What are your hobbies?

Meta: It’s so awesome how many of these hobbies are essentially free these days. For example,

You already have a computer and all of the best languages and libraries are free so programming is now free.

You already have a quality camera on your phone and you don’t have to buy film and have it developed and print it on physical paper so photography is now free.

So much of the world’s literature is now available online for free, sometimes not-so-legal, but if you live in a poor country or out in the woods reading is free too.

If you want to learn about new hobbies or watch others do then beautifully then YouTube has amazing videos to watch. More than you could consume in a lifetime.

What a time to be alive!

My hobby is hobbies! I'm notorious for picking up new hobbies all the time. For me the enjoyment is diving into something as a beginner and building up a basic mastery. Normally, at that point it get a little bored and move on. Granted, i do not feel like a master of anything i pick up, but i feel like i have a grasp of the basics and enough to more fully enjoy the topic. For example when i was really into photography i took it to the level of building my own dark room and developing my film/prints. For me its all about the learning process and not necessarily even the end result i care about.

Current obsessions - Leather working - Watching making / repair

Prior hobbies - kayaking - homebrew (beer) - making bread - lock picking - various electronics - photography - knitting - welding - every programming language ever - wood working

If you are interested in any of these i'm happy to chat you up

Job: Programmer

My biggest source of happiness comes from playing the violin and listening to music. I tried getting into making electronic music, but I too hit the wall of not wanting to sit in front of a computer anymore after workday. That's why I like the violin's pure analog-ness: absolutely raw and crude, no abstraction, no interface, fret-less, zero-config, no knobs to be _fiddled_ with. You sound as good as you can control your muscle.

Cooking is both a necessity and an absolute joy.

I also read books for entertainment (and for learning English). I especially like reading good prose aloud, and feel the rhythm of the language. And I sometimes write short stories.

At times, I hike with my SO and friends.

I also jog, but only for the health benefit. It's a torture, but the lesser evil compared with my nascent obesity.

I drilled a hole in a fridge and put temperature and humidity sensors inside, plus a fan, and a dehumidifier. Now I have a miniature "basement" that I can inoculate with good mold, fill with different types of meat, and make my own charcuterie.

Been doing this for a year now, had a few successful produce as a result, and many many failures.

I build and repair bicycles: https://tegowerk.eu/posts/bicycle-repair/

I was a software engineer. I had to quit workforce at 55 because of health problem. I felt that i must continue to work on something useful. I had to choose between writing a novel or trying to find an algorithm for P=NP. I chose P vs NP as a hobby since i like tough problems. If you want to know what is the P=NP problem, you will find many good videos on youtube. I am 65 now and this is my last year for this hobby since health problems aggravated slowly. Now i know a lot about algorithms for P=NP and i want to program the last one i found. I think my next hobby will be writing short stories and if i am good enough i will try to write a novel. Have a good day!

Keeping a Triumph Spitfire 1500 from 1978 in good shape and driving it (best tour ever were 18 passes in the alps in 3.5 days). When I did not have kids I went on sea kayaking tours. A bit of guitar (I'm really bad, but it's fun and relaxing).

Fitness:

- Trampoline wall

- Aerial Straps

- Handbalance / Handstands

- Calisthenics

- Breakdancing (though not as much since Covid)

Reading way too many books

Creativity:

- Making chocolate truffles

- Making ice cream

- Slowly introducing myself to Kintsugi

- Watercolor

I also like to work on side projects and I wanted to get into Pixel art and making music, but I agree with OP about it being hard to sit in front of the computer after being in front all day for work.

Lately I’ve had an increased desire to learn things. Usually I’d be gaming or watching tv shows, now there’s so many shows to catch up on because I apparently like learning. Maybe I was depressed — I don’t know.

Climbing ! It changed my life.

I was 26, doing a PhD, had unhealthy habits, and sat in front of the computer all day. Got introduced to indoor-climbing by a friend. And boy, did it change my life.

It thought me to appreciate nature, life, working hard towards something, dedicating your life to things that matter to you rather than spending all the time doing what matters to others, taking calculated risks and measuring the outcomes. What started as climbing indoors, continued as climbing on rock, starting trad climbing, then ice climbing, alpinism, big wall climbing.

