10 Hobbies for Programmers That Don’t Involve Code | Hacker News Reader

10 Hobbies for Programmers That Don’t Involve Code

makeuseof.com

I was a little surprised that simple exercise isn't on this list; besides the health benefits, I think it has really good psychological benefits to people who work in conceptual fields. If your workday is spent figuring out how to solve problems and working through annoying bugs, there's something very satisfying about doing a task that can only be done one way. If you want to be able to lift heavier things, all you can do is lift heavy things! I guess this list tended more towards "other ways to engage problem-solving," but I think it's healthy to sometimes do things you just have to push through.

> I guess this list tended more towards "other ways to engage problem-solving," but I think it's healthy to sometimes do things you just have to push through.

Exactly this. Every human needs a short period every day where they don't have to think too much.

You can tune out deadlifting, staring at the black line doing laps in a pool, running or doing a dance routine or warm up you know..

As the sibling comment mentioned, running is a great one.

I found being able to grab data using a GPS watch and heart-rate monitor to play with afterwards indulges the geek side nicely.

Access to pristine hiking trails is a huge deal in terms of quality of life. Not sure how to solve that one in the Bay Area though without being insanely rich and living in Woodside / Los Gatos / etc. Santa Cruz mountains maybe, but that's a long drive on a windy road to get to the South Bay, and way too far from Mountain View/Palo Alto/Menlo Park.

Sideways related, Hong Kong island is in many ways a miserable place to live unless you're rich, but for the slightly middle class the footpaths over the hill are a very pleasant way to get out on your own in some nice scenery. I was surprised at how few people I ran into up there (although someone is going up regularly to maintain the tiny little shrines).

I would expand on Go, Poker/Blackjack, and Logic Puzzles to taking up board gaming as a hobby. There is a renaissance in this hobby that started several years ago and is only growing in strength. I am fascinated with the wild variety of game mechanics and themes coming out each year. There's a social element to it that gets you out of your head if you go to your local gaming shop to play with others and there's also a quiet meditative element to it as you read rule books and play mock games in private to learn how things work. As an introvert, I find the structure of board gaming gives me a medium through which I can more easily interact with others. It's almost like collaborative puzzle-solving--especially when the other players are also in it for the fun and less the competition.

Magic the Gathering is still a huge hobby for me along these lines. I find getting out to Friday Night Magic tournaments leaves my mind ablaze thanks to the social interactions, constantly evolving game dynamics, and leaving each tournament with new ideas for decks and strategies. It's been around for twenty years now, keeps coming up with new mechanics, and is more popular than ever.

Good suggestion. My wife and I, both engineers, love board games in the Euro game style as a way to spend time together (when we're not fried from the day).

A quick list of favourites: Dominion, Babel, Agricola, Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, Power Grid, Ticket to Ride, Colt Express.

I very much find myself agreeing with the items on this list. However, I think it can be expanded to anything that's the "opposite" of programming.

Hands-on projects that are as far away physically and mentally from programming are amongst the most relaxing in my experience. I enjoy writing personally, especially on pen and paper. The total cognitive disconnect for me between writing on a computer and on paper makes it a wholly more enjoyable experience. Along the same vein is working on bicycles, anything with hand-tools.

How about hobbies that don't even require electricity? Like riding a bicycle or motorcycle on backroads, playing and listening to live music, dining outdoors, crosswords, and daypacking in the woods.

I'm surprised there aren't any honorable mentions here for chess, which is impressively strategic and compelling at the higher levels[1].

It doesn't have the complexity of Go, but Go doesn't have the ubiquity or accessibility of chess. And what good is a dance if you can't find dance partners?

1. John Bartholomew: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3naU3axvP6Y

Woodworking.

It's similar in that you can go from a idea to concept to finished piece in a weekend while also providing something tangible - unlike code.

There is just nothing more satisfying than touching your project after it's done.

The best thing is: you even do sports, that is, if you don't use a lot of power tools. Forget the planing with the jointer and use the hand planer :)

Ask me for details if you'd like yo hear more.

Basically, it says these hobbies are similar to programming. You know what? If I'm picking up a hobby. I want it to be as dissimilar from programming as possible.

So what are your hobbies? Or what would they be if you don't have one?

My take on the topic is that people who thrive as programmers have specific kind of mind. In a sense that they approach problems in certain way. Which also makes certain hobbies more appealing.

Like here we have orienteering instead of hiking. With orienteering you get to acquire and use a new set of skills to solve new problem(s) (i.e. where am I and how do I get to X?) where as hiking is pretty much just following a trail. I'm not saying that hiking every now and then can't be just relaxing and stuff, what I'm saying that orienteering has same benefits as hiking, but you get to also "do something".

