11 ms·

Ask HN: What are your hobbies?

38 points by codingclaws 3y ago

JumpinJack_Cash 3y ago
Vehicles where you are exposed to elements (motorcycles, MTB downhill, motortrikes, jetskis, kiteboards..). Guitars DJ sets Jiu Jitsu
- codingclaws 3y ago
  I want to try kiteboarding, lots of wind where I live.
  - JumpinJack_Cash 3y ago
    Please do. It's a skill for life and a great equalizer, quite literally, once people have installed the foils on the boards there is quite literally nothing left to invent in the sport/hobby. It's like biking, people can trim a quarter of an ounce from the bike/board here and there but the body movements and techniques that you learn now will be absolutely the same 100 years from now.
tharne 3y ago
Lately I've been trying to get away from anything involving a screen outside of work. At the moment I'm spending a lot of time cooking and working on basic repair projects around the house. Once it gets warmer, I'll transition to things like camping, gardening, and fishing. I've also wanted to get into bow hunting, but it's not popular in my area so I haven't found anyone to go with.
PaulHoule 3y ago
Sports photography
xu3u32 3y ago
Running, building small SaaS projects that dont make money, lifting
- codingclaws 3y ago
  I am into lifting too, but I'm home gym with minimal equipment.
  - xu3u32 3y ago
    I love going to my local YMCA because I enjoy seeing the regulars every day and they have everything I need - dumbells, isolation machines, benches and squat racks.
  - qup 3y ago
    I combined another hobby, and built my own squat rack (out of wood, mainly) I should use it.
minerva23 3y ago
Spending time with family is my joy. Building games (Factorio, DSP, Satisfactory, Timberborn, etc) are my zen.
- FumblingBear 3y ago
  Love it! Have you ever tried Modded Minecraft? Huge fan of the same types of games, and nothing except factorio hits quite as hard as expert packs in Minecraft for me. Enigmatica 2: Expert Extended, Nomifactory (GTCEu Port), and Gregtech: New Horizons are some of the most engaging factory building games I've ever had the pleasure of playing! Highly recommend giving it a shot if you like that style of puzzle solving :)
  - minerva23 3y ago
    I haven't. Thanks for the recommendation!
ItsBob 3y ago
I asked myself that question at the start of the year and the answer was: I have none! I realised that I was rapidly approaching retirement age and I had nothing to do when I stop software stuff! So I've changed all that and tried a few things. I've settled on golf (used to play as a child - I'm 49 now) and playing piano (played that as a child too). Anyway... I'm happy af now (only way to put it). Not to sidetrack this but I reckon unfinished stuff is a definite cause of mid-life crisis: I realised that I start many things but don't finish them and often use the excuse, "meh, it wasn't for me!" to justify it and funnily enough, from the middle of last year to this year I was decidedly unhappy but couldn't put my finger on it. Since I picked up the piano and golf again (both things I quit at before), I've never been happier. Anyway, golf and piano :-D
- codingclaws 3y ago
  Piano for me too. I come from a golf family but haven't been able to get over the hump.
- tharne 3y ago
  I don't think that's a sidetrack at all. It's unfortunate that the midlife crisis (particularly for men) has been so thoroughly ridiculed by the intellectual classes and the entertainment industry. It's natural and, I would say, healthy to become more reflective when you come to realize that you've lived more years already than you're going to live in the future. And having some activities that give meaning and joy to someone just in and of themselves is an important part of living well. Like you, I've found myself bothered by hobbies I put down years before out of a feeling that I wasn't good enough, didn't have the time, etc. Good on you for getting back to both golf and piano!
m4rc3lv 3y ago
3d printing stuff and making devices with Arduinos
sir_eliah 3y ago
Rock climbing.
paulcole 3y ago
Long distance running, reading, bicycling, cooking, fashion.
- xu3u32 3y ago
  What kind of distances? Any injuries?
  - paulcole 3y ago
    Anything up to 30ish miles is comfortable to me. But I’ll only do that on trails or particularly scenic roads (both of which I have available on foot from my apartment). And I limit myself to one or two outings like that per quarter. Other than that it’s mostly 3-10 miles per run depending on what I feel like doing. I’ve been running for 15ish years and probably take a full week off a year if I’m feeling anything uncomfortable that affects my stride. Other than that I try to average 20-40 miles a week depending on the time of year and how I’m feeling overall. The things I think I do differently from most runners are: 1. My #1 goal is to be running in 30 years. So I’ll sacrifice distance and speed today for that goal. 2. I care about speed very little. I enjoy being outside and moving so probably 1% of my mileage is at a high intensity.
gizajob 3y ago
I like to paint, bigger and bigger canvases. Very inspired by Australian Aboriginal art at the moment. Check out Emily Kame Kngwareye.
FumblingBear 3y ago
I host 3 weekly book clubs with various friend groups via Discord which is very rewarding and a great way to socialize! Highly recommend for any people who enjoy reading to give a book club a shot—not only does it deepen my relationships with friends, it provides a ton of different perspectives on motifs, themes, and moments in the story that resonate with others. We've tended towards fantasy series, but have done some sci-fi and other works as well. Currently reading through Malazan: Book of the Fallen in one group (Near the end of Memories of Ice (book 3)) and Mother of Learning in another. The third group is currently on hiatus but we'll vote on the next series soon and resume next year. I'm also very into music (both listening and playing). Recently restrung my 7-string guitar with heavier gauge strings and have been learning some new stuff in lower tunings than I'm used to (Drop F and Drop G#). Haven't engaged seriously with it in some time, but I used to be really into Yoyo's, specifically 1a style throwing. Super rewarding hobby that can be fun for beginners to advanced throwers. Finally, I really enjoy video games. Lately I've been into MMO's (WoW, FFXIV, OSRS, GW2+1, etc.) but love puzzle games, factory building games, and RPGs/ARPGs.
- subtra3t 3y ago
  I haven't read Malazan but I've heard it's very hard to get into. I've seen trying to read the first book being likened to being dropped in a remote Chinese village with no manual or linguistic ability in Mandarin. For your group to not only successfully complete the 1st book, but to also proceed till the 3rd book must have been a challenging feat.
