I'm in the same position. I'd like to get into some mining as part of learning process, even if it's a bit of a loss. But 10 years is way too much of a rumway
Discussion
I’m playing around a little with the “split shares” mining at mining syndicate which is, so far, a cheap way to learn more. It’s basically hosted mining and you can buy a percentage of a miner.
Not sure how I feel about renting miners. IMO a large part of running a miner (and the learning process) is understanding the hardware and configuring the software. I feel like if I just rent hashrate I'm kinda just throwing my money away in fees. Not sure if you feel the same but that's just my personal humble opinion.
Totally valid critique. This is my first exposure to mining, with a couple percentage points of a miner. Dipping my toes in with minimal upfront capital 😉