Now I am 32, building a startup. I find it very hard to dedicate time for climbing. But, I try to spend 2/3 hours everyday training for climbing or climbing. Because I know it brings me joy and that it increases my overall productivity. Being fit makes you feel happy in general, happy about yourself.

Though, I tried many things in the while. I used to play the Piano (did a few trinity college exams), played acoustic guitar, bike packing/touring, competitive sailing. But I decided to dedicate my time to only a few things, as I only have a limited headspace. So that, I can enjoy the things I am doing and not just merely do them.

Having some daily habits help enlighten your day as well.

I meditate every morning.

I like cooking and look forward to eating a nice meal at the end of the day.

I read a bit everyday. I enjoy non-fiction, especially biographies and books on mountaineering.

So little time, so much to do!

I am a polyhob.

Carpentry (everything from furniture to houses), coding, blacksmithing/bladesmithing, machining, organic farming (recently upgraded from gardening), electronics, photography, drawing and painting (im terrible), leatherwork, chemistry, materials science, computer science, biology, physics, economics, investing/trading, entrepreneurship, athletics and weight training, plumbing, welding, heavy equipment operator

I kind of go from one to the next, and incorporate what ive learned from previous hobbies into new hobbies or synergies with new or existing hobbies. you would be surprised how much synergy there is between hobbies. and ive managed to convert one of those hobbies into a successful business. i learned house framing to learn to build my own house and ended up starting a business.

I "retired" from writing code at 29 due to burnout and a failed startup.

Hobbies i plan to add: acoustic guitar, small talk, making long lasting friendships, finding a traditional wife, electrical, animal husbandry, finish carpentry, increasing the range of tools i can make, advanced heat treating of steel, casting, automating the farm.

Cycling: taking advantage of WFH I started practicing cycling again after 15 years of inactivity. It's a very good help for my mindset and fatigue helps me a lot on being focused in my daily task at work. In 2 years I lost 13kgs and I am more thin than when I was 25.

Learning chinese: I started 3 years ago, before COVID and it's a funny experience. Understanding the Chinese culture and the Chinese mindset is a big part of the amusement.

Combat sports. Right now I train judo and armored combat (I.e. fighting in full armor with blunted swords and axes)

As a side benefit this forces me to stay fit. I find few things as motivating as knowing there’s a set date in the near future when I will be locked in a ring with someone who is going to try to hurt me

A lot of 30-something programmers like jujitsu since is has the same competitive aspect and a little bit of danger without the heavy impact and attendant risk of brain injury

- reading (in particular, I love long, epic series, which keep me from having to decide on another book when I finish one)

- bicycles (repair, improvements, and, more importantly, touring/getting around my city)

- coffee, in particular espresso

- writing, though admittedly I haven’t produced as much fiction as I’d like

- hiking

- running

- DIY repair, from laptops to ovens to dishwashers (or maybe I’m just cheap?)

- building out and managing my music library and self-hosted streaming setup

Pickleball! Give it a try. Like tennis with all the worst parts removed and a gradual learning curve so you’re always having fun.

Farming. Bought a small farm 5 years ago. It consumes life outside of work but brilliantly and is a range of hobbies in itself.

As a 'unhandy' person before I've learnt (by my standards anyway) a solid range of new skills.

Managing horses, cattle, dogs (including training one to herd) and chickens.

I can drive machinery like tractors, dozers and currently beginning to learn to drive a bobcat. Also learnt how to ride a dirt bike.

Lots of tools like chainsaws, fencing gear and drills etc and the tasks that go with them. I want to learn welding at some point but am holding off as I have enough.

A heap about plants, fruit trees and especially grasses.

I'm far from an expert in any of these but these days there's nothing I like more than a day off doing odd jobs around the property.

If you like this stuff I recommend but if you have animals be prepared for potential 24/7 commitment.

I build and compete with cars! You can do it very cheaply too, any stock car can do rallycross or autocross, for example.

