Comment by dinkleberg

I might be way off the mark, but I get the sense with a lot of the indie hackers it is less about the money and more about the attraction of the community and the sense of belonging. If you "build in public" you'll get attention and will be cheered on by the others doing the same.

If they were really in it for the money then spending all of their free time for a couple of years to get a few hundred dollars MRR would be a fail, yet many of them keep at it. I suspect the rewards they get from being an active part of the community feel worth it.

I think a better choice is to either go day job + hobby that isn't for money, as restricting yourself to what makes money is going to be less enjoyable. Or day job + heavily profit focused side business with the goal of quickly replacing your day job with said business, then freeing up some time to have your hobbies again. I think the mistake is trying to do both at the same time. You can't really focus on both profit and personal enjoyment in the same project (unless profit is a big source of enjoyment for you).