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My biggest one right now is music. I recently started taking some guitar lessons again (my first lessons since high school). It's been a great motivation to bus

My biggest one right now is music. I recently started taking some guitar lessons again (my first lessons since high school). It's been a great motivation to bust through some plateaus. It's been a big encouragement too to pick up some other skills - I've been getting into recording and DAWs and even have done some (very noobish) video production. I was really inspired recently by Ben Levin's music channel, so I cribbed a format he used for a few videos, and recorded myself playing a solo and then did some after-the-fact analysis on it. I really like how the video came out, although there a million things to improve upon, especially in terms of audio quality. (That video is here if that sounds interesting to you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2FkjeOXchc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2FkjeOXchc) I have always had a (bad...?) habit of picking up and dropping various hobbies - I love learning new stuff, and I really love how quickly you can get the first 70-80% of a new skill. Over the past few years some of those have been cooking, fishing, weightlifting, and writing. I'm not super active in any of those right now (though I really need to get back on the wagon with lifting and exercise). Oh, also - pinball. So much fun, I could bang quarters into those machines all day long. One of these days I'll have a table in my house... I also have three kids, one of whom is a baby, so my time for multiple hobbies is basically nil. I'd love to find more time for all of them!

etrautmann 3y ago
I'm not sure that's a bad habit - exploring lots of different interests is totally okay (especially for children but also adults). Each of those things you try teaches you something you may apply elsewhere. There's a quote I can only partially paraphrase where if you only stay motivated for some period of time for different activities, then "maybe you found what you were looking for" in one that you put down or rotated away from. For myself, I'm sporadically very motivated to take photography seriously, but don't beat myself up if I'm not motivated for a few months.
- epiccoleman 3y ago
  Yeah, I'm not sure it's bad either, hence the question mark - but there are tradeoffs when you bounce around between stuff. Jack of all trades, master of none, etc. Still, I'm not going to change that aspect of myself - it's fun!
  - etrautmann 3y ago
    yep, agreed. I think of it as a tradeoff, where a huge amount of effort (and opportunity cost) is required for marginal gains after a certain point. Becoming a "Master of One" requires giving up 20 other things, and the breadth of those other activities is what gives me joy, purpose, meaning, variation, etc. As long as I'm okay with not being a world class sponsored climber, or exhibiting photos at the smithsonian then I can just enjoy what I happen to be motivated by right now, which feels healthier anyway. My friends who've optimized for a single thing have a hard time when they eventually decided to pursue something else.

etrautmann 3y ago

I'm not sure that's a bad habit - exploring lots of different interests is totally okay (especially for children but also adults). Each of those things you try teaches you something you may apply elsewhere. There's a quote I can only partially paraphrase where if you only stay motivated for some period of time for different activities, then "maybe you found what you were looking for" in one that you put down or rotated away from. For myself, I'm sporadically very motivated to take photography seriously, but don't beat myself up if I'm not motivated for a few months.

epiccoleman 3y ago
Yeah, I'm not sure it's bad either, hence the question mark - but there are tradeoffs when you bounce around between stuff. Jack of all trades, master of none, etc. Still, I'm not going to change that aspect of myself - it's fun!
- etrautmann 3y ago
  yep, agreed. I think of it as a tradeoff, where a huge amount of effort (and opportunity cost) is required for marginal gains after a certain point. Becoming a "Master of One" requires giving up 20 other things, and the breadth of those other activities is what gives me joy, purpose, meaning, variation, etc. As long as I'm okay with not being a world class sponsored climber, or exhibiting photos at the smithsonian then I can just enjoy what I happen to be motivated by right now, which feels healthier anyway. My friends who've optimized for a single thing have a hard time when they eventually decided to pursue something else.