"Note that of course you're not passionate about sheet metal. The entire premise is ridiculous because even the sheet metal people see it as a job."
Limiting yourself to passion projects really limits the markets you can move into because there's a lot of correlations in what we all have passion for. Comedy is at least not in the A-list for programmers (it's not a text editor/IDE, video game, or web framework, etc.), but it's still not sheet metal, logistics, accounting, or something else that can have clear value to customers, who will give you real money.
I have a clear through-line on how a sheet metal software shop will make money, in quantities sufficient to live on, and indeed, to start hiring people from. I've got a much less clear through-line on how a "comedy directory" is going to make that money. I mean, I see one: ads, of course. But it's a much more amorphous and fussy through-line. Heck, the reasonable best case for the comedy site economically, "low-level life-style site", is perilously close to the worst case for industrial software, "$0 in revenue". That's not a lot of daylight there in business terms, partially due to the volatility inherent in an ad-based business.
Not saying you should hate what you work on, but opening things up to things that you're doing to make money broadens your possibilities a lot. You may well find some unexpected passions along the way.
Yes to everything you just said, with the added bonus that many people who develop a career around their passion develop a passionate hatred (or worse, boredom) for the thing that used to bring them happiness. I would go so far as to consciously try to keep your passions separate from how you pay your bills.
Limiting yourself to passion projects really limits the markets you can move into because there's a lot of correlations in what we all have passion for. Comedy is at least not in the A-list for programmers (it's not a text editor/IDE, video game, or web framework, etc.), but it's still not sheet metal, logistics, accounting, or something else that can have clear value to customers, who will give you real money.
I have a clear through-line on how a sheet metal software shop will make money, in quantities sufficient to live on, and indeed, to start hiring people from. I've got a much less clear through-line on how a "comedy directory" is going to make that money. I mean, I see one: ads, of course. But it's a much more amorphous and fussy through-line. Heck, the reasonable best case for the comedy site economically, "low-level life-style site", is perilously close to the worst case for industrial software, "$0 in revenue". That's not a lot of daylight there in business terms, partially due to the volatility inherent in an ad-based business.
Not saying you should hate what you work on, but opening things up to things that you're doing to make money broadens your possibilities a lot. You may well find some unexpected passions along the way.