If you're a hobby scientist who happens to have money and goes off in an attempted to create something that would truly advance our technological understanding of the world/generally make the world a better place with whatever you're making - you'll probably be arrested by the FBI long before you ever get to succeed.
This is a bad thing. If science is to be seen as simply a hobby by the coming generations, the world as we know it is truly doomed to complete stagnation.
I try and give the advice that for most artist, you need to treat it as a hobby. Actual income needs to come from elsewhere.
It’s weird that science is becoming the same same thing. Many are better off as hobby scientists.