I'm only quoting the parts that I can relate to. The full text is in the article linked above.
I intensely contributed to nullDC during my teenage years, often hacking for days without sleep. As I was busy doing “important stuff” I failed university exams. Twice. I gained unhealthy amounts weight that I still struggle with. By my late teenage years, paying for expenses was becoming harder. I further cut down on socializing. I avoided distractions such as parties and friends to focus on what is important.
People often assume that projects magically “appear”. That they are entitled to have them for free. Developing costs. Costs in time, costs in resources. A senior developer costs around 150K to 200K euro/year in Zurich. A manager usually costs more. A project needs both to be managed, and developed.
A year ago I was out of my contract and touring Europe (Amsterdam is a pretty nice play to live!). At that point I was toying with the idea of crowdfunding reicast and using that as my primary income stream. I was thinking that projects, especially open source ones, need to be well funded. Developers deserve to have a healthy, happy life. Just like everyone else.