  - FumblingBear 3y ago
    Thanks! I think the difficulty can be a little overhyped sometimes, but it's definitely been a challenging read! More than anything, it often presents information with little context and leaves you to wonder for a while (sometimes books) before finally explaining things. The nice thing about reading it in a group is we can all share different insights and predictions for the things that are happening. I think we're going to make it through the whole series because everyone is still very engaged with the books but only time will tell haha. Definitely a marathon of a series!
jondwillis 3y ago
Ecology gardening! - germinating native trees in my yard to replant in the wild - trying to increase biodiversity by attracting pollinators and pests, and covering with native plants. - trying to improve the soil health of my yard: cover crops, low-till, (vermi)composting
- fuzztester 3y ago
  Very interesting one. I would like to do stuff like that, but don't have land at present. I did organic gardening for a few years, earlier, as a hobby. Have you tried no-till, like Ruth Stout, etc.?
NBJack 3y ago
- Gaming (Planetside 2 for the social/challenge, Space Engineers for the chill builds) - Gamedev (same TD game project for like 10+ years, off and on) - Building random things with PIs and a 3d printer (remote controllable FPS robot, cat laser toy, etc.) - Photography - Hiking - Random home improvements (most notably a budget theatre setup) - Reading for self improvement
- phendrenad2 3y ago
  TD game means?
  - NBJack 3y ago
    Sorry, Tower Defense. A fun way to experiment with pathfinder and map generation as well.
  - FumblingBear 3y ago
    Tower Defense—a subgenre of strategy games.
- dinkleberg 3y ago
  PS2 is still going? That is dangerous news lol, I spent way too much time playing it and had a blast. It was (and maybe still is) popular, but I’ve always felt it was underrated for what it was. No other game has given me the wild one-off experiences you get when you hop on when it’s just slammed.
rye-neat 3y ago
The ones I participate in currently: Off-road truck building (mostly rock crawling), Metal fabrication (welding, tube bending, etc), Weightlifting, Surfing, Built a pond in the backyard with bluegill and leopard frog.
RecycledEle 3y ago
Learning new things, building online classes. Exploring the uses if LLM AIs in education.
chromatin 3y ago
Family, Rock Climbing, Road Cycling, 3D Printing. I'd like to pick up an instrument (played several, decades ago) or cooking. Maybe when I retire.
bsnnkv 3y ago
Swing dancing is the most important hobby I have because it is the foundation of my social circle and helps me to build relationships with people outside of my immediate professional and economic circles. It's also great to be able to go to pretty much any reasonably sized city, head to a dance and immediately start building a new social circle. Besides this, I have been making live programming videos on YT for a while, but more recently I've started experimenting with using video as a medium for storytelling and highlighting things I appreciate in the various communities I am a part of.[1] [1]: https://youtu.be/79ceG6RCLHA?si=YbD1XMsSb8mZWQ8Z https://youtu.be/79ceG6RCLHA?si=YbD1XMsSb8mZWQ8Z
- gnfedhjmm 3y ago
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S_Bear 3y ago
-Miniature painting -Stamp collecting -Basketball cards
cultofthecow 3y ago
bjj, running, crying in a shower, blaming myself for the past mistakes
- gnfedhjmm 3y ago
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- sim7c00 3y ago
  hope its a bit of pun. if not, everyone makes mistakes. sometimes really big/grave/stupid/silly ones. its OK. its really OK. call it learning/lessons. a more positive way to see the same things.
Clubber 3y ago
Gaming, going to the gym, keeping up my shooting marksmanship at the gun range. I used to ride motorcycles but other drivers are just too dangerous.
bdz 3y ago
hiking, cooking, mahjong
giraffe_lady 3y ago
Judo. It's more frightening than bjj but not much more dangerous. And throwing and being thrown is more fun than armbars (which you also learn).
- gnfedhjmm 3y ago
  [dead]
spcebar 3y ago
Improv, music composition, gaming/streaming, hiking, missing my ex.
- gnfedhjmm 3y ago
  [dead]
lb1lf 3y ago
Photography, both analog and digital. I particularly enjoy the former as no computer is involved - I stare at one all day at work, thankyouverymuch. Ham radio, in particular tinkering and construction - I am an RF engineer by education, but work outside the field - so the hobby is a good way to at least retain some skills. Oh, and I do traditional textile dyes for my mother and a few handfuls of her fellow weaving artisans.
- gtroja 3y ago
  do you publish your photos anywhere? I like film photography too. You can see mine at troialog.tumblr.com
  - lb1lf 3y ago
    No, never quite got around to that, I'm afraid - has been on my to do-list for ages, but every time I sit down to do something about it, I glance over at my cameras and go out shooting another couple of rolls instead! (Mostly landscapes and the occasional portrait - I live in the proverbial middle of nowhere, so there's an awful lot of reasonably untouched nature right outside...) (Gostei das suas fotos e sinto muita falta de estar em uma cidade de verdade, como você e seus amigos! (Eu trabalho no Brasil alguns meses por ano, então falo um pouco de Português!)
gtroja 3y ago
Building motorized Bikes. I'm well versed in bike ridding and maintanance, and in 2020 I started mounting 2-stroke engines on them. It's nice hobbie to learn about internal combustion engines, because it is very cheap and very diy. The community is nice (they still use those subject spefic old forums).I don't have to care too much about registrations and rules. I use the bikes I build to go where I'm too lazy to pedal.
vikingerik 3y ago
Pinball is my big one. I play competitively, in tournaments and a league, and have my own machines at home. It's such a different dimension than any other kind of video game, with the size and physicality. As a WFHer since Covid, pinball is huge in giving me something to do that isn't sitting on my butt staring at a screen. It's not a cheap hobby, for sure, modern machines run around $6k and up, but then again they can be resold and traded for close to what you paid.
- edanm 3y ago
  Ooh fascinating! Money for the machine aside, don't they just take up a lot of space? I can't imagine having even one machine in my apartment, let alone multiple if it's a serious hobby.
  - vikingerik 3y ago
