Find Yourself a Hobby for 2020
findyourselfahobby.com
findyourselfahobby.com
I stumbled across this hobby a few years ago. Whenever I'm in some place new, I run a search on google maps for "museums" and try to find the smallest, most niche topic possible.
It's a pretty small time commitment - a small museum can often be explored in 30-60 minutes - and it's incredibly rewarding.
The smaller the museum is, the more likely you'll meet the person who set it up. And that's guaranteed to be a great conversation no matter what the subject of the museum is.
A couple of months ago I started a website to share details of the museums I've explored. So far I've managed to post a new one every day, and I've still got a backlog of about 50.
That being said, I believe it is fair to say that I had a better experience than wife+kids at two of my favourite niche museums - the Grimeton spark gap transmitter in South Sweden and, all-time favourite - the museum of submarine cable in Porthcurno, Cornwall, UK.
Everybody loved the Ramones museum in Berlin-Kreuzberg, though.
Imphal Peace Museum - https://goo.gl/maps/bXs5PU7tvJE3JukA6
For the moment there's an undocumented map you can view here (using my datasette-cluster-map plugin) https://www.niche-museums.com/browse/museums
1. The American Sign Museum - https://www.americansignmuseum.org/ - Cincinnati, OH. Dedicated to preserving neon signs from across America 2. The International Museum of Surgical Science - https://imss.org/ - Chicago, IL.
Here's what comes to mind...
* Mutter Museum in Philly (http://muttermuseum.org/) Awesome victorian medical curiosities
* Museum of Questionable medical devices in St Paul (http://www.museumofquackery.com/). Exactly what the name implies. Really interesting for skeptics.
* Wagner Free Institute (http://www.wagnerfreeinstitute.org/), in Philly. This is victorian-era science museum focusing on natural history. Interesting selection of specimens and a magnificently preserved victorian lecture hall.
* Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto (http://batashoemuseum.ca/). Shoes are actually interesting in historical context!
* Johnstown Flood Museum (https://www.jaha.org/attractions/johnstown-flood-museum/) This is in western PA, about 1.5 hours east of Pittsburgh. Dedicated mostly to the flood of 1889 which shaped the history of this town, as well as the flood of 1977.
* National Electronics Museum (https://www.nationalelectronicsmuseum.org/) This is a short distance from the BWI airport.
The Cryptography Museum nearby is also great.
I've started reading Latin texts, so many of which are not translated, with alpheus reading tools. For instance, Descartes' first book has never been translated.
I'm so curious about the concept of harmony through history. Everyone talked about it, but it was also quite mysterious, wrapped up in esoteric mystery.
Shwep.Net is helps synthesize many sources for studying ancient philosophy.
So take up juggling!
Aside from obvious things like becoming more coordinated and increasing your spatial awareness, it will teach you a lot about learning. It's fascinating when a challenging new pattern moves from deliberate and entirely conscious effort to straddling the conscious/unconscious divide until it gets bedded in to your nervous system and you can do it without thinking.
Juggling is almost entirely non-competitive and jugglers are overwhelmingly supportive and eager to teach and learn new tricks from each other. It doesn't seem to be possible to get into it without also wanting to teach anyone who wants to learn. There aren't many egos getting in the way, which I find rather pure and beautiful.
Contemporary juggling is hugely varied. You can go from technical and accurate numbers jugging (high number of objects) to flowing improvised moves to something that is as much dance as circus stuff.
Also siteswap[1], a notation for juggling patterns, is cool!
you can also juggle bouncing off the floor, lighter objects (scarves, tissues), various patterns (above instead of under, 1 up 2 up) and if really adventurous try while unicycling!
Maybe it's because I'm in my midlife crisis, but as I think how much time I put into hobbies I wonder how much good I could have done in the same time.
But creating music, build scale models, growing cactuses, watching movies is a lot of fun. And people need time to relax and enjoy life.
My family makes a point to look after others in the church we're part of, generally by inviting them over for dinner and/or by bringing gifts of food.
Music-making and cooking are two hobbies that share really well, but you can do just about anything together.
[0] https://www.biblehub.com/james/1-27.htm
[1] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/between-cultures/201... << there are a lot of articles like this...
If you have a garage, start with a work bench build. Design it with 2x4 lumber and carriage bolts, make it your own. Once you're standing at your new workbench, then the inspiration really starts going.
Also YouTube has an endless supply of quality woodworking videos.
This guy was on a podcast i listen to.Really worth checking out hia site.
Someone put a (rather primitive) air cannon simulator I wrote on GitHub: https://github.com/cli-mongrel/bags
And before then I was in to homemade water guns, e.g.: http://www.sscentral.org/homemade/supercannon2.html
I built that when I was a teenager as I recall.
