Ample vacation time. 0 stress. Good money.

But, I'm here now :) I quit. Why? Oh boy it becomes boring really fast.
This would work well for a lot of people (I guess most people just want to do the bare minimum and are happy), but chances are, if you are here, asking this question or reading those answers, you're not like that, and you are not interested in doing an uneventful, unimpactful 9-5. Just like, most of us here will not retire ever. Building, doing something, is part of us and what makes us feel good.

I just listened to Indie Hacker podcast #47, where Joel Runyon says "I'm 1 or 2 phone calls away from a job". He doesn't want that job. None of us want that job, but I think it's great to know that by being Indie Hackers, building experience, reputation and relationships, we are a phone call away of a job, in case anything goes wrong. But we don't really want that job :)

Getting a job at Big 5 is also a lot of work. I remember I worked for Google CodeJam learning a lot of DataStructures & Algorithms & all those things in CS. But despite all that work, I came in last in all world rankings, LOL 😂

I was pretty bad I admit but I worked 2 months for it & other people worked every year to pass in the CodeJam. The people who make it must've already worked 2 years on learning just DS & AOA & they get paid not as much as you'd like.

Launching 5 different business will make me more money than joining a big firm.

Also, the entry point is too hard. Sometimes inverting a binary tree is not at all related to work they do at Google & they still ask those stupid questions.

In short, I'd like to be my own boss even if it takes too long. Bill Gates had to put 5 years to make Microsoft work & many more years before that. So, I think it's worth a shot. We only get one life 😉

Life is Short

Agreed with Akshay, anything meaningful takes time and effort, even if you work at Big 5 or similar. Google, Amazon, etc. became those who they are because of hardworking talented people.

x incomes > 1 income. That's what drives me.

A couple of years ago the media were calling for Roger Federer to retire. He was on an bad run of and slipping down the rankings. When asked in an interview about retiring he said this:

"Sometimes you're just happy playing. Some people, some media, unfortunately, don't understand that it's okay just to play tennis and enjoy it. They always think you have to win everything, it always needs to be a success story, and if it's not, obviously, what is the point? Maybe you have to go back and think, Why have I started playing tennis? Because I just like it. It's actually sort of a dream hobby that became somewhat of a job. Some people just don't get that, ever."

This summarises me my mindset. Replace the words "play tennis" with "make stuff" and reread Federer's answer.

No because I don't morally believe in the idea selling people's time. Fuck managers, meetings, offices, performance reviews, stake holders.

If I'll ever become desperate that I can't make money selling products/subscriptions, I'd rather be a contractor with my own company. But hell no, the idea of a fixed salary gives me anxiety.