One of my open source projects became quite popular so I wouldn't say that my approach reduces my degree of perfectionism or hurts my projects' chances of adoption; if anything, it has the opposite effect. It provides me unlimited time which allows me to think really hard about every decision I make - It gives me the freedom to always choose the most long term solution. I'm not trying to get lucky catching the next big wave and timing it just right. Not looking for a lucky break. I'm trying to work towards a reliable result in the long term and I'm getting closer every year.
Not caring too much about the economic results behind the work is absolutely critical for this approach to work at all. If I broke down or considered giving up every time I experienced an economic disappointment or my project didn't get any attention, I wouldn't have gotten anywhere near as far as I did today.
It took me 10 years before I could monetize my project such that I could work on it full time. It was literally a decade of almost no income at all and almost nobody taking my work seriously. Then suddenly one day in the 10th year I started earning good passive income from that project.
If I was even slightly focused on financial results or even popularity score, I would have given up on year 2.
Not caring too much about the economic results behind the work is absolutely critical for this approach to work at all. If I broke down or considered giving up every time I experienced an economic disappointment or my project didn't get any attention, I wouldn't have gotten anywhere near as far as I did today.
It took me 10 years before I could monetize my project such that I could work on it full time. It was literally a decade of almost no income at all and almost nobody taking my work seriously. Then suddenly one day in the 10th year I started earning good passive income from that project. If I was even slightly focused on financial results or even popularity score, I would have given up on year 2.