Another example that I never participated in: http://www.pulse-jets.com/phpbb3/index.php
I'd love to get better at machining so I could make some small jet engines like those folks.
I'm similarly impressed by people who modify cars, build wind turbines, etc., etc.
If there are any particular hobbies along these lines that you find interesting, I'd love to hear about them!
Or... I do remember a neat how-to from Colin furze(youtube) for making a turbojet using only a hand drill and grinder. It wasn't exactly pretty but it definitely ran.
1. seed (online)
2. soil -- small locally owned plant store. ask them lots of questions
3. light -- same plant store, or the sun.
that's basically it to get started. It's a really easy plant to grow and pretty hard to fuck up. Check on them daily, talk to them, make sure the soil is moist but not muddy. You don't really need nutrients your first go, too many variables to fuss with. Just water, light, and time.
Any tips on staying motivated? I mostly would enter it into evernote, and as lazy as it sounds sometimes my biggest barrier of entry would be opening my laptop heh.
2. Hang a wall calendar in a high-visibility location and put a sticker/tally mark for every week that you successfully log. It's an easy visual reminder of your progress, and it can bug you if you don't log for a week.
3. This may not be the advice you want, but not logging for a week isn't the worst thing - it's okay to have a week now and then where nothing of note really happens.
2. That sounds like a good motivator!
3. True true
As you're probably a problem solver at heart (since you're on HN during Christmas), it might also help to write a list of things that you want the journaling to do for you (self-reflection? better mental health? loving-kindness? keeping track of memories?) and then try to come up with some system that will optimize for those values and also minimize the stress and time-commitment. Your brain is programmed to stir away from any stressful work, you the last two are mainly to make sure you aren't biologically forced out of your new habit.
[1]: https://medium.com/better-humans/draft-how-to-hack-your-brai...
I especially like your suggestion about being more clear with an intention for journaling. Looking back I mostly ramble about what events happened the previous week (memories), but I would also like to include more self reflection and personal thoughts on subjects.
Cheers
If you are space-constrained you can also make jewelry, which can be a lot like machining, just a lot smaller. Also it's amazing how your view of metal als "very solid" changed once you take a graver and move it around by hand.
Right rudder, right rudder.
But there is something to be said about folks that go up just once a month with their instructor and enjoy the lessons. As long as the monthly experience is the goal and not a license anytime soon.
For this year, I want to go for depth rather than breadth. For instance:
- I can already play the guitar reasonably well so how about going into music theory next?
- I can draw well but I've been mostly drawing portraits and human figures. So how about still lifes and sceneries? Or draw with color as so far all I've been doing is elaborate sketching.
- Maybe finally learn Copperplate.
- After doing Taekwondo since 2004, I recently just picked up boxing and kickboxing. Definitely a lot to learn here still, and even more to integrate from TKD! I wanna get good form on my head movement, get that explosive technique on my punches, throw all my body weight into my hooks, etc.
On to another decade of curiosity, I guess. :)
Because hobbies are a really personal thing and at least I must really identify with what I'm doing.
Add some more physical hobbies. Rock climbing/bouldering, swimming/surfing, hike more often. Maybe even yoga. Right now I lift weights and jog on treadmills but I want more diversity. And I need more sun.
Start playing a competitive game again. Used to be into chess, Starcraft 2. I think this helps me decompress better than most other activities.
Read on my morning commute (25m train ride). Right now I mostly just browse the internet.
Work on a mobile game. Very bootstrappable side gig and I know little about front end.
I think you would be surprised at the number people interested in something like this.
When I read this, I saw a little of myself in you. I am fairly into bouldering, hiking and have tried, unsuccessfully, to get into the competitive video game scene.
Yoga stuck out to me when reading your comment. I have received invitations to come try yoga but have never gone. I am going to add it to my list of New Year resolutions.
>Why don't you try this hobby instead: Medieval reenactment
Ha! I already do, I'm a member of the SCA.
So if I can do some cool solar pv hydronic heat tank thing, that's ok, or use giant coils of air tubes deep within the earth to steal ambient heat, or whatever tricks look good... I want to give it a shot!
Where I think it becomes problematic is when the focus is on exactly one game, especially ones with online gameplay with toxic communities. In those cases you should ask yourself if you might be part of the toxicity cycle (not always the case, but worth some introspection).
If all your friends are from the game and you don’t socialize much outside the game and necessary things like work/family, I’d say that is a bit of a problem.
You can also race karts fairly cheaply (compared to cars and especially racing cars).
Apparently not only do I have free time, but also free money and free garage space.
Tonka: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyWxgkQ_3OM
matchbox: https://www.youtube.com/user/pso316a
Ham radio, use your spectrum before the FCC auctions it off.