Ask Lemmy

1. Not nearly as dismal as you portray though admittedly it is turning that way. Even so 3rd party repairs for cars are far more legally protected than tech shit. And the dealership software is often leaked. Again while it’s admittedly becoming far more difficult to be independent repair shop there’s still time to push back here

2. you can’t do it so it’s not viable? Weird. Making programming a viable entrepreneurship endeavor is far more about having a novel idea than execution (assuming you have capital). Honestly these days even if you don’t have capital you still just need the idea, if the ideas good you could likely build a proof of concept with an llm and generate capital. And a “novel idea” doesn’t even have to be groundbreaking, often it’s just “here’s this thing that’s been done before, but slightly better”

3. repair of electronics can be viable but it is increasingly dismal (and worse than cars, though interestingly in some ways getting significantly better. Iphone repair, which was a fools game 5 years ago, is suddenly viable again). I spent years repairing electronics through college and grad school and made pretty healthy cash tbh; if I’d done it full time I’d easily have been able to comfortably support myself. Your issue here is that you want to limit yourself to niche shit. While retro consoles and crts are popular in many ways their popularity pales in comparison to something like a phone, which literally everyone has. Despite this it is fully possible to make a ton of money modding and repairing retro consoles. It’s not “fuck you” money but definitely enough to live. I know someone who does it and they have many competitors. The hardest part for them seems to be sourcing consoles for a reasonable price. They are constantly behind on stock though.

4. art has always been a total crapshoot for earning money and honestly making a viable career in art has basically always been more about nepotism and “networking” than talent. Even then it still almost always takes a significant amount of talent and dedication. The people I know working in art or music production don’t necessarily have glamorous jobs and frankly aren’t even the greatest artists of our friend group. But they have serious work ethic and are willing to create like AI. You want an ominous score for a shitty tv show? They’ll make it, even though their preferred expression is weird esoteric bullshit. And they’ll have it done in a day.

5. see above

Wrt woodworking/carpentry: you have to work at it and train? No one is just “good” at this. Like any skill it must be developed through education and experience. At the end of the road there are tens of thousands of licensed electricians, plumbers, hvac, etc people who own their business and work independently (sometimes hiring contractors for bigger jobs) but all of them had to work for others first to learn to not kill people with shitty work (though tbf some didn’t do so well at this part)

Wrt inventing: same as software. Devil is coming up with the thing, though don’t discount being able to bring it to market. Almost every stupid plastic bullshit thing had to have someone with cad experience and the knowledge to contract with manufacturers

Wrt cnc: there are plenty of machinist shops that are independently owned out there. If anything your issue here is startup costs, as a $2000 diy cnc isn’t going to cut it for pro use unless your company is targeting making fancy signs at flea markets. But again this is also a trade that is generally learned and expanded on. You work for a machinist and actually learn to do shit, then you maybe buy a used mill and pick up some jobs on your own, then buy more equipment, more jobs, etc

It seems like maybe you’re in the part of life where you’re realizing that your interests don’t necessarily line up with your skills. That’s okay and it does kind of suck but it means that you maybe need to try more shit, or maybe look at why it’s a challenge for you to stick with developing a skill set outside of art