I left reddit the day the api shit went down and came here. Same Lemmy as its always been but noticeably more people now. My feed is more curated. It reminds me of my reddit experience in maybe 2011 or so. As with anything on the internet, the experience is only as good or as bad as you allow it to be. If you see a community or instance you dont like, just block them and move on. Do I like Lemmy as much as I did early reddit? Id say no, but not by much. Maybe its my rose colored nostalgia glasses for early Reddit that keeps me wishing for things to be the way they used to be but its totally possible that reddit was never as great as I thought it was. Idk. Im here now and I dig it. Its not the same but I like watching it grow and it keeps me entertained when I need it to. Overall, its better than the invasive nature of what reddit is now. Thats just my own opinion tho.
About what I’ll make this year as a CNC machinist. And at least I’m making tangible and useful objects for jet engines and rockets (space, not war). A lot of those C suite executives do jack shit for humanity and get paid more in a week than I make actually working all year.