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Ask HN: What are your non-tech hobbies?
I used to focus on tech related stuff way too much. Once I balanced my life more with things like disc golf, indoor skydiving, cooking, among other things, I felt much more complete in life. What hobbies do you do outside of tech (this includes things like gaming)?
- grobbie 5y agoReading - lots of philosophy, sociology, economics, even some theology - anything that triggers my neurons HIIT, 10ks, resistance training, Yoga Mindfulness and meditation Painting and drawing, visiting art galleries Weekend travel Playing musical instruments very badly Similarly started feeling that I was overdosing on tech and becoming a bore with too little perspective and a lack of emotional empathy, so I made a big effort to balance out my life. But the struggle is real and ongoing : )
- zachrip 5y agoWhich do you feel had the most impact on growing empathy?
- grobbie 5y agoI would say mindfulness is perhaps the biggest empathy amplifier, but it is reading that has the biggest empathy growth impact for me. Reading feeds my empathy by helping me to build and maintain a broad perspective; practising mindfulness helps me to apply it. Many say that even reading pulp fiction can help to build empathy, so you probably need not read philosophers and economists if that's deterring to you; I can't personally testify to that though because fiction doesn't really hold my interest.
- the_only_law 5y agoNgl, really just drinking atm. All of the stuff that sounds cool I want to get into I really can’t for one reason or another. Often this comes down to requiring me to own property or land I can use and modify, which while I suppose I could obtain, would require a level of settling I’m not comfortable with right now.
- zachrip 5y agoPlease be careful with drinking, it's a slippery slope. What kind of things are you interested in?
- rcarmo 5y agoReading and fiddling with MIDI gear. Mostly soft synths, although I did get some cheap hardware synthesizers (and an OP-1, which is tremendous fun but definitely not cheap). I do game a bit, but not as much as I would like to.
- laurieg 5y agoRunning - I enjoy it but do not recommend it. While it keeps my fitness up I often end up with one pain for weeks. Playing the piano - a great diversion, it doesn't take too long to be able to play chords and sing along to your favourite tunes. Writing short mysteries - inspired by Two Minute Mysteries. I write short mystery stories where the rest had to solve the story. I put them up online and occasionally someone emails me their solution.
- zachrip 5y agoI think just a walk a day at minimum can help people in so many positive ways. Need to think about a problem? Walk. Stressed? Walk. Need to get more fit? Run.
- tg180 5y agoOne of my new hobbies is walking the via ferratas. Staying in places so isolated really helps relax totally and forget about everyday problems (at least for a few days).
- Tomte 5y agoI'm currently losing a lot of weight with calorie counting and walking. It's better than running, because I wouldn't be running more than once or twice before quitting.
- blankton 5y agoSinging and conducting choirs. Being a conductor is fascinating. I'm able to move and direct around 50 people in perfect harmonie and synchronisation (in theory :D reality sadly differs sometimes). The community aspect is also great. We share something we are passionate about and work on it together.
- zachrip 5y agoI really would love to get into music. As someone who would describe themselves as "without musical talent," where would you lead me to get into music?
- news_to_me 5y agoDepends on what you want to do - sing, play, listen better? I would recommend getting a ukulele and learning some easy 3-chord songs that you like. It takes some time to get decent at, but it’s easier than guitar and they’re pretty cheap. You can also get into making electronic music or drum loops pretty easily.
- Leftium 5y agoWCS (social dance) I have a shirt that combines tech + dance hobbies. It says "<lead>" on the front, and "</lead>" on the back. My dance friends know what "lead" means, but don't know what the extra symbols mean. My tech friends know it's an XML element, but are unfamiliar with the <lead> tag.
- Tomte 5y agoThat's nice. I'm stealing it for Lindy and Balboa.
- Leftium 5y agoThey don't make them anymore, but there were a few variations: - <lead>, <follow> - <wcs>, <lindy>, <bal> https://web.archive.org/web/20080330162307/http://geekswing.com/shop_store.php?store=1 https://web.archive.org/web/20080330162307/http://geekswing....
- rikroots 5y agoI've been known to commit poetry when I think people aren't watching me[1]. Strangely, I've always found it easier to tell people I invent my own languages[2]. If I accidentally admit to the poetry thing then people start asking me questions and wanting me to look at their poems, whereas leading with the conlang thing generally encourages them to slowly back their way out of the conversation. [1] - Of course I wrote my own website to host them - https://rikverse2020.rikweb.org.uk/ https://rikverse2020.rikweb.org.uk/ [2] - The need to show the world my conlangs is what got me into web development in the first place. So something good came out of my weird hobby - https://gevey.rikweb.org.uk/ https://gevey.rikweb.org.uk/
- batoure 5y agoI throw pottery and give 100% of it away
- fifilura 5y agoFor a non-native english speaker "throwing pottery and giving it away" sounded like more fun for you than the recipient. But I learned a new phrase today! And sounds like fun. Also for the recipient!