    One machine isn't all that big, the size of a large desk or small sofa. It's 2.5 feet wide by about 4.5 long, plus a couple feet of space for you to stand in. One machine would fit in all but the tiniest apartments (assuming you can get it up any stairs into there), although the big problem in an apartment is really noise bothering the neighbors. I have an unused bedroom as my pinball room (in a spacious suburban house), which fits five machines side by side. Most commonly people do it in a converted garage or full sized finished basement rec-room kind of setup, often big enough to fit 10 or 20 machines.
sim7c00 3y ago
music (guitar / electronic), reading (scifi), walking in nature / traveling, programming, anthropology/history, gaming. gotta keep my mind busy. most are on and off. nothing serious, seriousness is for work :).
julian55 3y ago
Music (guitar, mandolin, synths), photography (film and digital), cycling, running, gardening, archaeology, cooking, church bell ringing. I'm retired so I have plenty of time for hobbies.
joshuakogut 3y ago
I've been getting into metalworking. It's incredibly fulfilling just learning the processes necessary to fuse and separate and shape steel.
Fradow 3y ago
Since there is no question, I guess the OP wants to find some inspiration? Anyway here goes: - gaming. Since I was a child, I've been gaming. I don't consider it as a "productive" hobby, but it's one nevertheless. It's almost an addiction, so I try to not have all my free time filled by that. - wrenching on cars. That's my current main hobby. I've bought my first car (I didn't own one before) specifically to have one I could go as far as I'd want without the responsibility of breaking someone else's car. Though I do minor repairs/maintenance for friends and family. On my own car, the most complicated/time-consuming jobs I did so far was a suspension overhaul (including rebuilding struts towers with new shocks) and changing the gearbox. - track days. It's an aspiring hobby. I can't currently own a track car (parking spots are too expensive where I live), so instead I do the next best thing: paying for "track experiences" and doing a few laps on track-ready cars. I've done 2 so far, planning a 3rd, and really want to own a track car at some point. The other hobbies are past hobbies I've wound down because I'm not that interested in that anymore: - cocktail mixing. I have a full-size bar at my home (that could be put regular bars to shame) so I can mix anything I want. I used to be more socially active and try new cocktails every week but now I only do one every few months, generally from my list. - bartending. I used to do bartending in a non-profit bar for a few hours each week. - electronics. A friend got me into it, I dabbled with Arduinos, Raspberry Pi and have lots of parts that got gifted by that friend. Nowadays, I use those skills for appliances repairs and car repairs. - woodworking. This was very short, as I do not enjoy it that much, just don't have lots of needs nor the space to do that, but a lot of my furniture is home-made, out of pallets I found on the streets (I got help from a more experienced friend luckily). That includes the aforementioned bar and sizeable wood chests to store the electronics and miscellaneous tools.
jstaker7 3y ago
Mine is perhaps not well characterized as a hobby because it has religious meaning to me, but I spend a lot of time on it (10 hours per week on average, sometimes more). I'm very involved in my church and volunteer in a leadership position in our local congregation. I have the opportunity to help prepare weekly Sunday services, plan service projects and activities, and work with youth aged 11-18. It's extremely rewarding and keeps me grounded. My day job is in deep tech working with machine learning and robotics at a startup, and the industry is constantly shifting with rapid advancements in the tech, unpredictable markets, plus the stress of being early stage, so it's incredibly refreshing to have part of my life be very stable and grounded, and provides me purpose and perspective on those things that matter most.
siddarthd2919 3y ago
Working out! To me its meditative and silences all the noises in my head.
iamthepieman 3y ago
Skiing - I live in a cold climate. there's 4 months were it's dark before I quit work. If I don't do stuff outdoors in the sunlight, I go crazy Woodworking - My first in between high school and college was at a fine furniture shop. We built 18th and 19th century reproductions. I spent years without a shop not doing much with this but just this fall finally got my own shop space setup and just finished my first project. Mountain biking - like skiing but for the summer The gym - If I can't get outside, at least I can move my body a bit Electronics - My dad showed me how to solder when I was very young. He had some electronics kits that I would experiment with. I know have a very basic setup and am working on some cool personal projects. I'd like to combine woodworking and electronics on a future project. Hiking - used to do this a lot more. biking and skiing have taken most of my outdoor time recently
powersnail 3y ago
Music (violin and singing), reading, cooking, and coding.
mikewarot 3y ago
Photography - Specifically, Synthetic Aperture / Virtual Focus, Computational Photography. I used to commute via the South Shore Railroad to Chicago, and had about 50 minutes each way with my laptop. Most days, I'd be processing photos. Some are aligned in a focal plane, some are aligned other ways. Here's an old gallery on Flickr.[2] I got into this after seeing a demo of Marc Levoy's work at Stanford, where the demo showed a number of subjects in a virtual focal plane, then a subject behind a hedge, focused THROUGH the shrubbery.... which seemed like magic.[3,4] I didn't have the funds for a 128 camera array, but what I did have was time... so I improvised. Stand in a spot, with your DSLR or smartphone.... look at a non-moving subject.... take a cluster of pictures within about a dinner plate size area Then take all those photos, and using Hugin[1], align selected points in the scene that will be your virtual focal plane, across all the photo pairs Use Hugin to transform all those images into the same virtual focal plane Use a small python script to average the photos into a single image If you like, you can chose different points to get a different focal plane from the same set of images. [1] https://hugin.sourceforge.io/ https://hugin.sourceforge.io/ [2] https://flickr.com/photos/---mike---/albums/72157718585123547/ https://flickr.com/photos/---mike---/albums/7215771858512354... [3] https://graphics.stanford.edu/projects/array/ https://graphics.stanford.edu/projects/array/ [4] https://graphics.stanford.edu/projects/array/videos/crowd0-sap.mpg https://graphics.stanford.edu/projects/array/videos/crowd0-s...
