
Ask HN: What non-computer activities do you do? - usefulservices
For the past 2 years, I&#x27;ve been working quite a lot and didn&#x27;t had time or mood for other activities. Even when doing something else, was often thinking about work. I realize that life goes by and more and more often I ask myself what&#x27;s the purpose, why keep working?<p>Looking for inspiration: what non-computer activities do you do that captivate and fulfill you? Preferably with other people, as I already work alone. 
For example, from my experience:
* walking in the park while listening to good sci-fi audiobooks
* running
* wall climbing (I gave up after a month, didn&#x27;t like it that much)
* hiking (harder to find partners, plus I need to solve some emails even during weekend)
* tennis
* piano lessons<p>One thing that often turns me off is seeing others which do that activity for quite some time and are already good at it (I&#x27;m 35 years old), while I&#x27;m just starting and seem incapable in comparison.<p>Thanks so much.
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csnewb
Running, and lately I became more dedicated to powerlifting. Running is great
because it gives you a chance to disconnect from all electronics and clear
your mind. You can run alone or as part of a running group, so it can't be an
extremely social or individual activity. If you go to a gym dedicated
specifically to strength building and not just a commercial gym, you can meet
great people who are willing to help you with some lifts.

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freshrap6
Cooking. You can cook for yourself or others. You can make simple or complex
things. You can change recipes to fit your liking and get creative and come up
with new things. And at the end, you get to eat it.

~~~
eecks
I want to learn to cook more. Do you have any recommendations on something to
cook tomorrow for lunch?

~~~
MrApathy
I prepare most of the meals that my wife and I eat. I find that having a
routine is highly beneficial and keeps me on track. Here's what works well for
me:

* Each week I make one meal from each of the following three categories: soup (or chili), meat oriented (usually chicken, sometimes beef), and pasta (or risotto). I make four servings, so we'll have the same meal for two consecutive nights. Each category has four to six different dishes, so even though we eat the same dish two nights in a row we're not making it too often. The limited number of dishes means I don't have a lot of ingredients in my kitchen that I'm using infrequently. On the seventh night we'll eat out or order in.

* A significant number of recipes come from a few different(don't laugh) Real Simple books that we own. The recipes are typically, well, simple to prepare, relatively healthy, and don't require a lot of time. They call for ingredients I can find without having to go to a specialty grocery store. I also have a few recipes from blogs and NY Times Cooking, which has a back-catalog of thousands of recipes.

* Lunches are usually sandwich based, though sometimes extra leftovers. Sandwiches can get boring quickly, so I find adding a lot of ingredients helps. A typically sandwich may be two slices of low sodium turkey, bacon, cheese, broccoli sprouts, and a slice of tomato. For a side I may add in a piece of fruit or a handful of almonds (sometimes plain, sometimes chocolate covered). Usually twice a week I'll go out for lunch. Makes it a little more special when it doesn't happen every day.

* I live in a smaller apartment with limited kitchen space, so I try to use recipes that don't require specialty equipment.

* I make a list of food I'll need for the week on Sunday mornings and make one trip to the store. No going back until next Sunday.

* I try to find recipes that will last for a few days in the refrigerator. Most Sundays I'll make two recipes, providing us with food for four nights. This means I'm usually cooking only one night during the work week. Start at around 4:30pm on Sunday, done eating and cleaning up by 7pm.

Tonight we're having broccoli soup, one of the more "challenging" dishes on my
list:

[http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017010-seared-
broccoli-a...](http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017010-seared-broccoli-and-
potato-soup)

~~~
eecks
Cool, thanks for the response. I won't start with a broccoli soup haha. I'll
try make enchiladas tomorrow

~~~
MrApathy
I have made the below recipe before and it came out very well. With a cup
(uncooked) of rice it makes five servings. Two possible shortcuts: (1) use a
store bought rotisserie chicken and (2) leave out the cilantro, so that
instead of having to blend the sauce you can simply stir it in a bowl.

[http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-
recipes/ch...](http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-
recipes/chicken-enchiladas-verdes)

Good luck!

------
japhyr
I live in southeast Alaska, so I run in the woods with bears. I run two or
three times a week, and I usually don't see any animals. But once in a while,
probably 20 or 30 times in the last ten years, I run into a bear on the trail.
The possibility of that kind of encounter makes every run a chance to
disconnect from day-to-day concerns in a meaningful way. I also volunteer with
a local mountain rescue group, which is interesting and extremely fulfilling.

