So I've been mining crypto for a few years using a normal gaming desktop computer. Basically, I keep my computer running 24/7 anyways and figured I might as well have it mine while it is doing nothing. Even more since I didn't have to worry about electrical cost.

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The amount gain wasn't something to jump for joy about. I was mining only with a RTX 2080. I didn't overclock anything, I did my best to keep the temp down at or below 70 degrees, and I didn't push it. My desktop was a desktop first since I use it for making money through 3D printing, auto cad, making guides, and other methods. And this is primarily am stop mining.

Why I kept mining after ETH switch to POS, and what got me into it:

It's because of passive income. I know a lot of miners back in the day and some now tried to make it out to be extremely hard. And yes if you are on a professional scale. But for the average everyday person, this was truly plug and play AFTER you got it setup. This is something crypto does extremely well. Unlike everything else, you can have true 100% hands off passive income.

And yes, if I was in a situation where I had to pay for the electric bill, I wouldn't do it. As many have pointed out, it's extremely likely you can calculate how much it will take to mine, and just use that money to buy the crypto. Which I didn't believe in to start with.

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What got me out of mining:

I started dealing with graphic card driver failures. During this I honestly don't have much to turn to when I'm completely stump on a problem so I go to AI. And after about 2 days of trying to figure out the root cause, a number of test on the hardware, and playing guessing games if it is a driver update that happened a week ago (and why didn't the thing flip out sooner if that was the cause). I started to write down the entire situation because the AI has horrible memory so it can recall. Basically I was writing a summary of everything.

In this, I started to write out how much I made a day in doing this. Roughly 20 cents a day. And this got me thinking. I literally fighting over pennies. I'm 99% sure the issue is with the minerstat software and some conflict with other software or updates. And to confirm how stupid this entire situation is. I did the calculations and it's only $73 a year.

Because of how passive this is and how little I checked on it, I had the mindset of what it was where I was making $1 or more a day. Again not enough to jump for joy over, but enough to help out if needed.

Like it still feels like a gut punch because my mind instantly goes to x MUST make money. But writing it down put the entire thing in perspective.

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What I learned from this experience:

Once in a while write down your situation or just say it out loud. If I didn't do this, I would be fighting it and be looking at selling crap to just get a new computer I didn't need in order to mine for the highest amount.

Like take a step back and write it down, and see how it sounds. If it sounds stupid, you likely should consider just not doing it.

For example, once in a while people ask on here what people regret from the last bull run. And most including myself admit that we wish we sold and took profit. Many of us had a freaking good indication we went into a bear market after the first bit. Even at a loss and seeing a cliff we were like.... well it will just go up from here, or we are still in the bull market it is just taking a break.

But I feel if many of us that was making excuses actually step back and said out loud the situation or wrote it down and read it as someone else wrote it. We would likely sold.