- gtroja 3y ago
  I liked your technique in [0]. I have achived something similar by having a diaphragm with two holes in the lens [1] [0] https://flickr.com/photos/---mike---/51018990043/in/album-72157718585123547/ https://flickr.com/photos/---mike---/51018990043/in/album-72... [1] https://www.flickr.com/photos/troja_/33154974111/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/troja_/33154974111/
  - mikewarot 3y ago
    You can think of all of these as possible ways you could put a number of holes in front of a VERY large lens. In [0], the distance was changed, but just shifting left/right a tiny bit gets you parallax, as seen in your photo[1]
robotguy 3y ago
I have moved beyond hobbies into METAHOBBIES. Specifically: Collecting Hobbies. I find that following my ADHD hyperfocus until the next shiny thing comes along has led to a massively diverse array of introductory knowledge and mediocre skills (as well as a garage stuffed full with bins of unfinished projects). Specifically in the last two years I have dabbled in: home automation (incl. Node Red, LoRa, MQTT on Raspberry Pi) weather stations terrariums greenhouse climate control making wooden boxes Minecraft mechanical pencils fountain pens notebooks bookbinding (custom notebooks) Dungeons & Dragons I realized years ago that I had to embrace the change and I try to dip my toe into any hobby that appeals at the time with as minimal monetary outlay as possible. I find interests tend to resurface after a while, and the skills/tools/materials for one can generally be used somewhere else down the road. I have found that I learn something and increase my skillset with every unfinished project. That leads to, over the long run, being able to get more accomplished in less time on newer projects. The real treasures are the friends you made ^h^h^h^h^h things you learned along the way.
- gtroja 3y ago
  Almost the same here! ADHD and a lot of seasonal hobbies, like bookbinding (just love moleskine, and I started making my own) mechanical pencils (rotring ftw), paper in general
  - robotguy 3y ago
    You might check out the Platinum Pro Use II. https://www.jetpens.com/Platinum-Pro-Use-II-05-Drafting-Pencil-0.5-mm/pd/1461 https://www.jetpens.com/Platinum-Pro-Use-II-05-Drafting-Penc... They’re out of production and even more expensive than a Rotring, but it’s my fave (even more than my R800). You can get them occasionally on EBay.
  - v-erne 3y ago
    I second rotring! Especially 800 model, it's just so nice piece of precision machinery which combines ideally with Moleskin P notebook and leuchtturm pen holder (after retracting its tip 800 fits nicely on the side)
- 3y ago
jbirer 3y ago
Hobby operating system development and dabbling in embedded / low level programming. Right now I am aiding an effort to port a DOS clone into RISC-V and ARM, we have to make 16 bit apps run on the 32 bit mode of a 64 bit ARM processor, it's a lot of fun.
Tolexx 3y ago
I play video games, watch football games (LFC fan). I read quite a lot as well.
bruce511 3y ago
Hobbies are not like a career, or a job. The goal of a hobby is to have fun. If it's not fun, then stop doing it. Start doing something else. Dont think of it to same way you would a career. So don't look at your ex-hobbies as failures, or things you didn't master, but rather as things you enjoyed for a season. They're not a marriage "in sickness and in health". Yes, some are productive, some are not. But the-producing- should not be the point. The journey is all that matters. Feel free to sell all the junk in your garage. Or better yet pass it on to someone who's interested themselves. That guitar I don't play anymore us someone's dream Christmas gift. And when they're done either it, they can pass it on too.
- adamhp 3y ago
  I think that depends. There is some wiggle room. Some hobbies require dedication to reach a new level of enjoyment. Making music or playing an instrument, for example. Enjoyment is directly correlated with capability, because you can more readily express what you're attempting to express. But sometimes, practice isn't fun. Being dedicated and spending the time are a bit of a grind. It's delayed gratification. Wholeheartedly agree with your point about needing to enjoy the journey though, so it's best to find a way to enjoy the grind. Mixing it up. Applying your learning. Jamming with other people. etc..
  - bruce511 3y ago
    Sure, practice can be practice - learning a new skill can be frustrating when my ambition is up here, and my ability is down there. But if I'm making _progress_ then I'm happy... There have to be some "wins" to keep me going :) And there's a lot of truth that it _has_ to be hard in order to be _fun_. Easy things aren't really fun. At least not for very long...
q-base 3y ago
I work on old motorcycles and cars. I do photography both digital and analog. Then I lift weights and finally I read a lot which also leads to me writing a bit about the interests that I have. It can be difficult to find time for work :)
sunnysogra 3y ago
For me it's Reading and cooking.
Quinzel 3y ago
My hobbies change on a whim. The most consistent hobby I have is long distance running. I do other things for a while until I get bored of it, and move on. I say that my studying is a hobby too though. I have been to university 5 times, and everyone in my life gets mad at me for always studying (I have a job, so i'm not sure why anyone cares if I study) so for my defense, I always say "studying is my hobby". It probably is... I like being in pursuit of stuff and working towards something. I don't know what i'd do with myself if I wasn't working towards achieving something. Perhaps I just need to reframe what it is I want to achieve, but studying is comfortable.
alberto_ol 3y ago
It is not exactly an hobby, but it is what occupies most of my free time. I organize free italian language courses for the foreigner of my city.
tomcam 3y ago
I’m doing a study of metahobbyists
v-erne 3y ago
My latest one is boardgames. It gives me chance to get off computer (so only physical boardgames - no BGA) and meet new people (so no solo games). And since I like collecting stuff it also plays nicely into this quirk of mine (my collection just passed 140 mark). The world of modern boardgames is really fascinating and totally different than I remember from childhood - playing boardgames in early 90s in Poland was geeks territory (up there with math and computers) and nowadays its almost badge of honor and all the coolest people will happily play boardgames (just to be clear I do not claim people playing games in 90s were geeks, it was just the prevailing opinion of my peers)

