I’ve been stuck in the work, recharge, repeat cycle for about a decade now. I’m looking to get back into hobbies and activities to enjoy my free time and possibly meet other folks.
I’ve heard you should have 3 types of hobbies: something to keep you fit, something to keep you creative, and something that can make some money. I’ve considered gym/triathlon (fitness) and woodworking (creative/income).
What are your hobbies? Anything you recommend I try out?
Hobbies are not for making money. That’s what a job is for. Hobbies are where you sink the money you have left from your job and all the other expenses are paid.
That said.
Hobbies for me include:
Hiking (lots of good trails nearby)
Making sounds on my Synth (I’m building a case right now)
TTRPGS (when you can wrangle enough folks)
Skirmish Games (mainly Gaslands)
Video games (slay the spire, and casual WoW)
A lot of people have a hobby that they can either recoup some costs of the hobby, or earn some beer money. Arts and crafts may have the occasional fair or flea market, or even an online store or ko-fi.
In my experience though, once you try to turn a hobby into a primary source of income, that becomes a job and is no longer as fun as it was as a hobby.
Warning - do not make your creative/fun hobby the one that also makes you money. I’ve met several people who were into woodworking as a hobby, started doing it on commission for family, friends, referrals, etc, and it quickly became a job rather than a fun hobby. The timelines and demands that come with doing commissions killed it for them, they still occasionally do woodworking as gifts/favors, but very explicitly just for family and close friends without timelines, and only charge for materials
I am strongly considering hanging a shingle as a furniture maker. A few stars have to align first but it’ll probably happen in 2025.
Your warning is valid. I was a project manager for a custom building/rapid prototyping shop before the pandemic, I’m used to customers, deadlines and budgets. Compared to what I’m doing now, I think I’d rather be in command of a workshop again.
Electronics projects mostly.
Mostly smart home PCBs and interconnect boards and 3D modelled housings. Examples:
- esp32-C3 dumb doorbell (just a doorbell that sends an MQTT message and sleeps the rest of the time). It works fatastic except that my Proximus ISP modem/router completely fucked up and so the network is no longer usable and I had to set it in bridge mode to a router it can’t reach. I want to release it, but haven’t had the time to water - resistance test it or make assembly instructions
- esp32-S3 voice assistant satellite attached to an IR blaster, I2S mic, and PCM5102 to control and send audio to my old Yamaha RX-496RDS to control it via IR and can play audio (local or Spotify) via music assistant. Pretty much an Alexa echo attached to my speaker system. PCB link which I am planning on releasing.
- My unfinished Flight Stick with custom electronics, fully custom 3D printable housing, etc… It is almost done, but needs like 2 more small iterations, but we moved and started doing a full-strip renovation, so my 3D printer is no longer set up because it is too dusty inside, and I don’t want to spend another $100 doing a PCB test iteration to use a better ADC with less components. Eventually as firmware practice, I want to rewrite the firmware in Rust or something. I also just looked at the Repo and the quick logo I drew up has been modified somehow without any commit. I know for a fact it was correct before. Very weird.
I also have tons of new project ideas that I don’t have time for.
My other hobbies
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weightlifting, again completely dropped off due to every free moment renovating
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Running a home server with replacement services for everything I need
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Running (my motivation has been 0 recently…)
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cooking. I try to do a few new recipes per month
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gardening. With the renovation, I just grew a few courgettes, tomatoes, and squash this year
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video games (more of a de-stresser nowadays than a hobby, most recently casual rocket league with friends is fun, hadn’t played since 2018 or so)
Fishing has been great for me. Gives ya a chance to learn what’s around you by researching local waterways and what fish live in em. Then connect with them by studying their habits throughout the year and their diet. You plan your tackle box and rod set up around that and test your studies by trying to catch the dang things. And in the process of that you get some lovely, peaceful scenery and maybe a hike.
It’s fairly cheap, too. The fishing gear on Ali Express is damn good for the price and while I can see arguments on spending on a quality rod and reel, I’ll tell ya I prefer my $65 Pflueger President spinning reel, but I wouldn’t have paid that much if I had used the $12 one I got on Ali Express first. You’ll be replacing line, lures and hooks somewhat often when you start anyway so no reason to break the bank.
In the winter months, I do more model building and painting indoors. Gunpla don’t have to be expensive and you can go all out on learning new techniques to erase mold lines and seamlessly join parts and that kinda technique learning keeps me engaged. Plus, when you’re done, you have something you can put on display. I also give completed kits away to younger relatives when I get tired of it or I wanna try the kit again with new techniques.
As far as fitness, it’s not quite a hobby, but I hop on a stationary bike and watch star trek. I fucking love Star Trek!
I do woodworking as a hobby. It doesn’t make money unless you invest in a full workshop and scale up production to the point where it would basically be a second job. Often the material costs alone are as much as it would cost to buy a completed item.
I’d still recommend it as a creative outlet though. There’s something satisfying about seeing that coffee table in the lounge and thinking “yeah I made that!”