- LogIN- 5y agoSailing. Great hobby, involves learning all kinds of things and you get connected with nature in so many ways.
- nsf39k 5y agoI don’t enjoy distance running but I still push myself to do it. Fitness reasons and it helps vent some frustration after a bad day. Writing short stories. Reading a short story by Clarke as a kid is what set me towards science and tech in the first place. I don’t like showing them to people I know and usually just prefer to put them up somewhere online completely anonymously. Fishing’s great, if you can find somewhere to do it. Day-sailing is the best. A sailing class and small dinghy isn’t that much iirc, but if you can get your hands on a larger vessel there’s nothing better than the feeling of being on open water. If I couldn’t do tech or anything aerospace I’d 100% be in a maritime profession.
- mrfusion 5y agoWhat’s a small sail boat you’d recommend? Can it be low maintenance?
- nsf39k 5y agoThe Dyer Midget is a pretty solid boat (about 8-ft long and costs $4k). I practiced sailing around on local lakes with it as a teen and love it. If you’re aiming for low maintenance, go for something that’s small and storable in a garage since exposure to the elements and water will beat your boat to hell. It won’t be a yacht, but you can still sail around and drink some beer with a friend or two.
- matt_the_bass 5y agoWhy not do tech in the marine industry? Even software devs in that industry get to do on water testing.
- nsf39k 5y agoMaybe in another life. Aviation and space is my bigger interest, and I even dropped out of college last semester to pursue my own drone-tech startup full-time. I guess it's the vast remoteness of the sea and space that appeals to me. Some of my best memories were made sailing through open waters with no land in sight.
- sircastor 5y agoBaking. Though it’s often a means to an end — I really like desserts. I enjoy bread making and pastry making. And have a lot of affinity for laminated doughs.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- max_ 5y agoBooks Making Music Cinema Cooking
- commentsgaloer2 5y agoGaming as you said Gardening, I grow edible stuff in my backyard. It's physical and rewarding. Cooking, necessary as I have kids but I try to get better, cook different things...
- maztaim 5y agoCooking, woodworking, blacksmithing, pottery, home renovations, biking, hiking, kayaking, and reading are ones I frequent. I’m willing to give anything a try once when it comes to extra curricular.
- tobobo 5y agoSkateboarding. The mixture of creativity and physical exercise is extremely rewarding and it’s humbling to fall on concrete from time to time.
- Findeton 5y agoInvesting. Uranium and precious metals equities. 80% uranium.
- Maven911 5y agoHey I have a similar interest. Any future recommendations and do you also target companies involved with rare earth metals?
- codeduck 5y agoKayaking Woodworking Radio control aircraft Amateur Astronomy and telescope building Walking Motorcycles Sailing (inland and Ocean)
- Raed667 5y ago- Running: Great way to get clarity of mind can be done during the lunch break. Bonus, you get fit. - Hiking: Great way to disconnect from the busy city, see amazing places, get some blood flowing and have a bit of adventure. Bonus, you get fit. - Gym: You get fit. Bonus, you meet people from around your neighborhood.
- mvcatsifma 5y ago- Crossfit @i640GYM in Amstelveen, Netherlands - Cooking - Riding my bike
- mrfusion 5y agoPickleball is amazing! Give it a try. Everything you didn’t like about tennis is gone and it’s got a smooth learning curve so you can start having fun right away while still taking years to master. In a lot of areas you can probably find a beginners night and get some quick instruction and play some games. Also 3d printing is really fun.
- Austin_Conlon 5y ago> Everything you didn’t like about tennis is gone Can you elaborate? The physical toll tennis takes on you?
- mrfusion 5y agoYes, it’s a lot less court to cover but you still do get exercise. In fact even if you have limited movement there are some shots you can let your partner get. But being fast is still an advantage. A big thing I didn’t like about tennis was having to find athletic friends to play with who had some tennis skills and manage the scheduling. The best thing about pickleball is in most areas there are scheduled open play times where you just show up and play with everyone.
