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Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

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Re: Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

#711

Post by shiroiuma »

xpe wrote: post #103
hackrmn wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Between the genuine weirdos, the autistic and/or the neuro-divergent, is there anyone left, really? Do the "normies" genuinely exist? Happy-go-lucky, knows a bit about everything but doesn't nerd out on anything, picks up every conversation subject and listens and holds their own in a manner that is just right? I am genuinely curious about the existence of these "superhumans".

While there is often a "normal" (bell-curve fitting) distribution for individual factors, putting them together can be counter-intuitive. > Even when considering just three dimensions, fewer than 5% of pilots were “average” in all. [1] I would guess many/most people probably think they fall into either (1) the normal bucket or (変) the weird/fringe bucket. Either "I am pretty normal" or "I am an outsider". How many th…

I think it should be fairly easy to determine if atheists really are outsiders in parts of the US or if it's just perception: just look at voting results, and church attendance for any given area. I don't think it's merely perception at all; visit any rural area and you'll likely see a surprising number of churches relative to the population.

Also, seeing people walking around in public doesn't tell you anything about their religious beliefs unless they're in some sect where they make it obvious with their clothing or hairstyle.

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

#712

Post by shiroiuma »

ariuser8434 wrote: post #339
ngokevin wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Blood on the Clocktower to do this, it's a social deduction game (that's just not randomly accusing each other) so it gets everyone talking easily

the one and only meetup i ever went to (that wasn't something vaguely work-related) was a Werewolf meetup (the game). It actually wasn't very social, but it was a bunch of people who were really into Werewolf. Which, really, was what it was meant to be (and it was fun, because i love to play Werewolf)

I went to one of those too, before Covid. It was great. I went to another one with the same group, but for the similar game "Witch".

Then came Covid, and the group disappeared and never re-appeared. :-(

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

#713

Post by afc »

eru wrote: post #709
srean wrote: post #623

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please consider writing a blog about this. Would love to know more.

Sorry, I don't have time. See https://www.mathemaknitter.com/ for her (sadly neglected) blog that also links to her ravelry account and patterns. Mostly the conceptual evolution was: Knitting patterns have a lot of numbers with mathematical relations between them. You could keep track of them by hand, but spreadsheets are already an improvement. Especially when you want to make edits to earlier parts of the pattern.…

She has a cool blog, I liked her articles!

How does she keep track of what row she's on, as she knits? I wonder if she'd be interested in specifying her patterns in a format my knitting software (visualization) could consume.

Anyhow, cool stuff!

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

#714

Post by asdfqwertzxcv »

koliber wrote: post #312

A while back, at a company I used to work at, we did intros of new hires. This was one of the questions. One person shared that they do composting and worm farming. That was memorable. Sharing here since it's about as interesting and niche as I can imagine.

You: "So, what are some hobbies you enjoy in your free time?"

Them: "I got worms."

You: "I beg your pardon?"

Them: "That's what I do. I got worms and wormfarms and do composting."

Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMcjYD-ISv0

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

#715

Post by Imustaskforhelp »

rainrat wrote: post #699
Imustaskforhelp wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ohh about fairy stockfish, I had actually looked into it for something like spell-chess (which is an completely unsolved problem!) I was playing chess with one of my friends and we played spell-chess which is an clash royale/clash of clans x chess thing where you get two spells of freeze and jump Freeze allows you to select a tile and have a 3x3 square radius which freezes those pieces Jump allows you to select any p…

Belzedar94 made a prototype that plays Spell chess about 6 months ago: https://github.com/Belzedar94/Fairy-Stockfish/pull/37

This is pretty cool, I haven't looked into it much but I would appreciate if you can tell me what is the best playing strategy according to the fairy stockfish?

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

#716

Post by eru »

afc wrote: post #713
eru wrote: post #709

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, I don't have time. See https://www.mathemaknitter.com/ for her (sadly neglected) blog that also links to her ravelry account and patterns. Mostly the conceptual evolution was: Knitting patterns have a lot of numbers with mathematical relations between them. You could keep track of them by hand, but spreadsheets are already an improvement. Especially when you want to make edits to earlier parts of the pattern.…

She has a cool blog, I liked her articles! How does she keep track of what row she's on, as she knits? I wonder if she'd be interested in specifying her patterns in a format my knitting software (visualization) could consume. Anyhow, cool stuff!

I have contact details in my profile. If you send me an email, I can put you in touch.

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

#717

Post by account42 »

ggregoire wrote: post #93

I've been playing exclusively CRPGs for the last 12 months or so, which was kinda a niche genre before the success of BG3. There are tons of way to beat those games and optimizing how you build your party and characters (what players call "min-maxing") while following a highly narrative story is a lot of fun. Most of them are quite old and often on sales for like 5 bucks on Steam, for which you get hundreds of hours…

For BG1 I suggest giving the original non-EE version a try without mods that move it BG2 engine (which the EE also does) and have a character focus on summons. It's sad to see the version most new players will experience has spell casting rules significantly different from what the game was originally designed with.

Also some more worthwhile ones:

  Infinity engine games (i.e. Baldur's Gate engine):
   Planescape: Torment (if you like the story aspect, combat is less engaging in this one but not as bad as some die hards will claim; skip the newer Torment form inXile)
   Icewind Dale I and II
  
  Arcanum
  
  ATOM RPG
  
  Wasteland 2 and 3
  
  More that I liked but will be a matter of taste:
   Shadowrun Returns and sequels
   Neverwinter Nights (early 3D graphics that are nothing to write home about unfortunate design consequences from supporting multiplayer, but has many worthwhile fan modules)
Also the early Fallouts of course like a sibling comment already suggested.

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

#718

Post by account42 »

evilbob93 wrote: post #698

I melt milk jugs and other HDPE plastics into musical claves and drum sticks as an answer to "recycling plastic is kind of bs". It melts at 350 degrees and can be done in a toaster oven in the garage or even the kitchen with proper ventilation. The smell isn't that bad, nothing like if you dropped plastic in a fire. I've also made some sticks from braiding plastic grocery bags which are also often made of HDPE (#2) t…

I'd be worried about coating your lungs with aerosolized plastic, not with what exactly it smells like.

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

#719

Post by srean »

eru wrote: post #709
srean wrote: post #623

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please consider writing a blog about this. Would love to know more.

Sorry, I don't have time. See https://www.mathemaknitter.com/ for her (sadly neglected) blog that also links to her ravelry account and patterns. Mostly the conceptual evolution was: Knitting patterns have a lot of numbers with mathematical relations between them. You could keep track of them by hand, but spreadsheets are already an improvement. Especially when you want to make edits to earlier parts of the pattern.…

Thanks a bunch.
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