Don’t think mining is dead. 100’s of new coins coming each day. Mining 100-500-1000 of these quickly, when difficulty is low, and you are bound to hit one that is worth something….. some day.  Would not have minded mining a few 100 btc in 2009 at difficulty 1, which is was in most of 2009.

Now the idea / system of mining are a dead end if you ask me. Getting paid for… well nothing, other than wasting energy, is, yes you guessed it, unproductive. Then rather a mining systems like BONIC / Gridcoin, where you actually solve something useful with idle computer power.