I rallycrossed my daily driver for years before getting into stage rally. A skidplate is recommended, though. I've rallycrossed VW golf's, Toyota Camrys, Honda Accords, Civics, a Dodge Omni, trucks, anything really that I can get my hands on to compete with. Modern cars are tough, and you won't usually even scratch anything.

I very much recommend rallycross as it teaches you a lot about car control, and you can enter for ~$50. If you're in CA there's Norcal, Socal, and CRS series.

Norcal series: http://www.norcalrallycross.com

Socal: https://www.calclubrallyx.com/

My email is my username at Gmail, if you want to reach out.

Outdoor sports. Rock climbing (from climbing and bouldering walls through to alpinism on 4000m peaks), ski-ing (prefer touring or cross country to piste), and trail running (less now than previously, although I went through a phase of running ultras).

Day job: Technical director in the data science group of an infrastructure management company

amateur radio

especially in the bay area, one can listen to engineers who worked in the valley and at places like SRI during its early days.

for me, it all spawned off that interview question about what happens when you press a key? i got to the part where wifi kicked in and I realized just how abstracted my knowledge of radio propagation was.

Mainly music, go through ~10 albums a day, play / jam along, recent obsession is Sun Ra. Have a band and we play together about once a week, which is also almost the only time I social and I found that to be just enough.

Other than that mainly just thinking, philosophy and stories. Currently building a fictional world, have hundreds of years of detailed history and characters to fill in, couple of languages to design, really can occupy all my time.

There's another one software related that's currently on hold, which is to write every software I use myself, like programming languages, game engines, drawing / music programs, music players etc. Also a life-time project

Day Job: Training Programming and Sysadmin (between 500 and 1000 workdays till retirement) Hobbies: Repairing thing for others to save money and not throw out stuff too soon (rewired lawnmower battery for $50 instead buy new $500 mower. working for 3 years, untangled badly knotted fine link gold chain,melt value $40 retail $250) Breadboard circuits for amusement not a side hustle. Wado Karate : Stopped formal classes 10 years ago(just life). Just repeating the training positions and katas I know to make sure the joints don't go bad on me. Might try Tia-chi in retirement.

My 'day job' is being an engineering student so I'm kinda short on time and energy as well.

Currently my main hobbies consist of riding bicycles (fixed-gear, singlespeed), analog large format photography, bouldering, and hardware synthesizers making mostly hard techno/industrial tunes.

I am saying 'currently' because these do tend to vary over time, sometimes some of them fade out, others take their place or maybe the others take over their spot. Hobbies are somewhat fluid for me and I think this is beneficial for me as it prevents hobby burnout somewhat, I found.

Painting miniatures for tabletop gaming, and almost no tabletop gaming.

Gaming, cooking and learning to draw these days. All fun in different ways. Learning to cook both fancy high effort meals and super quick, nutritious meals has been tasty and healthy. Trying to draw life like objects and scenes has been really cool because I found its about learning to see accurately. Good games are often better than most TV/Movies these days. It's a long story you can be part of rather than passively consume.

Yep, I am an entrepreneur and work a ton in front of the computer, I get a lot of joy from that but if I let it pull me in too much I get burned out.

My biggest sources of happiness are the following...

(email in profile if you want any details / pictures)

Reading - I love reading and I read a TON. I focus on fun books... so science fiction, fantasy, and things that just let me escape and explore worlds, characters, etc. I think my ratio last year was like 95% fun books to serious books about work related topics.

Biking and bike tours! - I normally do to two to three 2-hour bike rides during the week. They get me in the woods and are super good for my soul. I also do big bike tours, I just did one through Portugal and Spain over the old Camino routes (over a few weeks and ~1,00km). These are amazing as I get to explore a place at a slow pace, eat great food, see historical sites, and have some adventure. I stay in cheap hotels usually, and I want to try camping soon. You can do these in back roads in the USA as well and there are some great local routes if you want to start with just a two day one (awesome rail paths around DC for example).

Yoga/ST - Go to a class or get a trainer, it was so good for me mentally. I am at a place now where I do 30 to 40 min 4-5 days and it is so good for my back injury and general well being. Plus as I get older I stay fit and can keep up with my son.