I like to be mentally engaged, but in something that is not the same sort of mental engagement as programming. Tennis is great. I don't do much ballroom dancing, but what I've done I really enjoy. I also play a lot of music. These have a physical component in addition to a mental one. Surfing, I also like, but it's more solitary, and coding tends to be a somewhat solitary activity (not nearly as solitary as people often think, though). But the cold ocean and the mental process of reading and catching waves is a kind of relief or therapy for a brain exhausted after a day of unweaving and re-knitting code.

I have trouble understanding why people love playing go or chess or other highly analytical or memory based games. Casual card games, that are heavily random but involve just enough strategy to require a bit of mental engagement, those seem for some reason to ease social interaction, so those "strategy" games, I like.

But hey, some people can't wait to get to chess or go club at the end of a day of coding, and that's pretty excellent, go for it of course.

Regarding Poker and Blackjack: there's something fundamentally different about the two. In poker you play against other players, but in blackjack it's against the house.

There are people who, thanks to their skills, have made a career out of poker. However, blackjack strategy can be boiled down to a simple decision table, and still without techniques to give you an edge against the house (e.g. card counting), you're only going to gradually lose all your money.

Gardening would be fantastic if the cost of land to do it on wasn't so prohibitive. A few solutions are porch gardening in pots, which is ok but not quite as fun. Another is community gardens. I know the peninsula has some, but there's not much in evergreen. I would not find gardening next to a freeway particularly relaxing for instance: http://veggielution.org

I would add to #5 (Poker and Blackjack) that there are many collectable and "living" card games with similar mechanics. NetRunner remains one of my favourites for that reason - asymmetric play, bluffing, and risk management :)

I would extraordinarily strongly recommend against any "collectible" or "tradable" card game. Only play card games/deck building games which give you all the cards with one time purchase and no randomization. So, Android:Netrunner is a solid example of a good game. Magic the Gathering is an example of one you should run as far and as fast from as possible.

Those games ("collectible" card games) are literally the physical equivalent of "Free to Play" games psychologically, without the "Free" part ever.

(Edit: "Android Netrunner" is what I was referring to.)

I've been looking at getting into MTG, is it not possible to just buy a deck, and be done with it? If I do that, will I just get crushed on a regular basis?

It's possible to buy a "starter deck," but against anyone who has invested money (and time), there's no hope.

Magic is not really a game so much as a psychological weapon deployed on people to extract money from them legally (if not really ethically), IMO.

There's no good need for it either. There's no reason that the game couldn't be made a proper game: Just sell a box with 4 copies of every card ever made (as the limit per deck of a single card is 4) or in expansions. Then it would be ethical.

The starter decks are pretty solid actually. I come from a very aggressive magic community (in terms of play style, the people were super friendly), but every so often I was able to out do them. These are players who have dedicated years and plenty of cash to creating their decks and honing their minds for the game.

Occasionally, careful planning can be beaten by a good hand. ;)

If you don't already have a collection of cards, draft tournaments are a reasonable way to try it out. Only the cards handed out during the tournament are used, so everyone i son an even playing field regardless of prior investment.

I haven't been playing for years, but I'm assuming they haven't completely messed with the introduction stuff.

There are usually themed 40 card decks with every set. They usually have two colors that are combined to achieve something. They come with little booklet that teaches how the deck is meant to work and maybe some lore behind the idea. My first deck was mono red Goblin deck, which had a lot of small goblin guys and the idea was just to dish out goblins faster than your enemy can handle them, a death by thousand cuts.

As for themed decks power, they usually are not very powerful. Since they want to sell you more cards, but they are as good place as any to begin. Just don't expect to win tournaments with them.

As an avid player, you can, but you'll probably want to play commander as it's more "casual" and relatively stable.

Magic is really a 'system' of games.

My favorite way to play is draft. It's 12-15 dollars a draft, but 8 people, mini-tournament, power level is balanced by the limited card pool.

Agreed - I enjoy Magic, but it's expensive to even become competitive at the local level.

Living card games (FFG makes several) can still have expansions packs, but everyone has access to the same card pool and all the cards are equally available (no randomization).

Android:Netrunner is a great example (though the original Netrunner from the 90's is like Magic), but they also make a Game of Thrones game, Call of Cthulu, and Star Wars living card games :) You could buy a complete set of cards for any of these games for less than a top-tier Magic deck :)

Another missing one is learning a 2nd language (an obvious one, I'd think).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com