It said do a hobby for the fun of it, not create pain and suffering

If the reason was so you would understand you never have to do it again then the answer is no. Just install slackware. Then you will really learn how things work. Compile that kernel leaving out all the bits you don’t need.

It’s saying that it’s just a fucking hobby. It’s purpose is to be enjoyed not mastered.

Yeah, too many people preemptively gatekeep themselves: you’re not a real (hobbyist) unless you master (narrow part of the hobby), so you’re not allowed to take up that hobby until you’re ready to commit to that boring/tedious/difficult part.

I play chess and I don’t know the names of openings (and still have a lot of trouble with following notation). Who gives a shit, I’m not going to win tournaments. But I still have fun with it, occasionally play strangers in the park, and have been having fun teaching my kids how to play.

I half-ass my fitness and workout routine. Sometimes I go months in between gym sessions, and sometimes I go 6x a week for months, break some PRs, and then go on living my life. Sometimes I run 500 miles in a year, sometimes I run 10. Whatever. Life gets busy, and my own preferences shift between whether I want to do cardio, weights, sports, yoga, metcon/CrossFit style classes, or just sit on my ass and get weak and fat for a year. I’m in my 40’s, so I’ve been all over the place on all of these things.

I can watch a TV show without needing to start from the pilot and watching every episode that came out. I can watch a movie without trying to understand every reference to everything else in the same cinematic universe. I enjoy watching basketball and football even when I can’t name all the players, much less their whole career histories.

And after all that, a funny thing starts to happen. You find that you actually are pretty good at certain things compared to the public, even though you didn’t wholeheartedly devote all your effort to that thing.

I like being a dilettante. It’s awesome and I’d recommend this lifestyle to anyone. The best way to enjoy a hobby is to be unburdened by expectations.

I feel this so much. I got into stamp collecting, and I totally enjoy stamps and mail and all, but (old) people are so pretentious about it. The worst are the total hypocrites about it, too.

"I got into stamps when I was young, but I stopped when I went to university/started working/had a family because I didn’t have time for it, and came back to it after I retired.

"Philately is supposed to be academic and scholarly. You’re not a real philatelist if you’re not doing original research.

"Young people just don’t have the patience for stamps!

“The hobby is dying, why don’t young people want to collect stamps anymore??”

Actually, a lot of people do and share lots of stuff online (where the old people are not seeing it and thus is not happening). We’re just not writing 16-page papers about them (which is the standard a expected thing to do in “philately”).

I lost interest in photography for several years because of this. And because I’m a slow learner, I did the same thing with woodworking An extra few bucks doing a random thing or two is nice, but the side hustle gig mentality is toxic

There’s a word for that: jobby

As you said, it’s not healthy to turn every hobby into a jobby. The best thing about hobbies is the lack of urgency and technical criteria. The whole point is to do it for fun.

That’s why it’s funny that the bicycling community talks of “dentists” with all their gear. The people best equipped to really pursue that hobby wholeheartedly are the people who make a shitload of money doing something completely different.

Related to what you said, but not necessarily this post: I was so damn frustrated with my neighborhood community the other day. We had a vote on whether or not to repurpose a huge grass field that takes up a ton of water and sees very little use. We’re wasting a ton of money (and water) watering this pristine empty field.

The main argument for keeping the field was “we waste water in other areas of the community as well. The common-area sprinklers were on when it rained the other day. We need to address all waste before making a decision about this empty field.”

There are a lot of people that don’t realize you can make incremental progress towards a goal.

right. I feel like the world is desperate to pretend we aren’t standing on the shoulders of giants. who wants to reinvent everything, every time. use the paths already there and find shortcuts along the way, then mark them and leave them for the next traveller.

Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly

The cost of perfection is infinite.

Hear hear!

When you bust your ass all year for that great review and much needed raise…only to go in for your evaluation and be told, “Great job! Unfortunately due to budget cuts and corporate policy, we can only give you a 1.5% raise, but you’re welcome!”

Don’t tell them, but remember that.

Remember that regardless of the work you give them, they’re only paying you 1.5% more. And that’s not even factoring in information inflation.

At the most generous, you should only give them 1.5% more productivity than it takes to not get fired. If you look at it based on value…the value of your time and experience and productivity against the purchasing power of your take home pay… you’re getting a pay cut vs inflation as their way of thanking you.

As such, cut your productivity, attention to detail, reliability, and shits given by the same amount as the purchasing power you’re earning.

They call it quiet quitting, but in reality it’s the market economy working both ways. If they’re buying less from you, give them less.

Strap your phone to a telescope?

So it’s a tele-phone?

Wait a min…

I did macro photography for a while by flipping my tele lens and holding it up to the mount the wrong way.

The best part of learning astrophotography is not so much in taking awesome pictures … it’s the excuse to spend hours and hours sitting outside in the dark and staring up the night sky every night. To me the pictures are a bonus.

Hey, nobody would have questioned the worse quality cameras that astrophotographers were doing this with 20 years ago. Even though it’s your phone now, it counts!

Phones are arguably some of the most powerful consumer cameras ever built. That Nikon or Canon might have more funny buttons and settings, but your phone camera is pretty powerful on its own.

Career software developer - Years and years ago I stopped reading programming manuals and trying to remember the syntax of languages. I just google the same basic things over and over, and often paste & edit example code.

As someone who never did photography professionally but as a hobby, I learned the manual settings when automatic failed to take a good photo.

Growing up in the 90s, there were so many hobbies that were unobtainable.

Like, I was a kid and didn’t have anybody to teach me about trees. So they recommend you go to a library and get some books on trees. But the books are either at a college level, or something extremely basic. And your support was only as helpful as the librarian. So they knew zilch about the topic, you’re fucked.

Today, you wanna know about trees? Visit a wiki. Watch YouTube videos. Ask AI. Go to the library with actual resources to get the right books or audio books.

Huge opportunity and a wealth of information.

I’m just like that. We should open !serialhobbiest to talk about and share the result of our last hobby.

That’s how I used to play guitar, too. I got a cheapo sound pedal with a bunch of effects and premade back beats. Try to play some songs that I know. Sound bad. Keep doing it until I get bored or it sounds kinda cool once. That’s enough for the week.

Am I ever gonna be anywhere close to decent? Nope. Do I care? Nope.

Yeah well you’re also part of what we fight the patriarchy for. It’s sad that people don’t thing someone like you might enjoy sewing

Also a dude, sewing is fucking great! Thinking back, I’m pretty sure I learned to sew long before I learned any other forms of making, childhood me made lots of felt toys and crafts for friends and family because materials were cheap, accessable, and pretty easy to work with. I love being able to take a pile of fabric and make it into something functional, or at the very least mend my clothes to get more life out of them.

I learned carpentry, plumbing, electrical, mechanics, welding, metal working, landscaping, operating machinery, small engine mechanics, boat building / repairing, hunting, trapping, camping, survival

What a skill set! I’m impressed.

Sometimes we might not do a great job because we didn’t know what we were doing and other times we were geniuses because we had messed up so many times before that we finally figured out how to do it right.

As I grow older, I find this is how you become an ‘expert’. You start not knowing how to do it, then you figure out all the wrong ways to do it by doing it wrong. Eventually, when you have messed it up in more ways than anyone else you know which paths not to take and you are then the expert.