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The world needs more good software than another person making toy electronics IMO.

I see them as a hobby for electronics people, non-programmer computer types, or just for fun for anyone. But given a choice between some cute electronic that won't leave my house and building a web or github based side project that thousands of people could potentially use, I'd go with the latter every time.

I say that after giving up on my own gaming electronics thing I was building until I realized my time could be better spent and I could buy a finished one from China for half the price.



>> The world needs more good software than another person making toy electronics.

Rather sad to read that electronics is thought of as a toy. It is the "body" which software runs on. I agree cute electronics is probably not that useful but the are many others.


Perhaps it's because you need to invest so much more time to make something useful in hardware. In software it's still possible to make small useful projects.


Hardware is, well, hard. But the kits available can make it much easier and more approachable. You just need to learn the ecosystem -- like learning a computer language and development environment.


In the embedded world, electronics is a useful skill. Also RF design or low power design are very valuable skills.


You kind of seem to miss the major point of stuff being a hobby or interest in the first place. For other people the enjoyment comes from the process of making and understanding, not necessarily having a shiny end product.

For hobby projects (both software and hardware) I generally don't care if they leave my house or if one or thousands see them, that's something I do for me, not to fulfill some hypothetical need of the world.


> The world needs more good software than another person making toy electronics [..]

I'd be just as happy to see my kids getting interested in electronics as coding.




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