Hello I have also literally spent thousands of hours on the general topic of self hosting and related stuff such as linux, filesystems, networking, hardware, software etc etc. Yes, it is possible to be this stupid.

Here is my simple math:

2000 hours / 12 hour days = 167 days. I have been generally building up on this subject for about 10 years. And in COVID I had a lot of blocks of days where I was just at the computer. For more than 12 hours. I think I have easily spent more than 2000 hours.

I still have extremely rickety set up that mostly isn't doing any of the things I want. It's fine for me because I have learned a lot, have fun, and nothing is mission critical. If I had money/business that was reliant on this I would absolutely pay someone! That is just part of doing business. Especially if anyone else was at all reliant upon it. If I have employees or the work I do is important than it is only respectful and professional to swallow the costs to ensure it is done at quality. And even if its just for my own use, not everyone enjoys this stuff and still want to be free of google etc.

Everyone here reminds me of all the shitty landlords who do such a bad job of "fixing" things themselves instead of paying the going rate for a trade to come do it right and to code. Like 3 visits to install an interior doorknob and never getting it right. Like dude, just admit you aren't any good at installing doorknobs. And please don't go near the plumbing.

Too bad it's not just one thing

If you spend that much time on something you get good at it.

My bowling average begs to differ.

Lol, a thousand hours would be 6 months of full time work (40 hour week). I'm not sure I'd employ someone who has 6 months of IT experience into a systems administrator job and task them to build a an erp/dms/unified coms solution for a client.

But this guy should be able to do it as a hobby?