The home lab started as a learning environment (a Lenovo TS140 in a closet running ESXi) and grew into a multi-node platform for experimentation. These essays cover the builds, the creative projects, and the philosophy of keeping hobbies unmonetized. Alongside the infrastructure: bartop arcade cabinets, 3D printing experiments, and whatever else my brain latches onto when the kids are asleep and the work laptop is closed.
Palworld hit 1.0 this week and I wanted back in. A Proxmox VM, an Ubuntu 26 template, Docker Compose, and about an hour of troubleshooting DNS quirks later, I had a dedicated server running in the basement.
The moment you start thinking about ROI on a hobby, you've turned something you love into something you owe. I've watched it happen with photography, copywriting, and smoking meat, and the pattern is always the same.
My kid builds redstone contraptions with no spec and no deadline. My engineers build their best prototypes under the same conditions. The pattern isn't a coincidence.