For me it was getting into microcontrollers and (microcontroller based) electronics. Tinkering with IOT projects using an ESP32 is engaging because they offer

For me it was getting into microcontrollers and (microcontroller based) electronics. Tinkering with IOT projects using an ESP32 is engaging because they offer both, a variety of high level connectivity features ( wifi, ble) and direct integration with sensors or other Hardware. Modern ones can even be developed in Rust and are not as constrained hadrwarewise as earlier generations. I recently got back into developing some small "just for me" games with Godot and also got a surprising amount of enjoyment out of trying out Blenders procedural geometry and material node systems. In my day job I am doing resty cloudy things so my free time gets used die something else.