Glad you're having a good experience, and I agree that we were missing a leg when I got here.

But that billionaire is my boss and someone I've known since 2005-ish. I'm not sure where this pet project meme came from, but I've heard it often and for years and from many more people than you.

If I were to guess, I think it partly comes from other billionaires who did dabble in media as a hobby. Warren Buffett owns newspapers. Jeff Bezos bought the WashPo. Neither are full time on these projects.

But Ev (the Billionaire) founded Blogger in 1999, never detoured farther than podcasting, came back to microblogging with Twitter and now regular blogging with Medium. I think it's really off to call that a hobby. It's his life's work and regardless of mistakes (which he's pretty open about), I think he's done more for helping people publish online than anyone. People should find a different critique for him and there are plenty of more accurate ones available.