Replying to Avatar hodlbod

It's been exactly a year since I broke ground on Coracle in earnest.

In that time I have:

- Written the coolest software I've ever put together

- Made an incredible number of incredible friends

- Moved to Texas and back

- Gone to my first bitcoin conference, and my first nostr conference

- Started an LLC and received my first ever grant

- Got paid in bitcoin

- Welcomed my fourth son into the world

- Quit my fiat job (which is still an awesome company)

- Started a podcast

- Drunk a whole lot of coffee

Thank you to everyone who encouraged me, used my software, funded me, hugged me, and helped me. I won't mention the 500+ people that are probably on that list, but special thanks to npub194dkgpxl2vk7pqkeualh7sjh5m6rldumh80gm5av0h67d494qzcqum2u20 and nostr:nprofile1qqs2wjddsttqz54znuegw2u3urkkm83qqmtnf0mefq44l7j0aq3g6acpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduhsz8nhwden5te0dehhxarj94c82c3wwajkcmr0wfjx2u3wdejhgtcpr4mhxue69uhkummnw3ezucnfw33k76twv4ezuum0vd5kzmp0sgg08h for their quiet, constant support of my work. Thanks to FUTO, nostr:nprofile1qqsgydql3q4ka27d9wnlrmus4tvkrnc8ftc4h8h5fgyln54gl0a7dgspz9mhxue69uhkummnw3ezuamfdejj7qgcwaehxw309aex2mrp0yhxxatjwfjkuapwveukjtcpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduhszree88 and nostr:nprofile1qqs8suecw4luyht9ekff89x4uacneapk8r5dyk0gmn6uwwurf6u9ruspz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduhsz9rhwden5te0wfjkcctev93xcefwdaexwtcpzdmhxue69uhhqatjwpkx2urpvuhx2ue0gz5cn9 for funding me.

I'm not going to stop, and I know neither are the rest of you psychopaths. Keep building, joking, hacking, and zapping. I am frankly terrified to see where nostr ends up a year from now.

Finally, be excellent to each other! Don't lose perspective, remember that the goal is to build a new internet that builds people up instead of tearing them down. Forgive one another, and learn to ask for forgiveness. Don't let your ego get in the way of healthy competition and cooperation. By grace only can we do what we've set out to do.

"Return, O Lord! How long?

And have compassion on Your servants.

Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy,

That we may rejoice and be glad all our days!

Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us,

The years in which we have seen evil.

Let Your work appear to Your servants,

And Your glory to their children.

And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us,

And establish the work of our hands for us;

Yes, establish the work of our hands."

Psalm 90:13-17

Like probably every builder here, I have a list a mile long of things I would love to work on instead of my day job (which, all things considered is a great place), and I think at least one of them would be attractive to OpenSats to fund.

I'm curious if you would (or can) share some of your experience with OpenSats, was the grant amount a large pay cut for the time period? If not, do you think it would have been if you scoped it differently?

In truth my handcuffs are pretty golden and my wife and I have another kid on the way, so I'm unlikely to choose the instability of a grant (assuming I could even get it approved, my public FOSS work is not particularly compelling) BUT I'm still curious...

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It's been a great experience so far. The grant was a slight promotion from what I was doing before, although self-employment tax eats pretty much all of that. I was also a part-owner at my previous job, with no employer-provided healthcare or retirement account either, so the uncertainty of open source wasn't anything new to me. Open source definitely trades off pay for agency, I had just already made that trade-off years ago.