I can't judge the flexibility of your degree, but I stretched my full-time master's degree from 3 full-time to 7 part-time semesters while working part-time on IT-projects (both in an IT consultancy and the entrepreneurial center of another university) on the side (also in Germany, but a university of applied sciences instead).
I wouldn't say that's "dragging things out" like you said, I consider it more like doing a master's degree on my own terms while keeping up my motivation and passion for the field I'm in. With the previous SWE experience you mentioned it should be possible to look for a working student position fitting your interests.
I have in fact done just that: I've been a part-time student for a bunch of semesters, did an internship and a working-student job in Software Development.
Then, last October I applied for another working student position. I managed to negotiate a rather high salary for being a WS position and got the job offer -but something kept me unhappy and I could'nt put my finger on it. Then in the last second I radically changed my mind, rejected the nice offer and decided my degree feels too much of a burden in my neck that I won't be enjoying the job and will likely get too exhausted doing both. I felt I won't be making fast enough progress in any direction for my liking: Neither would I make enough money to invest on the side, nor would I finish my degree any time soon.
So I thought let me just get this thing done and over with ASAP first, then come back to the company - And that's what I told them as well (They really, REALLY wanted me badly). Since this summer I'm now studying in full-time again.
I can see the micro-aspect as most of these target niche markets, are run by solo-founders, etc., but what differentiates these from traditional small businesses other than the fact they sell digital products and services?
Exactly. The most significant differentiation is that most of the tech projects run worldwide. The founder might not have a permanent place like other small traditional businesses. You could be a nomad with a desktop and Wi-Fi in Bali and travel without being fully dedicated to the business. So, for me, it's freedom.
Love it, will you do a write-up on how to replicate this with other sources? I'm currently analyzing both Indie Hackers and StartupsForTheRestOfUs Interview Transcriptions and this could be a fun analysis!
Love it, as a solo dev I'm gravitating more towards a kit that also offers its components library as a code equivalent (looking at Tailwind UI right now), but I can definitely see the value in this for actual designers!
Makes me want to step up my Figma-game, did you do write-ups or do you have recommendations on how to build up the skills required to craft something like this?
I acted as follows:
1. First I wrote a list of necessary controls (button, input field, breadcrumbs, etc.)
2. Then I found all the design systems that I find visually pleasing. Along the way I checked which of them had repetitive controls that were missing from my list. And added them.
3. Then I assembled a moodboard for each control (these are screenshots of different variations of each control from each design system).
4. And drew them one by one. It's not hard to do when I have all the patterns in front of me.
But I have a serious advantage - I'm a designer. I learned the visual skills at different offline courses (we have great people in Russia who can teach great things). Perhaps if you clarify the question, I can help with a much better answer!
Well it's not WordPress and you're missing out on the plugin-ecosystem (and there aren't that many themes yet) but the closest I know that fits your vision would be Publii [0].
https://makingmusic.ableton.com/