The strategy on printers has largely been, “lose money on their hardware and make it back on the ink.” If you were to go to market against them you would be competing with something that is already losing money. For your average consumer it’s probably not worth buying a machine that is 10x better for 20x the price.

I didn't mention it in the post, but this was more so coming from an angle of preparing for money running out. How much runway is enough knowing that if I fail there will be some amount of lead time to find a new gig and if that new gig will pay similarly to what I am making now.

I'm not sure I'm following this line of thinking. Are you saying that the best way to handle risks is to put your head in the sand and pretend they don't exist?

If I was thinking about driving through the Amazon I would ask others what the experience was like to better understand the risks, not just hop in the car and hope for the best.

This experience is exactly what I wanted to hear about. I'm working on building up enough runway to make sure I'm not homeless but I wasn't sure if there would be long term effects to my earning potential. If you don't mind me asking, what kind of roles did you take when you re-entered the corporate world?

Super helpful, especially with the recommended runway of 2-5 years. When you say you have done this, can you elaborate on your situation a little bit more?