I used to be really good at video games, but now I just don’t have the time. I remember being able to jump in any CS lobby and jump to the top of the server. I got kicked for supposedly cheating all the time. That was always a good feeling. Knowing that I’m kicking so much ass that people assume I must be cheating.

My crowning achievement is beating Super Ghouls and Ghosts - both times through (second time with the farie bracelet). This was using an original SNES, no save states or anything. Dedicated an entire summer of my teenage life to it. Game is hard, man.

Computers used to be a hobby but I turned that into a career. I’m a principal systems engineer and I like to think I’m good at what I do.

I got really into cooking, and it was maybe a hobby at some point, but now with a family it’s more of a necessity. A lot of the things I learned while cooking as a hobby turned into skills though. I’m not sure how to explain it, but like having cooking intuition. Knowing when to add more or less of something just by knowing. Also just being able to freestyle meals out of what is laying around or knowing what can be substituted with what or how to make ingredients out of other ingredients.

Best part of having hobbies is that you don’t need to be good!

I let you be the judge of that.

Why do you have to bring up my shortcomings like that?

Undisputed UK champion of pyro cricket.

I love vidyagames but have unexceptional skill in them. I did once finish the Ice Cold Beer arcade machine by Taito, and I LOVE that game. It only took me 250 tries ✨

😅🤣

Depends on the hobby. I tend to collect hobbies and then grow bored of them, then return to them a while later.

I’ll become absolutely obsessed with learning about “hobby x”, and spend two months basically getting as close to an expert on it as I can with self-teaching. (Video Editing, filmmaking, screenwriting, 3D modelling for flight simulators, Graphic Design, etc…)

Then I’ll grow bored and move onto a new obsession from the above list, focus on that long enough that at least 25% of my knowledge of the previous obsession vanishes and I have to relearn a bunch the next time that obsession rolls around.

I’ve been told that’s possibly ADHD, but since I suffer from depression I’ll take my bursts of obsessiveness over lack of any motivation any day.

I feel bullied by this question

I think it is a trap to think about it this way. My hobbies are meant to bring me joy and challenge, no matter what level i am on

Unless it’s programming or sysadmin, I’m mediocre at all my hobbies, but I enjoy them a lot. It’s great not feeling pressured to do them professionally like a paid job.

A hobby becomes a job when you worry if you are good at it.

Type 2 fun and overthinking. I am good at enjoying both.

Bouldering: I enjoy it, even though I’m not great at it. My short wingspan doesn’t help, and neither does my fear of heights. Every climb is a mix of determination and second-guessing my life choices and I’m excellent at the latest.

Gardening: It sounds relaxing, but in reality, it’s a cycle of overthinking. First, I stress about planting. Then I wait. And once/if it grows, there’s a whole lineup of threats: slugs, cats, deer, boars, hail… basically, everything conspiring against success. Not sure what I enjoy about it but I’d say I am moderately successful and can eat a self planted potato every year

One of my hobbies turned professional :)

As good as I care to be. Hobbies are supposed to be fun.

Mediocre at best, and I lack the mental fortitude to work at much of anything these days, so wherever I’m at, I’m not going to improve much.

Some people relish the feeling of swimming through molasses* for the next hit of progress dopamine, or they don’t get that feeling at all, but that’s what happens to me and it basically short-circuits something in my brain. It’s bad enough that I struggled to write the last part of that sentence, and it’s happening while I’m proofreading this as well.

* or treacle if the unintended concept of small mammal anatomy bothers you.