38 points by codingclaws 3y ago

Vehicles where you are exposed to elements (motorcycles, MTB downhill, motortrikes, jetskis, kiteboards..). Guitars DJ sets Jiu Jitsu

codingclaws 3y ago
I want to try kiteboarding, lots of wind where I live.
- JumpinJack_Cash 3y ago
  Please do. It's a skill for life and a great equalizer, quite literally, once people have installed the foils on the boards there is quite literally nothing left to invent in the sport/hobby. It's like biking, people can trim a quarter of an ounce from the bike/board here and there but the body movements and techniques that you learn now will be absolutely the same 100 years from now.

tharne 3y ago

Lately I've been trying to get away from anything involving a screen outside of work. At the moment I'm spending a lot of time cooking and working on basic repair projects around the house. Once it gets warmer, I'll transition to things like camping, gardening, and fishing. I've also wanted to get into bow hunting, but it's not popular in my area so I haven't found anyone to go with.

PaulHoule 3y ago

Sports photography

xu3u32 3y ago

Running, building small SaaS projects that dont make money, lifting

codingclaws 3y ago
I am into lifting too, but I'm home gym with minimal equipment.
- xu3u32 3y ago
  I love going to my local YMCA because I enjoy seeing the regulars every day and they have everything I need - dumbells, isolation machines, benches and squat racks.
- qup 3y ago
  I combined another hobby, and built my own squat rack (out of wood, mainly) I should use it.

minerva23 3y ago

Spending time with family is my joy. Building games (Factorio, DSP, Satisfactory, Timberborn, etc) are my zen.

FumblingBear 3y ago
Love it! Have you ever tried Modded Minecraft? Huge fan of the same types of games, and nothing except factorio hits quite as hard as expert packs in Minecraft for me. Enigmatica 2: Expert Extended, Nomifactory (GTCEu Port), and Gregtech: New Horizons are some of the most engaging factory building games I've ever had the pleasure of playing! Highly recommend giving it a shot if you like that style of puzzle solving :)
- minerva23 3y ago
  I haven't. Thanks for the recommendation!

ItsBob 3y ago

I asked myself that question at the start of the year and the answer was: I have none! I realised that I was rapidly approaching retirement age and I had nothing to do when I stop software stuff! So I've changed all that and tried a few things. I've settled on golf (used to play as a child - I'm 49 now) and playing piano (played that as a child too). Anyway... I'm happy af now (only way to put it). Not to sidetrack this but I reckon unfinished stuff is a definite cause of mid-life crisis: I realised that I start many things but don't finish them and often use the excuse, "meh, it wasn't for me!" to justify it and funnily enough, from the middle of last year to this year I was decidedly unhappy but couldn't put my finger on it. Since I picked up the piano and golf again (both things I quit at before), I've never been happier. Anyway, golf and piano :-D

codingclaws 3y ago
Piano for me too. I come from a golf family but haven't been able to get over the hump.
tharne 3y ago
I don't think that's a sidetrack at all. It's unfortunate that the midlife crisis (particularly for men) has been so thoroughly ridiculed by the intellectual classes and the entertainment industry. It's natural and, I would say, healthy to become more reflective when you come to realize that you've lived more years already than you're going to live in the future. And having some activities that give meaning and joy to someone just in and of themselves is an important part of living well. Like you, I've found myself bothered by hobbies I put down years before out of a feeling that I wasn't good enough, didn't have the time, etc. Good on you for getting back to both golf and piano!

m4rc3lv 3y ago

3d printing stuff and making devices with Arduinos

sir_eliah 3y ago

Rock climbing.

paulcole 3y ago

Long distance running, reading, bicycling, cooking, fashion.

xu3u32 3y ago
What kind of distances? Any injuries?
- paulcole 3y ago
  Anything up to 30ish miles is comfortable to me. But I’ll only do that on trails or particularly scenic roads (both of which I have available on foot from my apartment). And I limit myself to one or two outings like that per quarter. Other than that it’s mostly 3-10 miles per run depending on what I feel like doing. I’ve been running for 15ish years and probably take a full week off a year if I’m feeling anything uncomfortable that affects my stride. Other than that I try to average 20-40 miles a week depending on the time of year and how I’m feeling overall. The things I think I do differently from most runners are: 1. My #1 goal is to be running in 30 years. So I’ll sacrifice distance and speed today for that goal. 2. I care about speed very little. I enjoy being outside and moving so probably 1% of my mileage is at a high intensity.

gizajob 3y ago

I like to paint, bigger and bigger canvases. Very inspired by Australian Aboriginal art at the moment. Check out Emily Kame Kngwareye.

FumblingBear 3y ago

I host 3 weekly book clubs with various friend groups via Discord which is very rewarding and a great way to socialize! Highly recommend for any people who enjoy reading to give a book club a shot—not only does it deepen my relationships with friends, it provides a ton of different perspectives on motifs, themes, and moments in the story that resonate with others. We've tended towards fantasy series, but have done some sci-fi and other works as well. Currently reading through Malazan: Book of the Fallen in one group (Near the end of Memories of Ice (book 3)) and Mother of Learning in another. The third group is currently on hiatus but we'll vote on the next series soon and resume next year. I'm also very into music (both listening and playing). Recently restrung my 7-string guitar with heavier gauge strings and have been learning some new stuff in lower tunings than I'm used to (Drop F and Drop G#). Haven't engaged seriously with it in some time, but I used to be really into Yoyo's, specifically 1a style throwing. Super rewarding hobby that can be fun for beginners to advanced throwers. Finally, I really enjoy video games. Lately I've been into MMO's (WoW, FFXIV, OSRS, GW2+1, etc.) but love puzzle games, factory building games, and RPGs/ARPGs.

