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

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101–110 of 111 posts

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

#101

Not sleeping. I just love the quiet night hours or the quiet early morning hours where it's just me in the house and my laptop and I can focus on my little coding projects that never seem to go anywhere.

Very relatable. Missus and the pets go to bed, just me and the peace and quiet. Time to code. Sadly I'm mid 30s now though and I find the late nights destroy me.

Me too, but its the only way I can keep my brain excited about anything.

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

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 rotat…

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!

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.

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

#103

Not sleeping. I just love the quiet night hours or the quiet early morning hours where it's just me in the house and my laptop and I can focus on my little coding projects that never seem to go anywhere.

So.. When do you actually sleep?

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

#104

Beekeeping. It’s fairly inexpensive and most people love honey (you end up with masses). You can find swarms pretty easily and it’s very satisfying to save them. A bedraggled clump of sad bees in the rain can be transformed into a productive monster given the right home. You can learn it from a friendly beekeeper, a local club, or a good book. There is no substitute for seeing a skilled person work with them though.…

Do you need to take care daily? Or is it something that can de done once a week for example?

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

#105
post #7

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu - It's an odd combination of intense physical activity and human chess (setting up attacks in advance while also trying to deflect your opponents attacks, except using chokes or joint breaks). Grapplers are either freak athletes, 120lb stoners, or business professionals. BJJ is one of the most unique sports/martial arts out there, and I encourage everyone to try it at least once. I started after e…

I was looking into BJJ as well for a while but decided against after reading about it and the topic of injuries came up a lot.

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

#106

Beekeeping. It’s fairly inexpensive and most people love honey (you end up with masses). You can find swarms pretty easily and it’s very satisfying to save them. A bedraggled clump of sad bees in the rain can be transformed into a productive monster given the right home. You can learn it from a friendly beekeeper, a local club, or a good book. There is no substitute for seeing a skilled person work with them though.…

Do you need to take care daily? Or is it something that can de done once a week for example?

> Do you need to take care daily?

With the bees, no. It’s very variable among beekeepers. I open the hive once every 1-2 weeks in spring and maybe once a month in summer. The honey harvest is quite hard work in autumn and then I close them up until spring, not going in for 4-5 months.

Opening a hive should be done with an objective and is sometimes a quick 5-10 minute job (are there eggs?) and sometimes a bit protracted, like the first spring check which took me about 90 minutes last weekend (disease check, stores check, clean up frames. Look for eggs and the queen, treat for varroa, added a box and queen excluder to the hive).

The honey harvest is hot, heavy work and I have got a lot better at it but it still takes me 4-5 hours once a year, early autumn. It’s been as much as 250kgs of honey from my 2 hives and hot, hard work when organised so you can imagine what the first few times are like as it’s bees, sticky honey and heavy boxes and buckets.

I look at the entrance every few days, but that’s not required.

Watching a beehive on a warm day is a bit like watching a fire in winter, its slightly hypnotic.

> Do you need to take care daily?

With coffee, it’s much more rigorous and needs attention 2-3 times per day.

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

#108
Triathlon for the last 8 years and more recently my passion for woodwork. I think the woodwork some how relates with what I do and love in software development, we need to use and build different tools to get the job done.

I’m a newbie in woodwork so any suggestions are appreciated.

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

#109
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…

I have a different perspective. Ableton is fine, but the "Hacker tool" of the sequencer world is Reaper. Very programmable and it has great terms of use. But it does have a learning curve.

Also, I unfortunately didn't care for the pocket operators - only musical instrument I've ever returned. People will likely have more fun with the volcas, the Circuit or inexpensive Behringers.

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

#110
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…

Can you explain how picking up this hobby lead you to meet new people? Btw thanks for the links, they look super helpful.

After a couple of years of work, I started to DJ for fun and met so many people, and as I got more into synths I go to synth meetups and music maker spaces. Basically unlocked a new friend group!
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