Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

271–280 of 769 posts

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

#271

Post by dan353hehe »

frabia wrote: post #233

I recently started looking into hydroponics gardening. You can start very easily with a Kratky system and some herbs, and then take it a step at the time. I’m quite at the beginning myself, but I like it so far! It’s a nice mix of science and craft.

Yep! I have a small setup with just some used food grade pickle buckets, and have been growing greens and things for a bit over a year. Going to get some more and expand them this year. It literally uses no power as pumps are not used, and water usage is very minimal. I live in the desert so low water usage is very important.

It's an interesting hobby, as you have to adapt it to the area you live, and where you grow the plants.

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

#272

Post by towledev »

chasd00 wrote: post #261

amateur liquid bi-prop rocket engines for the High Power Rocketry hobby are gaining momentum. There's lot of opportunity there for performance profiling and even more if you have access to a machine tools like CNC lathes. There's also interest in active stabilization of amateur rockets using engine gimbaling which would put so much more performance in reach. These guys are legit and actually flying airframes instead…

As a kid, I dreamed of doing this. Some of my earliest googling was related to rocket fuel, probably right after October Sky came out.

What differentiates High-Power from the other options?

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

#273

Post by s3tt3mbr1n1 »

bokohut wrote: post #194

Walking and finding history if your location has such history to offer to find. People pay vast accruing cumulative sums over time to go to the gym and my exercise pays me with every single walk. Some of that modern human history I have found dates back hundreds of years in the form of coins and bottles while some of the native human history I have found dates back 10 thousand years. I cannot neglect the fossils eith…

Very interested to hear more. Do you live in an (old) city or more rurally?

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

#274

Post by MandieD »

My hobby involves some of the oldest technology we've been able to find evidence of.

It started as spinning with a hand spindle using prepared (combed/carded) wool, and has evolved into looking for interesting fleeces directly from the shepherds (plenty given away or sold cheaply around here), figuring out how best to wash and process (hand comb? drum carder? spin directly from the slightly-opened locks?), working on which settings on my spinnng wheel will produce the twist I'm looking for, and most recently, dyeing using Easter egg dye and vinegar, which is surprisingly effective.

Oh, and of course, knitting and crocheting with the results.

I still use hand spindles to spin while walking, watching my kid on the playground, or on transit.

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

#275

Post by hermitcrab »

chasd00 wrote: post #261

amateur liquid bi-prop rocket engines for the High Power Rocketry hobby are gaining momentum. There's lot of opportunity there for performance profiling and even more if you have access to a machine tools like CNC lathes. There's also interest in active stabilization of amateur rockets using engine gimbaling which would put so much more performance in reach. These guys are legit and actually flying airframes instead…

Probably better to start with solid fuel motors? lots to learn before progressing onto liquid fuel motors.

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

#276

Post by rationalist »

EvanAnderson wrote: post #210
eitally wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same, but not the same. I've also been doing photography for a long time and when I had kids I added some gear & skills to shoot them playing sports. After a few years of this I realized since I was already there I might as well shoot the whole team, or both/all teams, since everyone's families would value the photos. When I was laid off at the end of last year I decided to formalize this and now have a side gig (rea…

That gig is something I tried to do w/ my daughter's sports for the past 5-ish years. I loved shooting her games and distributing the photos both teams. It was so much fun. I had a nasty altercation with a parent last fall and now I can't pick up the camera w/o getting PTSD-like symptoms. I'd love to know how "pros" handle dealing with that kind of thing. I had a similar situation years ago w/ a guy who got in my fac…

Make up an official-looking "Event Photographer" vest, hat, lanyard with "Photographer Pass" on it, etc?

People generally ignore or even help workers with a bright vest, carrying a ladder, etc. So I imagine you would get a lot less suspicious looks doing something like that versus looking like an Average Joe.

Maybe with a polo shirt and embroidered made-up photography company logo and name on it.

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

#277

Post by eitally »

hermitcrab wrote: post #234
EvanAnderson wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That gig is something I tried to do w/ my daughter's sports for the past 5-ish years. I loved shooting her games and distributing the photos both teams. It was so much fun. I had a nasty altercation with a parent last fall and now I can't pick up the camera w/o getting PTSD-like symptoms. I'd love to know how "pros" handle dealing with that kind of thing. I had a similar situation years ago w/ a guy who got in my fac…

You need to be extremely careful about taking photos of children without explicit permission from the parents.

You need to know the law. That is being careful, but it doesn't mean it's always illegal to photograph children in public.

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

#278

Post by gglitch »

vectordust wrote: post #46

Despite AI starting to crowd this space, I've been spending all of my free time learning music production (doing it the old fashion way without AI). It's a great mix of technical and creative problem solving. Mostly focusing on dark ambient/cinematic composition, playing around hardware synths (Prophet 6, Subsequent 37, modular / eurorack, Digitone II). If anyone is curious, I put out a single recently (remaster from…

Ion Dunes is outstanding. Very nice work. I would be happy to hear more, and would very much enjoy a writeup too.

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

#279

Post by andrewhaupt »

biotinker wrote: post #263
andrewhaupt wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats awesome! I'm doing apple stuff on the other side of the Cascades (Eugene), starting a cidery and trying to find rare varieties to graft. And doing little software projects like https://pomological.art/ . Would love to get in touch if you want people to propagate these varieties you're finding and would potentially be interested in sharing some scion wood!

Oh cool! I've used pomological.art! Great site! I'm in the middle of building out a similar big project that takes a different tack: looking through every period pomological text (e.g. Apple of New York, Fruits and Fruit Trees of America) and pulling the images, descriptions, etc for every heritage apple variety. Includes the watercolors too. I also pull in every scanned catalog from nurseries selling fruit trees in…

I love that idea, actually started something similar awhile back but didn't get far and ran out of time/energy. If you need any help/contributions I'd love to pitch in. And sounds great! I'll shoot you an email with my contact info

Re: Ask HN: Any interesting niche hobbies?

#280

Post by rationalist »

hiAndrewQuinn wrote: post #90

Recreational mapmaking. Every couple of months the family and I will book out some long weekend to just go to an Airbnb in some random town with some copy paper and just go around trying to draw what we think is around us. Inevitably the lines collide and we have to ask some local passerby for help, and if they know any interesting places nearby, and before you know it they're following along with a colored pencil an…

Now that's a niche hobby that sounds interesting.
Post reply on HN