subtra3t 3y ago
I haven't read Malazan but I've heard it's very hard to get into. I've seen trying to read the first book being likened to being dropped in a remote Chinese village with no manual or linguistic ability in Mandarin. For your group to not only successfully complete the 1st book, but to also proceed till the 3rd book must have been a challenging feat.
- FumblingBear 3y ago
  Thanks! I think the difficulty can be a little overhyped sometimes, but it's definitely been a challenging read! More than anything, it often presents information with little context and leaves you to wonder for a while (sometimes books) before finally explaining things. The nice thing about reading it in a group is we can all share different insights and predictions for the things that are happening. I think we're going to make it through the whole series because everyone is still very engaged with the books but only time will tell haha. Definitely a marathon of a series!

jondwillis 3y ago

Ecology gardening! - germinating native trees in my yard to replant in the wild - trying to increase biodiversity by attracting pollinators and pests, and covering with native plants. - trying to improve the soil health of my yard: cover crops, low-till, (vermi)composting

fuzztester 3y ago
Very interesting one. I would like to do stuff like that, but don't have land at present. I did organic gardening for a few years, earlier, as a hobby. Have you tried no-till, like Ruth Stout, etc.?

NBJack 3y ago

- Gaming (Planetside 2 for the social/challenge, Space Engineers for the chill builds) - Gamedev (same TD game project for like 10+ years, off and on) - Building random things with PIs and a 3d printer (remote controllable FPS robot, cat laser toy, etc.) - Photography - Hiking - Random home improvements (most notably a budget theatre setup) - Reading for self improvement

phendrenad2 3y ago
TD game means?
- NBJack 3y ago
  Sorry, Tower Defense. A fun way to experiment with pathfinder and map generation as well.
- FumblingBear 3y ago
  Tower Defense—a subgenre of strategy games.
dinkleberg 3y ago
PS2 is still going? That is dangerous news lol, I spent way too much time playing it and had a blast. It was (and maybe still is) popular, but I’ve always felt it was underrated for what it was. No other game has given me the wild one-off experiences you get when you hop on when it’s just slammed.

rye-neat 3y ago

The ones I participate in currently: Off-road truck building (mostly rock crawling), Metal fabrication (welding, tube bending, etc), Weightlifting, Surfing, Built a pond in the backyard with bluegill and leopard frog.

RecycledEle 3y ago

Learning new things, building online classes. Exploring the uses if LLM AIs in education.

chromatin 3y ago

Family, Rock Climbing, Road Cycling, 3D Printing. I'd like to pick up an instrument (played several, decades ago) or cooking. Maybe when I retire.

bsnnkv 3y ago

Swing dancing is the most important hobby I have because it is the foundation of my social circle and helps me to build relationships with people outside of my immediate professional and economic circles. It's also great to be able to go to pretty much any reasonably sized city, head to a dance and immediately start building a new social circle. Besides this, I have been making live programming videos on YT for a while, but more recently I've started experimenting with using video as a medium for storytelling and highlighting things I appreciate in the various communities I am a part of.[1] [1]: https://youtu.be/79ceG6RCLHA?si=YbD1XMsSb8mZWQ8Z https://youtu.be/79ceG6RCLHA?si=YbD1XMsSb8mZWQ8Z

gnfedhjmm 3y ago
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S_Bear 3y ago

-Miniature painting -Stamp collecting -Basketball cards

cultofthecow 3y ago

bjj, running, crying in a shower, blaming myself for the past mistakes

gnfedhjmm 3y ago
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sim7c00 3y ago
hope its a bit of pun. if not, everyone makes mistakes. sometimes really big/grave/stupid/silly ones. its OK. its really OK. call it learning/lessons. a more positive way to see the same things.

Clubber 3y ago

Gaming, going to the gym, keeping up my shooting marksmanship at the gun range. I used to ride motorcycles but other drivers are just too dangerous.

bdz 3y ago

hiking, cooking, mahjong

giraffe_lady 3y ago

Judo. It's more frightening than bjj but not much more dangerous. And throwing and being thrown is more fun than armbars (which you also learn).

gnfedhjmm 3y ago
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spcebar 3y ago

Improv, music composition, gaming/streaming, hiking, missing my ex.

gnfedhjmm 3y ago
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lb1lf 3y ago

Photography, both analog and digital. I particularly enjoy the former as no computer is involved - I stare at one all day at work, thankyouverymuch. Ham radio, in particular tinkering and construction - I am an RF engineer by education, but work outside the field - so the hobby is a good way to at least retain some skills. Oh, and I do traditional textile dyes for my mother and a few handfuls of her fellow weaving artisans.

gtroja 3y ago
do you publish your photos anywhere? I like film photography too. You can see mine at troialog.tumblr.com
- lb1lf 3y ago
  No, never quite got around to that, I'm afraid - has been on my to do-list for ages, but every time I sit down to do something about it, I glance over at my cameras and go out shooting another couple of rolls instead! (Mostly landscapes and the occasional portrait - I live in the proverbial middle of nowhere, so there's an awful lot of reasonably untouched nature right outside...) (Gostei das suas fotos e sinto muita falta de estar em uma cidade de verdade, como você e seus amigos! (Eu trabalho no Brasil alguns meses por ano, então falo um pouco de Português!)

gtroja 3y ago

Building motorized Bikes. I'm well versed in bike ridding and maintanance, and in 2020 I started mounting 2-stroke engines on them. It's nice hobbie to learn about internal combustion engines, because it is very cheap and very diy. The community is nice (they still use those subject spefic old forums).I don't have to care too much about registrations and rules. I use the bikes I build to go where I'm too lazy to pedal.

vikingerik 3y ago

Pinball is my big one. I play competitively, in tournaments and a league, and have my own machines at home. It's such a different dimension than any other kind of video game, with the size and physicality. As a WFHer since Covid, pinball is huge in giving me something to do that isn't sitting on my butt staring at a screen. It's not a cheap hobby, for sure, modern machines run around $6k and up, but then again they can be resold and traded for close to what you paid.