- mindcrime 5y ago- Mountain biking (albeit this is on pause right now, as I sprained my right shoulder about 3 weeks ago in a pretty gnarly MTB crash) - Road cycling (I don't do as much of this and it originally started out just as cross-training for MTB, but I do enjoy a certain amount of road cycling for its own sake) - BMX (this is where it all started for me. I don't ride BMX much these days, but I keep a bike or two around in case the urge hits) - Fishing (mostly freshwater, mostly targeting largemouth bass, but sometimes I'll target catfish or crappie or something) - Trail running - Bushcraft / camping / etc - Reading (in terms of fiction I read a lot of sci-fi, fantasy, thrillers, spy/espionage stuff, and horror. Non-fiction, aside from tech stuff, I like reading philosophy, history, biographies, pop science (is that too close to tech?) and business stuff (again, is that too close to tech?) - Shooting (I don't get to the range much these days, but it's something I used to do a lot more of when I lived out in the sticks and had a place where I could shoot on our family's property) - Tinkering with old cars (this is another somewhat neglected hobby these days, just due to various constraints. But one day I hope to get back to more of it) - I used to spend some time involved in wrestling/jiu-jitsu and other related pursuits but age and too many injuries (mostly from mountain biking, see above) have caught up with me and I've been away from that stuff for a while. The urge is sometimes still present, but pragmatically speaking, it's not really a realistic pursuit for me anymore)
- dangrossman 5y agoI got into crafting with a laser cutter and some printing equipment. After decades of only making things on screens with code, making things you can hold and see in customers' homes is a nice change. I sell some of it here: https://ligninandlight.com/ https://ligninandlight.com/ I've run into many former developers, that I know from here and other forums, on Glowforge owner groups -- https://glowforge.us/r/GMSCZQGJ https://glowforge.us/r/GMSCZQGJ
- skydhash 5y agoReading (mostly SF and Fantasy) Drawing (on an ipad air as buying art supplies is tiring and I’m not that good)
- vyrotek 5y agoPlaying video games with my kids. 7 Days to Die, Diablo, Valheim. Boardgames with friends. Building a boardgame table this weekend from an old dinning table. Dabble with game dev in Unity. Currently playing around with some VR stuff.
- malyk 5y agoPermaculture gardening, road/gravel cycling, hiking, road trips/camping. These arent new, but the extra time from not commuting and WFH has allowed me to spend more time doing them.
- Nicholas_C 5y agoSurfing, Hiking, Running, Reading (fiction and non-fiction), Fishing (largemouth bass mostly), Guitar, and too many others
- gigantecmedia 5y ago- Reading books (most recently, Nassim Taleb's books) - Running (before lockdowns, now home workout is a very good alternative) - Fasting - Philosophy (Rene Girard, ancient Roman philosophy) - History (my home country of course... also love the story of how Mehmed the Conqueror overtook Constantinople and ended Roman empire) - Travel (mostly due to work but I always appreciated and respect the local cultures and landscapes) - Art - Music - Movies - Cars (most favs are Porsche as a modern business, and of course Tesla) Recently, due to lockdowns I fall in love with cooking too.
- s-t-876 5y agocool combination , Nassim Taleb and Rene Girard are one of most of the profound intellectuals I've come across, the world never looked the same after reading the black swan. and I'm still digesting Girard.
- throwaway675309 5y agoI feel like this question doesn't have much of a point, other than encouraging people who want to talk about themselves but sure why not maybe somebody will come across my post and be like hey mr wizard that's nifty keen we gotta some serious Venn diagram waddlely overlap let's be BESTIES. My background is as a software engineer / ESL instructor fwiw. 1. Piano performance and music composition (mostly classical baroque, but also ambient electronic) 2. Obstacle course parkour training (ninja warrior type stuff), exercise, ping pong, badminton, tennis 3. Juggling (pins, contact, and soccer) 4. DND adventure writing, puzzle creation 5. Philosophy musing (just finished writing a paper on my thoughts on the physiological constraints of free will) 6. Gaming (spelunky, cuphead, precision platformers), mtg 7. Trivia nights / jeopardy 8. Amateur piloting (Cessna 152) 9. Studying Foreign languages (Traditional chinese, Russian) Things I'm not into but are (I feel) disproportionately popular among my tech friends 1. Cooking 2. Swing dancing 3. Quadcopter drone stuff
- haswell 5y agoAs a very curious/inquisitive person who sometimes struggles to carry those tendencies over to my personal life, I love this question! I’m in a rut with some of my personal hobbies partially because many of them are too similar to my day job. This thread is a golden trove of ideas.
