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Ask HN: What's your favourite hobby and how did it start?

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Re: Ask HN: What's your favourite hobby and how did it start?

#21

Post by samsquire »

My hobby is journalling, my writing or note keeping is simplistic writing of ideas about software that feel interesting to me. I've been journalling in the open since 2013. I am interested in parallelism, multithreading, coroutines, programming language design and implementation.

Writing helps me think and really satisfying. Writing is thinking.

I hope you choose to do something good and positive for your spirit and full of love - something that gets you away from the computer screen, such as study God.

Re: Ask HN: What's your favourite hobby and how did it start?

#22

Post by mdf »

Currently, birding. Got really into it in 2021 since it pretty much runs in the family. I feel that observing the lives of our fellow creatures helps me really destress and put my mind off work. Interestingly, I find that birding while walking in the nature works better in this regard than just walking in the nature.

Get a good pair of binoculars, a bird sound recognition app for your mobile[1], and a bird field guide (as a European, I prefer [2]), and you're good to go.

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.tu_chemnitz...

[2] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.natureguid...

Re: Ask HN: What's your favourite hobby and how did it start?

#23

Post by farialima »

Violin.

I can't spend one day without it, as a break every few hours of coding or meeting, it's really great

It's quite a lot of work, but really the best way to make your brain two sides work together - as well as your fingers, arms, body...

I started 5 years ago, with some prior knowledge of music from being a kid.

Oh, and now I can play with people, to people. I started in my mom's retirement home - she loved it, and other residents too, and even the staff, because all the residents would be so quite after that... and now that I play better I can play to my friends, family..

It changed my life.

Re: Ask HN: What's your favourite hobby and how did it start?

#24

Post by aidos »

MetallicCloud wrote: post #15

Woodworking - It started when someone on my work slack posted an image of an arcade machine they had made. I thought "I want one of those". So I borrowed a circular saw and made one. Then I was hooked. Now I'm doing lots of home improvements, such as building a coffee bar and converting an unused area into a pantry. I'm currently building some shop furniture, then I'll be converting an unused cupboard near our entry…

For me too. Though it’s more DIY in general (plumbing, electrics, decorating etc too).

Built myself a shed from scratch earlier in the summer as a warm up for building a garden office.

Currently have the roof off the porch (somewhat regrettably given the state the summer in the uk) because the ivy got to it before we purchased the house and it was rotting away. Having to learn a new set of skills around tiling hip rafters. Thank the Lord for YouTube!

It’s amazing the number of tools you end up needing as you go along. Though a circular saw and an impact driver will take you a long way.

Re: Ask HN: What's your favourite hobby and how did it start?

#25

Post by _fs »

neom wrote: post #8

Learning Ableton opened me up to a whole world of meeting new people and picking up new skills. https://www.ableton.com/en/live/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iuRsiKtObw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxY0x1i3XhY https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9oiyAGA6zOTSPR5-ttojODT4... Getting some teenage engineering pocket operators is also something I'd strongly recommend. They're affordable and fun! Check out this 8 ye…

8 hour course? Did you actually get through the entire thing? Was it worth it?

Re: Ask HN: What's your favourite hobby and how did it start?

#26

Post by dingnuts »

mecsred wrote: post #17

Music is a fantastic option. I've always loved listening but didn't dig into it for a long time. I imagined myself getting into synthesizers and DAWs and figured I didn't need another hobby that keeps me at the workbench or computer. During the pandemic I decided to buy a bass guitar and it turns out there is something to these analog instruments after all. A key part of it for me was intentionally avoiding electroni…

I'm in the same boat, but I like recording too so I got a "digital 8 track" that can completely replace a DAW and allows me to record my acoustic or electric instrument or my voice, and edit the recording, and mix it down into a final product, all on the device.

If you have any interest in recording & want to maintain the part where you stay away from the computer/workbench while you play music, I cannot more strongly recommend a digital 8-track recorder. It's been life-changing for me.

Re: Ask HN: What's your favourite hobby and how did it start?

#29

Post by porknChps »

I grew up without TV and learned all the things to keep my mind occupied. The ones I spend most time on:

Woodworking

Playing music (guitar, piano, sax, drums, and Audulus 4)

Programming (started around 90 in qbasic)

Gardening (simple stuff these days, herbs and peppers, tomatoes; I make a lot of sauces to add to meals)

Engine repair (started with tractors, now I just fix small engines)

Building building (just built a greenhouse for friends; designing mine now)

Logic circuit design (EE started in motherboard design as a career, switched to software as hardware went overseas)

I went deep on all these at various points. Anymore really only spend enough time on them throughout the year to keep a connection, muscle memory.

If I had to recommend any I’d say gardening and music.

Learning a musical instrument fosters connectivity between both sides of the brain in a way no other skills based learning does[1]. I credit musical instrument skills for the abundance of creative energy I feel. That I spend time on daily or I feel depressed and “off”.

And a fresh sauce makes boiled potato taste like Michelin star cuisine.

[1] https://youtu.be/R0JKCYZ8hng?si=wkyGmTs51d0yp9zI

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