I have a lot of interesting ideas, that I think can benefit other software engineers as well as regular people.
But no matter where I look, it seems like everyone on the internet is focused on becoming influencers and doing some sort of coaching / consulting / selling a course of some kind.
And honestly, I couldn’t care less about TikTok or reels. I don’t mind doing some live streaming, but I don’t want to become an influencer / Internet personality. I just want to work on cool shit that brings value to people, and make decent money to live well. I don’t need millions of dollars (although this would be helpful), but if I can make my current salary as employee, entirely from my side projects, I’d be super happy.
So is possible to make a decent living by running a small sized business, without resorting to selling online courses, creating short videos, and YouTube?
Meanwhile there’s plenty of people quietly chugging away on various projects or educational resources with a core group of followers supporting then via patreon/donations/etc who make a good living. I follow at least a dozen across game dev, software, electronics, etc.
It’s a grind to get started though, Eg it can take a few years to get to “make enough to survive” money. You need to actually be providing consistent content that benefits people. Not millions of people, but more than a few.
At the top level, this means big firms that secure funding for big projects and then grab whatever employees they can find to execute on it - and so there are career pathways like the defense contractor business where you're ultimately being employed by the Department of Defense, but in an indirect way where they're your client. Lots of verticals have that kind of relationship. It can also result in small niches where you can become the person who does the one thing well, for a whole industry, and you're always in demand. Like Don LaFontaine for movie trailer voiceovers. But in each case, that kind of thing is often an "end up" - you don't decide early on that you're gonna be the guy who says "in a world" really well, or that you are going to spend years developing some expensive secret weapons system. You just get the offer and say yes, over and over, until it becomes the thing you do.
What influencer social media kind of is, is a way of bootstrapping more niche roles into existence by being really visible on the platform. And I believe that's a big part of the appeal. But it takes a coherent sense of self and one's interests to not end up being used by it as disposable content.
And this intersects with education because there's usually an angle to that sort of thing of building your own community and being a kind of "community manager with a channel" and not necessarily going towards a books and courses upsell so much as a gatekeeper of an online space, one which could be full of possibilities for salon-style discourse.
If what you post is "look at my cool project", it can get some likes, but it doesn't communicate as much or in such a sticky way as "be part of this community".
and I picked this job among all because you can apply anywhere, in any country, and in any city.
I would also recommend to work where "travel", so that you contribute the build the place and join the social fabric. That's how you actually discover regions of the world.
So IMO, keep being a software engineer for now, and spend a few years working in different locations !
However, if you're senior(-ish), you can also become a freelancer, and work remotely. There are hotspots of IT freelancers who do that, like Malaga or Thailand !