3:28 AM
I think the largest way to make money on the side in EE is counterintuitive. I don't think it'd be a sure bet, unlike something smaller and more constant. For instance, what if you were to try to invent something useful? It could be anything from an electronic device to a process. That involves a lot of time researching, tinkering, etc. Instead, tutoring EE or codementor-ing students (e.g., codementor.io) would result in lower income, but a relatively more consistent cash stream...
I suppose what I'm getting at is risk vs reward. You could spend a lot of your free time researching and developing something. Generally, this would be at the cost/risk of making significantly less money. Although, the catch is that you could generate super-significantly more (in my eyes) if whatever you were developing is actually successful/efficacious.
To sum up, on one hand there are EE/CS things you can do that will be easier and generates revenue in the short term: seeking money for money's sake. On the other hand, going into something that isn't so well known, something where your focus is on a sort of creativity, maybe even unbroken ground, lots of hassle, roadblocks, breakthroughs, more hangups and so on--the path less traveled--to maybe something worthwhile.
One short-term idea is to take a hobby electronics project, like Samy Kamkar's Master combination lock breaker/unlocker (open source) and sell completed versions of it. Before the 3D printer screwed me over, the project can be built with less expensive versions of some he suggests. For instance, it doesn't need a rotary encoder to unlock the combo lock.
One long-term idea is develop a real JETPACK!
(Rn, this "real" jetpack has very short range. However, the movie producer/director guy and his team did make a second version, the JB11 with redundancy system.)
