Well, if it makes you feel any better, I quit my job at FAANG to make indie games, and I still haven't made any money (well $432 total on Itch, which is nothing). Had a good savings, and I do some freelance part time, so I'm living okay, but I do need something to get off the ground soon. I'm just done with working regular jobs. You just spend your life making other people rich, not even doing what you want to do with your life. Rather just make art and program stuff, even if it's not that lucrative. Not expecting to make the next Minecraft of anything, but as long as there is some success, enough to live off, that's fine by me. And I'll take the next Minecraft too, but as long as I can keep going that's cool too.

Maybe it's a forum thing. I tried with my editor (Abricotine) and it's not subscript there. I use this app to create markdown for Github.

Bimbam Yeah, this is extra, as in not part of standard/base markdown which is very limited.

    Let's just agree on "subscript means approximately" :-)

    Bimbam Houses in the US have gone completely crazy. I built mine a long time ago. It's something you can get away with in the country, at least up here. There are also tiny houses if you can find some place to park them. I would never buy a house and make payments for 30 years. I'd live in a tent before I did that. It's just a modern form of indentured servitude.

      Yeah, buying a house is one of the dumbest financial decisions you can make in your life. Unless you can pay all cash upfront, but even then, there are much better investments to make if you have that kind of money. People tell me that all the time, like I should buy a house. Why should I? I rent and my apartment is fairly cheap, I have freedom. Not putting myself in debt for the rest of my life.

        cybereality Game dev is so fun, but also really hard to make money cause everyone is doing it.

        There are already defined rules by which you can earn in gamedev. If you want to earn more, you either have to scam, or set your own rules.

        cybereality People tell me that all the time, like I should buy a house. Why should I?

        A house of one's own is reliable. (Unless, of course, a rocket flies in and ruins it.) The landlord, at any time, can change the rules of renting, or he may need it himself.

              Tomcat A house of one's own is reliable. (Unless, of course, a rocket flies in and ruins it.) The landlord, at any time, can change the rules of renting, or he may need it himself.

              That's true if you actually own the house and the land (like if you build a house yourself). But the vast majority of people don't have that kind of money. Where I live, even a "cheap" house costs $700,000. So what happens is people take out a loan, and pay it off over 30 years. But you don't actually own the house, the bank does. And it's not really cheaper than renting once you take into account the interest rate over time, and also that you still have to pay taxes every month. Depending on the value of the house, the taxes themselves could be several hundred dollars, or even a thousand dollars a month for a nice house. Which is not cheaper than renting, you are in debt forever, and plus the cost of maintenance (if the water pipe breaks, leaks on the roof, etc.) which you have to pay out of pocket. It's a scam.

                  cybereality I have had so many friends that bought houses just outside of their budget thinking they could make it work and living a life of poverty trying to pay for it. It's a millstone around your neck. I don't think there is a much worse financial decision you could make next to wasting your life on drugs or getting into a bad marriage.

                    cybereality And it's not really cheaper than renting

                    The landlord can set his own rules. For example to prohibit the pets. Not everyone can live without a Сat. So even an apartment is better to own than to rent. But the mortgage is a rip-off, yup.

                        Tomcat A house of one's own is reliable. (Unless, of course, a rocket flies in and ruins it.) The landlord, at any time, can change the rules of renting, or he may need it himself.

                        Totally agree. I managed to earn my own flat at the age of 35 without taking a loan, in southern Germany, and since then I never had to fear where to go. When changing partners, we parted equally and without bad feelings, making a financial gain when selling places. Even a natural catastrophe, in my case the Cumbre Vieja eruption didn't throw me off track because I was insured and they paid without hesitation. There wasn't much to discuss, the whole place is under 20-30m lava now. I saved the cat, though I lost a whole lot of of stuff from telescopes to model railroad.

                        Price hikes and inflation demand something smaller than before.

                        This is of course much more difficult today, with higher population densities and choking bureaucracy, and resources tapering out. I am tempted to say that the younger guys (that's you 😜 ) don't have it as easy as my generation (apart from a few influencers and the highly qualified of course), an I did not have it as easy as my parents.

                        What I want to say: if you have the opportunity for an own place, prefer that over big cars and other stuff that looses value over time and through use.

                        Personal opinion, of course, and partly experience so far.

                          I rent and I have cat. But she has to pay rent, it's $50/month. But she pays it with love.

                          For better or worse, at some point in our history we started keeping and depending on things that we couldn't make and carry as we walked from one place to another. It wasn't a conscious decision -- cultures that settled down could have more children, so they had bigger armies and overwhelmed the wanderers. Human nature being what it is, some people collected most of the property and used it to control the rest of us.

                          Now the only choice most people have is to dance to someone else's tune. You either work for the banker or the landlord or the state all your life, just like the serfs of old. If you manage to escape that trap, you're very lucky (and possibly very smart as well). That's the price we pay for the benefits of civilization and our own fatal flaws.

                          Most of us just settle for the type of servitude we like best and tell ourselves that we've won. 🙂

                            duane It's amazing how much of our culture involves defending our possessions from other people trying to take it. It's like the American Indians who really got a bad deal over here for sure, but every tribe took some other tribes land and warred with each other. You look at the old castles and they were set up for defense. All the serfs would run in there during an invasion. It keeps getting to be larger collections of people, like Russia invading Ukraine. Americans are in a forever war ever since Vietnam. What a waste of lives and money. No one thinks anything of it anymore. We're just in a different war like the book 1984. Everybody gets into it and yeah we got to stop them. No we don't. They can work something out without our war machine. 30 trillion in debt. The CIA starts half of them trying to stop some other one or start a puppet government. Democracy. We choose which one will start the next war.

                              Probably too far into politics, but everyone should read 1984, if you haven't read it recently. It's very relevant to the world today, it basically happened. Also, I bought the Ukrainian version of 1984, just came in a few days ago. This was shipped straight from Kiev, surprised the mail system still works.