
Ask HN: What are your hobbies? - db1
How do you spend your free time? Is it rewarding?
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yurishimo
At this point in my life, I would say I have two hobbies; Music and Netflix.

While I don't play in any bands currently, I have in the past and definitely
want to again. In the meantime, I keep a guitar within arms reach at all times
and frequently noodle while doing all sorts of things. I also mix the entire
production for my local church. Sometimes I mix FOH, other times I mix a
separate feed for the livestream online from the back. It's a decent sized
production with 1 or 2 guitars, drums, 2 keyboards, percussion, violin, bass,
and anywhere between 4-8 singers with microphones. On occasion we also have a
choir of 30~ people. I also used to do a lot of home recording, but living in
apartments in recent years has made that tough since my tube amps sound best
at higher volumes.

I don't know if I should be ashamed or embarrassed about my other "hobby", but
I watch a stupid amount of Netflix/Twitch/YouTube on a daily basis. Easily 3+
hours a day. In recent weeks, I have even taken up playing my guitar along to
the music in movies/tv shows, matching up the key and noodling to whatever is
playing in the background. That drives my wife crazy and is probably the
reason she doesn't sit and watch with me.

I don't know why I watch so many videos, besides boredom, but I would like to
find something more productive to do. It used to be writing code, but I
quickly got burnt out after landing my first full time development job. After
going remote it got even worse. I often wonder if getting out of the house to
code would be more productive, but I can't justify the expense yet of a co-
working space.

~~~
db1
Man tell me about it. The reason I asked this question was because I'm feeling
like I'm spending way too much time on YouTube. I'm even completely aware that
some of the things I watch are really just trash.

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newman8r
I like to grow plants from seeds. It's a pretty damn cheap hobby. One of my
favorite sites for seeds is rareseeds.com

Also ham radio/SDR.

Been learning piano slowly, which is fun.

I've been doing some simple lock picking - tons of fun, pretty cheap. Knot
tying is kind of similar and even cheaper.

3d printing is also an amazing hobby.

Also getting into MAME and classic arcade games is cool.

~~~
db1
I started learning Guitar specifically because I was spending all my time in
front a screen.

It's helped a bit, but a I also spend a ton of time watching guitar YouTube
tutorials to learn things.

How are you learning Piano? Are you self taught? I'm learning Guitar from
Justin Guitar and the quality of the instruction blows me away.

~~~
newman8r
I'm teaching myself with a combination of books (Alfred's Basic Adult Piano
Course) and youtube videos. My favorite part is just learning the music
theory, there's something really relaxing about practicing chords and scales.

It's a nice experience to start as a complete beginner at something.

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nikonyrh
In case anyone cares: programming, downhill biking, frisbee golf, Rubiks
"cubing" and photography. I get to enjoy all of these hobbies alone or in a
group and without a fixed schedule! At least for me these are very rewarding,
but sadly you cannot cheat your way to progress to more difficult challenges.
Anyway it is quite obvious or measurable what you can and cannot do, and you
learn how to learn new skills.

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stevekemp
In addition to the obvious reading books, enjoying music, and taking pictures
of interesting people, my main hobby is dabbling with embedded programming and
hardware-devices.

I started with arduino, and later moved to other (similar) boards with onboard
wifi which makes them more useful.

I'm typing this while a small radio I assembled is playing Radio Rock
(Helsinki station), and can be controlled wirelessly from my PC, phone, or
tablet.

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anotherweirdo
Thinking how to solve problems, no it's addictive and you cannot stop when you
want. It's pure bullshit.

