Ask HN: What's Your Hobby? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What's Your Hobby?

19 pointsjessehorne40 comments

I used to collect vinyl, but now I have a 3 year old who consumes most of the time I would otherwise devote to hobbies. She destroyed a couple Bob Dylan records early on, so all of my records are in hiding.

In the last few weeks, my girl and I have built several train tracks, built dozens of puzzles, read parts of about a hundred books, gone to see dinosaurs at our local Museum of Natural History and gone to watch planes take off at the airport. I play a lot of Monster and talk like a unicorn. Sometimes, I let one of her stuffed puppies pretend to drive. She’s potty training so we talk about poop and pee far more than I’m comfortable admitting. It’s a non stop laugh riot...

Watching incredibly low-brow reality TV: Big Brother, Alone, Survivor, Project Runway.

I used to feel guilty about it, but at the end of a really taxing mental day, it's fun to unplug by watching a wide variety of people solve soft skill challenges. It puts my own problems into a different perspective. At the end of an hour or two of that, I walk away going, "Whew, I really love what I do, the community I do it with, and my family, because I'd fail miserably in an environment like one of those."

I understand. I tend to watch videos on YouTube about DIY projects. Keeps me entertained and inspired. Maybe my days aren't mentally taxing enough!

That’s pretty surprising coming from you. I would have guessed.... stand up comedy.

Ha! I do watch that for inspiration - also, magic shows.

You should try The Amazing Race and 90-Day Finance.

I watch the former and my wife watches the latter. You nailed it on the recommendations! Right up our alley.

I make creepy, angry and aggressive music with a classical flavour to it. Here's a short instrumental that gives a bit of the idea:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrxQDz18jqs

Actually its not always angry, but it does tend to go in that direction. I love the energy.

Here is something with vocals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc0LbD5D_Hc

You can see me prancing about a couple times in that vid.

I also study constantly. Right now I'm on a sabbatical dedicating the time to Lisp and its quantum connections, which is really just a newer manifestation of my early 90's Artificial Life obsessions. Unsurprisingly I'm in the middle of a course on the Origins of Life through Santa Fe Institute.

Pushups

Last few months, I do pushups whenever I get a chance. Averaging about 120 pushups/day for the last ~3 months. Got a few friends/family interested, so now there's ~25 people doing pushups everywhere (bars, sidewalks, airports etc.). They've set goals of 10K or 50K pushups in a year, depending on their desire/fitness levels.

The results have been surprising, people who could only do 1-2 pushups at one time, are regularly doing 50+ over the course of a day.

It's been a lot of fun, even if it's not the most balanced workout :D

Have you noticed any difference in your body?

Definitely. A visible difference.

Tighter abs, more defined pecs and deltoids. Also a lot of soreness, but it comes/goes in cycles.

You should read "Body by Science" to prevent destroying your bones, cartilage and to waste time. There is such thing as the golden minimum.

I have tried, but my back usually started to hurt in ~3 weeks, is my form just wrong? Do I need to have a coach to teach me how to do it?

Me too! I’m usually around 50-80 day without even trying to find time. My back had felt great!

3D printing. I picked up an ANET A8 about a year ago. It was the cheapest printer available at the time. I had absolutely no idea how hard it was to keep these things running smoothly. They are like very challenging puzzles that constantly need resolving. Issues like temperature, alignment, vibration, etc which all affect the quality of your print. Unfortunately, I'm not very good at it, but I enjoy it still.

I have lots of hobbies and the time I’ve devoted to them changes over time. My primary hobbies are: playing music, traveling, reading, scuba diving, making.

A few years ago, I started making word clocks. Now I have a refined design that my wife and I are producing in our basement and starting to sell at low volume: www.finewordclocks.com.

Making clocks is also a great excuse to buy cool tools. We have a probotix asteroid cnc in the basement. I have a 3yo and 6yo. It’s been fun getting them involved in making things. Most of the presents for their friends’ birthday parties are home made (mostly by me but with the kids’ participation) and are REALLY well received.

Music - Both me and wife are some sort of musicians. I play drums and I am trying to also get into production/mixing

Hiking - I love hiking and mountains

Futsal - used to be a good goalkeeper, but after a broken ACL and now a broken scaphoid, I think i'll stop this year

DIY - I like building stuff. I don't have a lot of tools, so often things don't turn out perfect, but I'm usually satisfied with the end result

I was going to say that I don't have a hobby at the moment, but I suppose that's not true. Outside of work, family, and church responsibilities, I am:

- learning to type in Russian. After two weeks, I'm hitting about 25 wpm using 6 letters on keybr.com

- running four times a week, training for a half marathon

- trying to help a friend start exercising to improve his mental health

- oh, and I'm running a monthly 'board game night' and also trying to host tech networking events in the small town where I live

I recently started a new job, (re)learning javascript and learning React and friends, and, oh my goodness, I'm mentally exhausted when done. Recently when I've tried to do some coding on the side, I'm just too tired.

- Ido Portal movement. A unique approach to improve body's capabilities incl. strength, mobility, coordination, balance, speed, rhythm, etc. [1]

- Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. The learning process is heavily impacted by John Danaher, a BJJ instructor who holds Master Degree in Philosophy and describes the BJJ system using principles learnt in philosophy [2]

[1] - https://www.instagram.com/portal.ido/

[2] - https://www.instagram.com/danaherjohn/

Cycling. Lots and lots of cycling. Road or mountain, I do it all. Century rides (100+ mi rides), charity rides, etc. and I'd love to get into gravel stuff one day too.

Building drones - sometimes I actually fly them.

Let's collab

Surfing and fly fishing. I'm lucky to live in a place where I can do both.

I write poems.

Show me!

On Hobby

=========

Roses are pink

Tulips are black

I like to think

That's why I hack

~~~~~~~

On the importance of sleep

=========

In the ev'ning when the sun

Was setting, it went down

Said it needed have some rest

So that it could be the best

Rising fresh again next day

Shining bright all the way

~~~~~

On Friendship

=========

Better hungry than eat rotten

Let this precept not forgotten

Even birds belong to flocks

See them penguins on the rocks?

Better shoeless than in pain

Better be alone, and sane

■ I wrote these impromptu just for you. They may be childish but they certainly make sense (compared to the what the imagists etc write).

That last one! Woah!

Thanks, :) the English language has serious limitations in how meaning can be molded to convey multiple-entendres, unlike some Asian/Oriental languages where one line can have at least 4 to 5 differing, contradictory-yet-supporting senses, which in the end causes an intellectual high that makes one stop--you cannot digest more than one line a day--and even so it makes you think about it all day long. :)

I can draw well

Show me.

https://www.deviantart.com/billconan

Wow. That's really impressive!

I totally get that art isn't always for profit. However -- I'm always demoralized by the sheer amount of drawing, painting, etc talent that doesn't get financially rewarded. Slightly off-topic and doesn't necessarily apply to you!

Thanks. I’m not a professional. I need drawing because it calms me down.

Wow, nice job!

Are you a self learner or did you go to some school?

I’m a self learner. It’s just my hobby.

Very cool :) Keep going on!

banjo

Me too! Been playing about a year now.

I find it very relaxing and accessible. I mean I guess guitar is too, with a lot more literature. But a big attraction of the banjo for me was the open source nature of folk music.

I wanted to learn to play the banjo at one point. That was after I learned to play the Ukulele.

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