Sometimes I find myself rewriting the same comments online over and over. That's when I write a blog post to just link to that. Let me know what HN folks think!

I started as an apprentice electrician at 16 years old way back in the late 1980's for a large company. I believe the reason I was successfully offered the apprenticeship was due to bringing to the interview my completed and working LED VU meter Dick Smith electronic kit (big in Australia at the time). It was something real they could hold and look over. I remember them spending a fair amount of time looking over my soldering, cutting of component legs and wiring. Then asking a few basic electronics questions. Something real pre-internet to stand out from the crowd :-)

I cannot build a project that earns money, even pennies, because that would have very complicated tax implications in my country.

I also cannot pay for backend DB because I don't have any money.

Finally, whatever I build would be CLI based or have a native GUI, not web style; I wouldn't want to (nor can I) build a website related to the software.

I guess I cannot build something real. Darn.

It takes a lot of time to building something good, specially when you are learning.