But most of the time I'm either at work or at home with my family. If you're
looking for something to do I'd encourage you to find some kind of exercise
that you truly enjoy no matter what other people think, and try to find some
volunteer project you can give yourself to on a regular basis.

~~~
bliti
That sounds awesome. Do you have any picture albums online?

~~~
japhyr
Here's a facebook album of a fun trip in our backyard:
[https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150281130499708....](https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150281130499708.356642.564874707&type=1&l=bb95d34bbe)

And here's my flickr set, which I haven't added to for a while:
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/misteralpenglow](https://www.flickr.com/photos/misteralpenglow)

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olegious
Jiu Jitsu (aka Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) is a great physical activity with a very
strong community, all the BJJ gyms I've ever trained at had a very supportive
structure where the coaches and advanced students really helped out the
beginners.

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thenipper
My friends and I play a lot of boardgames/role playing games. I know it's
playing to a stereotype but it's a fun way to get together.

Sometimes I've done homebrewing. It's something that is reasonable affordable
to do at home. There is a strong community aspect to it and at the end you get
beer! Plus you can fiddle a lot with different variables.

------
patrickfl
I do a lot of casual hybrid biking (road / light trails) we have a lot of
farms around my house so thats a lot of fun.

Also some light woodworking which is always fun. Building a lot of stuff out
of re-claimed wood, pallets etc its a lot of fun.

Mostly computers are my job and my hobby. When I'm not working on mar-tech
stuff I like to build PCs, electronics, etc. Right now I'm testing all the USB
cables in my house to see which ones are crap.

But most of all when I'm not working I like to hang out with my 4 year old son
:) I'm teaching him computers, programming, handyman stuff, riding his bike
(just took off training wheels).

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kat
Knitting? It can be cheap (as opposed to stained glass which I didn't know was
expensive?!) and knitting groups are very friendly, social, helpful, and
encouraging. I think you will always find people doing activities better than
you, but all the knitters/crocheters I've ever met are willing to stop and
explain things to beginners, or at the very least commiserate over mistakes.
Despite the old-lady stereotype, all the knitting groups in different cities
I've attended have been all ages and all abilities.

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theWold
Stained Glass Making (if you find a good shop) can be a close knit group of
people and help you get good. I found it very easy to pick up it just requires
a steady hand, and a good eye to figure out what piece to cut form where in
the glass.

Gardening is also something I enjoy. Learning about plants and keeping them
healthy year round. It is very satisfying to have a harvest of your own plant
(I grow a decent sized Tabasco pepper plant.) Though this turns into a more
solo task unless you do it in a community garden or something like that.

~~~
sjs382
Stained glass is something I've really been considering getting into lately.
My mother used to do it when I was young and it seems fairly relaxing. As with
most crafts though, it can get a little expensive quick.

~~~
theWold
Yes it can, If you are thinking about getting into it, go around to different
shops if you have some local and see if they have a stained glass class or
something where they provide the tools, glass, and (most likely) copper foil /
(least likely) lead for all one price.

That way you aren't stuck with specialty tools if you don't like it. Also stay
away from nicer glass. Don't get kokomo glass if you don't need/want it. I
always just see what's in the scrap bin and then design based from what's in
there.

~~~
sjs382
Yeah, there's a store near our house. We've been making regular visits there
since my wife started doing mosiacs. :)

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yolesaber
Bookmaking. I run a small independent press that publishes art and writing. I
make a lot of the books by hand but I also do it for my own pleasure. It is
INCREDIBLY satisfying to bind books, especially personal journals. I'm a huge
bibliophile and for a while books were just like magic grimoires to me but
once I learned a few of the techniques, you can make some really innovative
designs and then the real magic begins.

Writing. Working on a novel right now (written out in longhand), but before
that I've written a few collections of poetry and even had some work published
here and there. I think my most successful piece is an OKCupid bot that
creates poems from people's profile text and then sends them the generated
poetry. People really liked that - even got to speak about it at Brown
University and it was heavily used in an academic paper someone wrote about
conceptual poetry and technology (okay so technically that last one is a
computer activity haha).

Have been debating getting back into astronomy, but I live in a very light-
polluted area so probably wouldn't be worth getting a telescope. Occasionally
I will take the rail upstate with a good pair of binoculars and a starmap (and
maybe some weed).

The other activities I engage in have pretty much been covered in the thread.
+1 to hiking, cooking, and biking.

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avitzurel
I always say I am an aspiring endurance athlete.

I swim-bike-run (not often in the same order except in events).

Strava is the athletes Github :)

[https://www.strava.com/athletes/828591](https://www.strava.com/athletes/828591)

~~~
quickpost
Seconded on Strava. Having such a nice tool to record my cycling makes me want
to go cycling more often.