edanm 3y ago
Ooh fascinating! Money for the machine aside, don't they just take up a lot of space? I can't imagine having even one machine in my apartment, let alone multiple if it's a serious hobby.
- vikingerik 3y ago
  One machine isn't all that big, the size of a large desk or small sofa. It's 2.5 feet wide by about 4.5 long, plus a couple feet of space for you to stand in. One machine would fit in all but the tiniest apartments (assuming you can get it up any stairs into there), although the big problem in an apartment is really noise bothering the neighbors. I have an unused bedroom as my pinball room (in a spacious suburban house), which fits five machines side by side. Most commonly people do it in a converted garage or full sized finished basement rec-room kind of setup, often big enough to fit 10 or 20 machines.

sim7c00 3y ago

music (guitar / electronic), reading (scifi), walking in nature / traveling, programming, anthropology/history, gaming. gotta keep my mind busy. most are on and off. nothing serious, seriousness is for work :).

julian55 3y ago

Music (guitar, mandolin, synths), photography (film and digital), cycling, running, gardening, archaeology, cooking, church bell ringing. I'm retired so I have plenty of time for hobbies.

joshuakogut 3y ago

I've been getting into metalworking. It's incredibly fulfilling just learning the processes necessary to fuse and separate and shape steel.

Fradow 3y ago

Since there is no question, I guess the OP wants to find some inspiration? Anyway here goes: - gaming. Since I was a child, I've been gaming. I don't consider it as a "productive" hobby, but it's one nevertheless. It's almost an addiction, so I try to not have all my free time filled by that. - wrenching on cars. That's my current main hobby. I've bought my first car (I didn't own one before) specifically to have one I could go as far as I'd want without the responsibility of breaking someone else's car. Though I do minor repairs/maintenance for friends and family. On my own car, the most complicated/time-consuming jobs I did so far was a suspension overhaul (including rebuilding struts towers with new shocks) and changing the gearbox. - track days. It's an aspiring hobby. I can't currently own a track car (parking spots are too expensive where I live), so instead I do the next best thing: paying for "track experiences" and doing a few laps on track-ready cars. I've done 2 so far, planning a 3rd, and really want to own a track car at some point. The other hobbies are past hobbies I've wound down because I'm not that interested in that anymore: - cocktail mixing. I have a full-size bar at my home (that could be put regular bars to shame) so I can mix anything I want. I used to be more socially active and try new cocktails every week but now I only do one every few months, generally from my list. - bartending. I used to do bartending in a non-profit bar for a few hours each week. - electronics. A friend got me into it, I dabbled with Arduinos, Raspberry Pi and have lots of parts that got gifted by that friend. Nowadays, I use those skills for appliances repairs and car repairs. - woodworking. This was very short, as I do not enjoy it that much, just don't have lots of needs nor the space to do that, but a lot of my furniture is home-made, out of pallets I found on the streets (I got help from a more experienced friend luckily). That includes the aforementioned bar and sizeable wood chests to store the electronics and miscellaneous tools.

jstaker7 3y ago

Mine is perhaps not well characterized as a hobby because it has religious meaning to me, but I spend a lot of time on it (10 hours per week on average, sometimes more). I'm very involved in my church and volunteer in a leadership position in our local congregation. I have the opportunity to help prepare weekly Sunday services, plan service projects and activities, and work with youth aged 11-18. It's extremely rewarding and keeps me grounded. My day job is in deep tech working with machine learning and robotics at a startup, and the industry is constantly shifting with rapid advancements in the tech, unpredictable markets, plus the stress of being early stage, so it's incredibly refreshing to have part of my life be very stable and grounded, and provides me purpose and perspective on those things that matter most.

siddarthd2919 3y ago

Working out! To me its meditative and silences all the noises in my head.

iamthepieman 3y ago

Skiing - I live in a cold climate. there's 4 months were it's dark before I quit work. If I don't do stuff outdoors in the sunlight, I go crazy Woodworking - My first in between high school and college was at a fine furniture shop. We built 18th and 19th century reproductions. I spent years without a shop not doing much with this but just this fall finally got my own shop space setup and just finished my first project. Mountain biking - like skiing but for the summer The gym - If I can't get outside, at least I can move my body a bit Electronics - My dad showed me how to solder when I was very young. He had some electronics kits that I would experiment with. I know have a very basic setup and am working on some cool personal projects. I'd like to combine woodworking and electronics on a future project. Hiking - used to do this a lot more. biking and skiing have taken most of my outdoor time recently

powersnail 3y ago

Music (violin and singing), reading, cooking, and coding.

mikewarot 3y ago

Photography - Specifically, Synthetic Aperture / Virtual Focus, Computational Photography. I used to commute via the South Shore Railroad to Chicago, and had about 50 minutes each way with my laptop. Most days, I'd be processing photos. Some are aligned in a focal plane, some are aligned other ways. Here's an old gallery on Flickr.[2] I got into this after seeing a demo of Marc Levoy's work at Stanford, where the demo showed a number of subjects in a virtual focal plane, then a subject behind a hedge, focused THROUGH the shrubbery.... which seemed like magic.[3,4] I didn't have the funds for a 128 camera array, but what I did have was time... so I improvised. Stand in a spot, with your DSLR or smartphone.... look at a non-moving subject.... take a cluster of pictures within about a dinner plate size area Then take all those photos, and using Hugin[1], align selected points in the scene that will be your virtual focal plane, across all the photo pairs Use Hugin to transform all those images into the same virtual focal plane Use a small python script to average the photos into a single image If you like, you can chose different points to get a different focal plane from the same set of images. [1] https://hugin.sourceforge.io/ https://hugin.sourceforge.io/ [2] https://flickr.com/photos/---mike---/albums/72157718585123547/ https://flickr.com/photos/---mike---/albums/7215771858512354... [3] https://graphics.stanford.edu/projects/array/ https://graphics.stanford.edu/projects/array/ [4] https://graphics.stanford.edu/projects/array/videos/crowd0-sap.mpg https://graphics.stanford.edu/projects/array/videos/crowd0-s...

