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Opposite to the author, I've fixated on just a few hobbies which have captured my interest for many years (drawing and Japanese-English translation being the bi

Opposite to the author, I've fixated on just a few hobbies which have captured my interest for many years (drawing and Japanese-English translation being the big two). In regards to my hobbies, this assessment is extremely accurate! Had never thought of things in terms of "minigames," but when I do make appreciable progress, it's because I've given myself a new minigame to crush. Unfortunately, I haven't cracked the mentor puzzle either, though I'm sure it would help enormously.

zeptonaut22 4y ago
My jealousy is tangible. I always want to be great at just a few things... but those few things happen to change too often for that to ever happen. (Software engineering and running are probably the ones I've sustained for the longest, though kids haven't helped with the latter.)
- mym1990 4y ago
  Have some of this as well, what helps me is picking up tangential hobbies where some skills may carry over(or vice versa). I would say tennis is my main hobby, and recently I have started playing a little bit of pickleball and racquetball to get variety. The skills and tactics for tennis are pretty different from the other two, but having things like hand eye coordination and footwork carry over are a big plus! Conversely I picked up 3d printing last year with the intent of learning to 3d model, and I felt like a pretty big noob trying to figure it out. At the end I just resorted to printing what others had already modeled haha.
  - zeptonaut22 4y ago
    Totally makes sense! Plus, you can look pretty cool when you're actually decent right away at something. Pickleball is a blast.
- now__what 4y ago
  That jealousy goes both ways. I often wish I was one of those people who can share stories about their adventures into many interests, or who can relate to a wide range of people because of their variety of experiences. Going deep can be very isolating. Unless my conversation partner happens to have some overlap with my limited interests, I'm at a loss. Too many conversations end with the other person staring at me like I came from another planet :(
tetha 4y ago
I was about to comment too. I'm noticing this very strongly e.g. in my early endeavors in music (2-3 years into the bass, 6 month seriously into the guitar after getting the neck aligned) It sounds trivial, but if you can't solidly and reliably count up to fourths and eights - and weird patterns of fourths and eights across 2 - 3 bars - 16ths and triplets would be almost impossible to to right. And this is very similar to the "Added minigames" - you just add "and" in between the fourths and "ti" between the ands, no biggie right? And speed is very similar. Hence the recommendation - learn a motive in a song until you can play it cleanly and slowly, and then speed up. Just going fast will usually end up being frustrating and bringing in bad habits. And interestingly, while you can't transfer that much about playing well from a bass guitar to a guitar, you can transfer quite a bit of information about incorrect play and it's causes. The causes might have different rates of occurring - it's much easier to accidentally mute a guitar string and much easier to not fret bass strings precisely enough resulting in a messy buzz for example. But it's very recognizable.

zeptonaut22 4y ago

My jealousy is tangible. I always want to be great at just a few things... but those few things happen to change too often for that to ever happen. (Software engineering and running are probably the ones I've sustained for the longest, though kids haven't helped with the latter.)

mym1990 4y ago
Have some of this as well, what helps me is picking up tangential hobbies where some skills may carry over(or vice versa). I would say tennis is my main hobby, and recently I have started playing a little bit of pickleball and racquetball to get variety. The skills and tactics for tennis are pretty different from the other two, but having things like hand eye coordination and footwork carry over are a big plus! Conversely I picked up 3d printing last year with the intent of learning to 3d model, and I felt like a pretty big noob trying to figure it out. At the end I just resorted to printing what others had already modeled haha.
- zeptonaut22 4y ago
  Totally makes sense! Plus, you can look pretty cool when you're actually decent right away at something. Pickleball is a blast.
now__what 4y ago
That jealousy goes both ways. I often wish I was one of those people who can share stories about their adventures into many interests, or who can relate to a wide range of people because of their variety of experiences. Going deep can be very isolating. Unless my conversation partner happens to have some overlap with my limited interests, I'm at a loss. Too many conversations end with the other person staring at me like I came from another planet :(

tetha 4y ago

I was about to comment too. I'm noticing this very strongly e.g. in my early endeavors in music (2-3 years into the bass, 6 month seriously into the guitar after getting the neck aligned) It sounds trivial, but if you can't solidly and reliably count up to fourths and eights - and weird patterns of fourths and eights across 2 - 3 bars - 16ths and triplets would be almost impossible to to right. And this is very similar to the "Added minigames" - you just add "and" in between the fourths and "ti" between the ands, no biggie right? And speed is very similar. Hence the recommendation - learn a motive in a song until you can play it cleanly and slowly, and then speed up. Just going fast will usually end up being frustrating and bringing in bad habits. And interestingly, while you can't transfer that much about playing well from a bass guitar to a guitar, you can transfer quite a bit of information about incorrect play and it's causes. The causes might have different rates of occurring - it's much easier to accidentally mute a guitar string and much easier to not fret bass strings precisely enough resulting in a messy buzz for example. But it's very recognizable.