What else? Cooking and learning to cook some specific dishes. Hiking and getting outdoors with my family. Family road trips too.

What I did in the past:

Ultimate Frisbee I used to play a ton of ultimate frisbee, it is a great sport with great people. And, it is super relaxed and open to newbies. I highly recommend joining a local league (usually when done for the day they break out a keg and everyone drinks and chats). I played from highschool to my mid 30s. I stopped playing when I moved to a new place and didn't join the local scene (plus I had hurt myself and wanted to cut down on running)

Running / Trail Running I used to run a lot, like marathons alone in the woods. I stopped running when I hurt my back and I've switched over to biking. That said, I miss it and highly recommend people try to reach a place where they are running a 5k. I still miss getting in this zone, it is like deep meditation and really shook my world when I had to give it up (disc injury).

Reading, Guitar, Piano. I used to go to the gym a lot too before the pandemic disrupted that hobby. I've been meaning to get back into it.

Hiking & photography mostly.

The photography I'm not very good at, but I enjoy it and I'd like more time to do it available to get better at it.

Long walks. Reading Technical books as leisure (reading Michael Kerrisk's Linux Programming Interface now). Brewing teas and coffees.

I started learning Japanese 4 months ago, and tried to invest at least 1h a day decyphering kanjies, learning new words and some grammar.

So far it's going pretty well. I've got half of 常用 kanjies under my belt and ~1500 words of vocabulary that allow me to get a basic understanding of what's going on in easy mangas.

1000 more words and I plan on getting N3 cert.

Audiobooks and podcast while walking and rowing.

Chess. Pre-pandemic I was doing an evening a week at the club plus a weekend tournament every month or so. Plus study etc every day/

I have an interest in Transport policy, discuss online, follow experts, local developments etc.

Tolkien fandom. Follow podcasts, read articles etc. Hope to attend/organise a meet at some point.

Traditionally: fencing

Now: golf and squash

I was a fencer for a long time. I've even competed on the national circuit in the past. Ever since the pandemic though, I've looked into other sports. So I've recently started lessons in golf and squash.

I spend most of my day in front of a computer, so any kind of social or athletic outlet is a must for my sanity.

Electronics and occasional robotics. 3D printing (which I guess is just specialized robotics)

Beyond my office and computer, I really like baking. I’ve enjoyed making bread, croissants, cookies, pies, cakes, and more. Every week we have home made pizza.

I have many. Mostly woodworking, restoring old bicycles and playing guitar (delta and chicago blues).

Reading, writing, studying, programming (my work is programmer but it has been my hobby as well for the past 40 years almost), hiking, weights, cooking, doing nothing (very hard to do which is why it deserves a place), chatting (online and in meatspace).

Larping. I've been playing Vampire the Masquerade Larps for a decade and I'm working on my own larp about the Huldufolk. Between the two I've gotten a lot of mileage out of being a larper who knows how to code and run servers.

Photography is my mainstay, but I enjoy reading about various topics too. Lately, I've been trying to make things with polymer clay or epoxy resin. And I volunteer at a local food pantry.

Drawing or doodling to be more precise. I was never good at arts and crafts classes in school but I love to draw on paper. My favorite combo is pencil+markers.

design manager in the day job, I consider playing with tech to be a hobby.

otherwise - reading, drawing, gaming (almost exclusively on nintendo consoles).

Scuba Diving - it's great, everyone should try it. Although it's fairly expensive as hobbies go.

Equalise early and often!

Family, brewing beer, lock picking, repairing stuff (which ties in with learning new things), cooking.

I tinker a lot with watches (wrist and pocket watches) do some maintenance and modifications

Hanging out with my wife, playing piano, stanning Taylor Swift.

a previous thread from 5 months ago:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28413011

the two big ones, into which I sink a lot of time and energy and money:

* word games, specifically competitive scrabble and cryptic crosswords

* cooking

Running, reading, gaming and algotrading

Making music, DJing and Production

juggling, piano, learning how to draw, editing wikipedia, biking, hiking, running, reading

I build profiles of HN users.

Jazz Piano.