gtroja 3y ago
I liked your technique in [0]. I have achived something similar by having a diaphragm with two holes in the lens [1] [0] https://flickr.com/photos/---mike---/51018990043/in/album-72157718585123547/ https://flickr.com/photos/---mike---/51018990043/in/album-72... [1] https://www.flickr.com/photos/troja_/33154974111/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/troja_/33154974111/
- mikewarot 3y ago
  You can think of all of these as possible ways you could put a number of holes in front of a VERY large lens. In [0], the distance was changed, but just shifting left/right a tiny bit gets you parallax, as seen in your photo[1]

robotguy 3y ago

I have moved beyond hobbies into METAHOBBIES. Specifically: Collecting Hobbies. I find that following my ADHD hyperfocus until the next shiny thing comes along has led to a massively diverse array of introductory knowledge and mediocre skills (as well as a garage stuffed full with bins of unfinished projects). Specifically in the last two years I have dabbled in: home automation (incl. Node Red, LoRa, MQTT on Raspberry Pi) weather stations terrariums greenhouse climate control making wooden boxes Minecraft mechanical pencils fountain pens notebooks bookbinding (custom notebooks) Dungeons & Dragons I realized years ago that I had to embrace the change and I try to dip my toe into any hobby that appeals at the time with as minimal monetary outlay as possible. I find interests tend to resurface after a while, and the skills/tools/materials for one can generally be used somewhere else down the road. I have found that I learn something and increase my skillset with every unfinished project. That leads to, over the long run, being able to get more accomplished in less time on newer projects. The real treasures are the friends you made ^h^h^h^h^h things you learned along the way.

gtroja 3y ago
Almost the same here! ADHD and a lot of seasonal hobbies, like bookbinding (just love moleskine, and I started making my own) mechanical pencils (rotring ftw), paper in general
- robotguy 3y ago
  You might check out the Platinum Pro Use II. https://www.jetpens.com/Platinum-Pro-Use-II-05-Drafting-Pencil-0.5-mm/pd/1461 https://www.jetpens.com/Platinum-Pro-Use-II-05-Drafting-Penc... They’re out of production and even more expensive than a Rotring, but it’s my fave (even more than my R800). You can get them occasionally on EBay.
- v-erne 3y ago
  I second rotring! Especially 800 model, it's just so nice piece of precision machinery which combines ideally with Moleskin P notebook and leuchtturm pen holder (after retracting its tip 800 fits nicely on the side)
3y ago

jbirer 3y ago

Hobby operating system development and dabbling in embedded / low level programming. Right now I am aiding an effort to port a DOS clone into RISC-V and ARM, we have to make 16 bit apps run on the 32 bit mode of a 64 bit ARM processor, it's a lot of fun.

Tolexx 3y ago

I play video games, watch football games (LFC fan). I read quite a lot as well.

bruce511 3y ago

Hobbies are not like a career, or a job. The goal of a hobby is to have fun. If it's not fun, then stop doing it. Start doing something else. Dont think of it to same way you would a career. So don't look at your ex-hobbies as failures, or things you didn't master, but rather as things you enjoyed for a season. They're not a marriage "in sickness and in health". Yes, some are productive, some are not. But the-producing- should not be the point. The journey is all that matters. Feel free to sell all the junk in your garage. Or better yet pass it on to someone who's interested themselves. That guitar I don't play anymore us someone's dream Christmas gift. And when they're done either it, they can pass it on too.

adamhp 3y ago
I think that depends. There is some wiggle room. Some hobbies require dedication to reach a new level of enjoyment. Making music or playing an instrument, for example. Enjoyment is directly correlated with capability, because you can more readily express what you're attempting to express. But sometimes, practice isn't fun. Being dedicated and spending the time are a bit of a grind. It's delayed gratification. Wholeheartedly agree with your point about needing to enjoy the journey though, so it's best to find a way to enjoy the grind. Mixing it up. Applying your learning. Jamming with other people. etc..
- bruce511 3y ago
  Sure, practice can be practice - learning a new skill can be frustrating when my ambition is up here, and my ability is down there. But if I'm making _progress_ then I'm happy... There have to be some "wins" to keep me going :) And there's a lot of truth that it _has_ to be hard in order to be _fun_. Easy things aren't really fun. At least not for very long...

q-base 3y ago

I work on old motorcycles and cars. I do photography both digital and analog. Then I lift weights and finally I read a lot which also leads to me writing a bit about the interests that I have. It can be difficult to find time for work :)

sunnysogra 3y ago

For me it's Reading and cooking.

Quinzel 3y ago

My hobbies change on a whim. The most consistent hobby I have is long distance running. I do other things for a while until I get bored of it, and move on. I say that my studying is a hobby too though. I have been to university 5 times, and everyone in my life gets mad at me for always studying (I have a job, so i'm not sure why anyone cares if I study) so for my defense, I always say "studying is my hobby". It probably is... I like being in pursuit of stuff and working towards something. I don't know what i'd do with myself if I wasn't working towards achieving something. Perhaps I just need to reframe what it is I want to achieve, but studying is comfortable.

alberto_ol 3y ago

It is not exactly an hobby, but it is what occupies most of my free time. I organize free italian language courses for the foreigner of my city.

tomcam 3y ago

I’m doing a study of metahobbyists

v-erne 3y ago

My latest one is boardgames. It gives me chance to get off computer (so only physical boardgames - no BGA) and meet new people (so no solo games). And since I like collecting stuff it also plays nicely into this quirk of mine (my collection just passed 140 mark). The world of modern boardgames is really fascinating and totally different than I remember from childhood - playing boardgames in early 90s in Poland was geeks territory (up there with math and computers) and nowadays its almost badge of honor and all the coolest people will happily play boardgames (just to be clear I do not claim people playing games in 90s were geeks, it was just the prevailing opinion of my peers)