I chose content over building an app as my side hustle

The speaker, a software developer who earns a living writing code, explains why they picked content (YouTube + blogs) instead of building an app or SaaS as a side hustle. Their decision rests on five concrete reasons that combine practicality, opportunity, and personal preference.

1. Faster to start: content required less upfront time to get going than building a full app or SaaS, even though producing videos remains time-consuming. The speaker notes they edited "almost all" of their videos themselves for the first two years and created about 200 videos, and only recently "hired a full-time editor."
2. Easier and cheaper to outsource: Per speaker, good software developers are expensive and rare, while affordable editors and writers are easier to find, so small amounts of money accelerate content much more readily than software development.
3. Idea availability: the speaker 'didn't have a good idea to start building something' for an app, but had immediate, actionable content ideas—personal coding journey, a non-coding first blog, and later a second blog tied to coding. They avoided the 'procrastination brainstorming loop' that can stop execution on software ideas.
4. Monetization and reach: content can generate income sooner and builds "reach"—an audience you can market products to later. The speaker observes that while unicorn SaaS wins are possible, "million dollar apps or those billion dollar apps aren't that common," so content felt like a realistic, earlier revenue path. The speaker also promises to only sell valuable products to that audience.
5. Personal energy and enjoyment: after "eight hours a day" writing code professionally, they did not want to code in free time. They enjoyed video work (past on-camera experience and editing) and found content more fun; now that editing is outsourced they plan to write more for personal blogs.

Bottom line: the speaker chose content because it was quicker to start, cheaper to scale with outsourcing, had ready topics, provided audience reach for future products, and matched their desire for a non-coding side project. Their practical advice: pick what you want to do and put in the work.