Not even just the hyperscale folks, regularly on Hacker News I see posts about "side project" recommendations that are beyond belief in terms of marketing. To me a "side project" is something I can spend 1-2 hours on after work and maybe a little more on weekends. If I followed those posts I'd be doing 90% marketing/10% development and maybe I'll have an actual product in 10 years.
I'm honestly not sure what those authors are doing as a "main" job that they can dedicate such time to side projects, seems like some people like to conflate "bootstrapped startup" and "side project".
This. I was hanging on to a screen for 10 years while I was single. Then I met my wife and we now have a kid, I don't spend a single hour per day on learning the latest and greatest frameworks and stuff. Sometimes, I miss it. But maybe not really.
> learning the latest and greatest frameworks and stuff
You miss one framework, you worry you're getting left behind. Then it gets deprecated and you realise you just saved yourself a couple of months' worth of work. You miss a few more, then pick one up and realise it's exactly the same as one you used in university but with all the buzzwords renamed. And that's when you understand that nothing of value was lost.
I remember in school hearing someone speak who worked at ILM. He said he didn't even have a computer at home. 10 years later for me it makes a lot more sense.
I'm honestly not sure what those authors are doing as a "main" job that they can dedicate such time to side projects, seems like some people like to conflate "bootstrapped startup" and "side project".