- pjfin123 5y agoPickup basketball, hiking, and lifting!
- peanut_worm 5y agoBirdwatching and Hiking mostly Birdwatching is a very rich hobby I’d recommend it to anyone.
- tluyben2 5y agoWe plant a lot of new/different trees in our garden every year to attract more and different birds; it works. And then watch them.
- burntoutfire 5y agoDo specific bird species have preferences for tree species?
- peanut_worm 5y agoAbsolutely. Some woodpeckers only nest in specific pine trees, warblers usually prefer oak trees, mockingbirds like fruit trees, etc
- tluyben2 5y agoReading, writing, hiking, cooking, weights, socialising/talking.
- the-mitr 5y ago- Collecting physical books - Trying out new recipes - Trekking
- markus_zhang 5y agoI'm trying to get start with fossil collecting. Still in pretty early stage as I don't recognize most of the rocks out there. But at least it's good for health.
- jstx1 5y agoThis is how I realise that I need to fill my spare time with something other than youtube/reddit/HN.
- Tolexx 5y agoI love playing video games a lot. So I have a good PS4 console for playing fifa as I'm a football fan
- rdevsrex 5y agoI love doing things I can do with my daughter, Minecraft, reading series like Wings of Fire, but for myself I think and write about philosophy, and very seldom listen to music while high.
- stevekemp 5y ago* Knitting hats for newborn babies. * Photography. I used to shoot escorts, for their websites, but these days I just shoot random volunteers for fun. * Collecting watches. * Going to pottery-classes. I'm terrible, but it doesn't matter. * Baking bread.
- news_to_me 5y agoI love seeing everyone else’s hobbies. It’s important to be well-rounded. Somewhat tech-related, I like building and repairing electronics and vintage mechanical things (Singer sewing machine, old door latches, old Macintosh; you get the idea). Bike maintenance is deeply satisfying. Especially when you go camping on a bike you’ve completely overhauled. Listening to and playing music are important to me in ways that are difficult to describe. And not really a hobby, but just meeting new people and neighbors and listening to them (especially people not in tech) is very rewarding.
- Graffur 5y ago> It’s important to be well-rounded why?
- LorenPechtel 5y agoHiker.
- aorth 5y agoArabic calligraphy. Specifically square kufic!
- bradlys 5y agoSocial partner dancing - lindy hop, blues, “fusion” (it’s a bad name), and Argentine tango are the ones I keep coming back to. Recently been trying bachata again but only due to a woman inviting me out - will likely give it up. (Too much machismo and chud behavior going on) Indoor rock climbing for fitness. I only do bouldering because no friends and still want to get stronger. Woodworking. Various DIY projects. Motorcycle rebuilding and riding - I only ride sports bikes… they need rebuilding too. Driving cars and all that goes into making that a hobby (repair, maintenance, detailing, etc.). Photography - this mostly only gets done while traveling but I’m ready for almost anything. (Ultra wide underwater with strobes to 1200mm wildlife to studio portrait photography to aerial drone photography… I am ready) YouTube. This is basically a hobby at this point and it’s purely consumption. I watch so much random shit that is focused on teaching and learning new things. I’m not watching people react to stuff or anything like that - instead I’m learning about techniques for building new homes, struggles with rebuilding cars (the more I watch the less I want to do it…), woodworking techniques, etc. Ultimately it all has an entertainment bend and isn’t super dry content but I am also learning way more than your average citizen. I would say youtube is likely responsible for why I’ve been able to hold a conversation on nearly any subject for a while now. I’ll meet someone and can engage with them on their subject of choice because I’ve been exposed to so much. Most people are like - “how do you know all this?? This is what I did my graduate degree on.” If you love to learn - lotta high quality content on YouTube that feeds that addiction.
- ovalanche 5y agoPartner dancing is so great. It is fun, good for fitness, and genuinely useful as a social skill… it really builds confidence. If done alone, it’s an easy way to meet people, or if part of a couple, it helps strengthen connection. I love swing and salsa!
- Graffur 5y agoOutside the tech world: * Spending time with my dog * Drinking with friends * Eating out * Watching TV series * Keeping fit and healthy - I vary what I do. Sometimes running, sometimes weights, sometimes walks and hikes. I enjoy eating well too. * Travel - mostly international * EDIT: I forgot to add: cryptocurrency. I spend a good bit of time reading about it on forums.
