For those of us working in tech, it can be extremely satisfying to bake your own bread. I did that a few years ago, starting from scratch, making my own sourdough starter, and baking daily. It's rediscovering what a typical family did centuries ago. Your starter becomes a pet.
I had to stop it due to a lot of travel, but I still have a packet of my starter vacuum sealed and frozen.
Maybe I should try again. Travel certainly won't be an issue for a while.
I just like fresh bread without all the work ;). With a good bread machine, you only have to mix the ingredients (or purchase a nice mix) and the machine does the work for you. Ours never failed baking a good bread (except for the one time where I forgot to add yeast ;)).