- jonaustin 5y ago- Meditation (Zazen) - Reading old books on Taoism and slowly grokking Zen/Ch'an - Biking - Fiction (mostly audiobooks) - Hiking (not nearly as much as I should) - Cooking - Playing with my Cats - Watching movies/tv with wife - Playing too many video games - Trying and mostly failing to get into drawing and music creation
- s-t-876 5y agoI enjoy writing short stories, reading fiction of hidden gem unknown authors, I use to like indoor rock climbing a while back.
- muzani 5y agoI'm enjoying story analysis a lot now. I've gone beyond watching movies and reading books to know the plot. My hobby now is finding all the possible plots based on the introduced characters and situations. What makes it fun is that multiple people have invented a lot of rules around what a good story should be. Aristotle has written what's closest to the Newton Laws. It's badass that Newton's Laws still hold up with astrophysics and it's badass that something someone wrote in ancient Greece still holds up in the modern era of cinema. It's flawed, but it says things straight, instead of lots of maybes, so it's easy to prove true or false. Megamind is an interesting beginner's analysis. It's very formulaic but doesn't look anything like that. It's subtle too, his cloak changes color according to his progress as a character. Toy Story is probably the most interesting because it doesn't really fit in any major format. It's a Comedy, there's a misunderstanding, and things go from high to low to high again where enemies are friends. But that's about it. There's a lot of little highs and lows, as opposed to the usual where it's all ascends to one really big high (e.g. Guardians of the Galaxy). In Toy Story, he's about to get home, then things get worse. He makes another plan, it fails. It just gets progressively worse. There's no fixed mentor character too. Buzz and Woody are both protagonists, antagonists, and mentors to each other, except the story is told through Woody's perspective. The most interesting part is that they hatched a formula from it that works, which is used in all other Toy Story movies and a little in other movies. It seems they didn't follow the classical literature analysis and made up their own formulas and it works.
- syndacks 5y agoI'd argue that Toy Story, like most Disney movies, is Hero's Journey at its core.
- dragonwriter 5y ago> Toy Story is probably the most interesting because it doesn't really fit in any major format. What? It’s clearly Hero’s Journey. I haven't broken the beats down by time, but I’d bet its a reasonable approximation of the Save the Cat ideal times for each part of the plot, as well. The main unusual thing is that it has basically two intertwined Hero’s Journey's, but even that (and the twin protagonists each being antagonist-mentor shapeshifters to each other with, at least initially, diametrically opposed world views) is a not-uncommon paired-lead setup. > There's a lot of little highs and lows That's a fairly typical 2nd act pattern, which makes the arrival of the intense crisis more jarring. > as opposed to the usual where it's all ascends to one really big high (e.g. Guardians of the Galaxy). That's also a common, especially action-movie, pattern, where the idea is for the central crisis to be an expected payoff. But its not so overwhelming as to be “the usual”. > Buzz and Woody are both protagonists, antagonists, and mentors to each other, except the story is told through Woody's perspective Mentor-antagonist (or antagonist-mentor) shapeshifters are a common hero’s journey variation, though.
- tyroh 5y agoSome of mine: - Baking: needed some way to still create things that can be immediately enjoyed. I like how most of it is just following a process and learning to gauge the outcome by senses. I also like that you need to practice to fit the recipe to your environment and tools. - Calorie counting: weird hobby, but it helps me discover which foods give the best bang for my buck. Also helps sharpen my estimation skills, which I know we all need to be better at. - Summarizing books and articles: I recently got into reading again and now thouroughly enjoy it more because I create something out of it: notes and sharable content. - Mentorship: more ad hoc these days, but I enjoy helping juniors with their problems.
- abhijat 5y agoI am trying to learn French through the usual apps, it seems to be going okay. I am also trying to get into deeper reading where I spend a lot more time on reading literature deliberately with focus (I don't know if that is the right way to describe it). I think there was a link submitted here a while ago which triggered it, and I realised I read in a very shallow but fast manner just to finish books. So I've been trying to read more consciously. Reading The Brothers Karamazov at the moment.
- pluppen 5y ago- Crossfit - Running - Reading - Photography Currently looking for a dog so hopefully in the future I can add training with my dog to this list :D
- preordained 5y agoBJJ, MTG, ACIM
- ryanchants 5y agoDabbling in: Weaving, sewing, metalsmithing, leatherwork, lifting Want to explore: CNC, penplotting, rug tufting, watch repair Need to get back into: archery, pool
- giantg2 5y agoI have a lot of hobbies and interests. Of course I've had to give up or pause many of them because I have a job and family.
- sampling 5y agoReading Plants Cars and motorsport Photography Cycling Running Swimming Music production