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kohanz
I enjoy sports as a great simultaneous physical and social outlet. Team sports
like soccer and basketball and also individual sports like squash. When I
don't play them, I miss the feeling of competitiveness and camaraderie that
sports brings. It can be a great emotional sandbox, to experience the highs of
winning and the lows of losing without actually having to win or lose anything
of value. I find it to be a good emotional calibrator and I'm a better
husband, father, and everything else when I'm regularly participating in
sports.

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andrewstuart
>>One thing that often turns me off is seeing others which do that activity
for quite some time and are already good at it (I'm 35 years old), while I'm
just starting and seem incapable in comparison.

Be the best person you can be and try (it's very hard) to stop comparing
yourself. How can you be anything more than your best? Do it because its good
for you or you enjoy it, not because you are awesome or not awesome at it.

~~~
usefulservices
Good advice

~~~
andrewstuart
I'm 48 and just took up kickboxing. Of course I am the least fit and the least
capable fighter compared to everyone else in the gym but that is of no
interest to me. I love kickboxing.

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atmosx
The sports that excite me more than anything else I do are:

\- Snowboarding (adrenaline rush)

\- Racing[1] (again adrenaline rush)

That said, in order perform in both sports, you have to be fit, which means
running/gym on a regular basis.

[1] My car is a Lotus S2, 175 bhp. with various additions (exhaust,
quickshift, etc.). I wouldn't change that car for anything.

~~~
bliti
Pics of the car? :)

~~~
atmosx
There are a few online, but can't find any right now :-)

It's a white S2, a real beauty!

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cdnsteve
Squash is my new favorite thing. It's a fantastic high energy workout for the
mind and body. You can do an hour session and that's all you need. Perfect
partner game.

Snowboarding, although I've been doing it for so long I'm bored of it.

Backcountry camping and canoeing is fun, whitewater kayaking and fishing.

~~~
i336_
> Snowboarding, although I've been doing it for so long I'm bored of it.

When you've

1\. been doing it _that_ long

2\. are bored of it

that screams to me "become an instructor" :P

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hmahonen
Skydiving. I was 32 few years ago when I started and I found out that not only
I get to to do fun stuff in the sky, but I get to hang with great people. I
can barely fly on my belly, but it's fun too :)

That's the summer. In winter I read books, fly in a wind tunnel and ski.

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jlengrand
I'm suprised it's not there already, given the amount of computer science
related people I meet everywhere I have been : Bouldering/Climbing!

3 times a week, roughly. I love it because whatever their level is, everybody
can have the same fun all together.

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ryanfitz
I do a good bit of weight lifting, typically 4 or 5 times a week. I find it a
great way to disconnect and focus on something very simple / straightforward
for an hour. Its also a great way to relieve stress.

~~~
gadders
+1 for weight lifting/training. I'm more on the powerlifting style than
Olympic Weightlifting.I go four times a weel and I've been following
variations of 5/3/1 for about 5 years now. If anyone wants level up their
strength and health I heartily recommend it.

~~~
eecks
Do you have a good physique?

~~~
gadders
I don't primarily train for my physique. When people lift weights, people can
have different aims in mind. Olympic Weightlifters become more explosive and
better at the Olympic lifts. Body builders train for muscle size and
definition. My primary aim is to see the weights I lift get heavier and
heavier from week to week and month to month. As a result of that, my physique
is better than it was before, but I would never be mistaken for a mens fitness
cover model.

Properly strong people look more like this: [http://lilsgym.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/06/BillKazmaier.j...](http://lilsgym.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/06/BillKazmaier.jpg)

and less like this: [http://www.alux.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/James-
Ellis2....](http://www.alux.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/James-Ellis2.jpg)

That's not to say that you won't get stronger doing any of the three types of
weight training, but the primary focus differs.

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noir-york
Airsoft - its a team sport, physical, and others who have been at it for
longer won't have that great an advantage over you even if you're still
staring out.

Also, I find it massive fun!

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Toobam
Oh that stuck when I aint be in computing workd. I think I can cook it better
when its meal. Yeah I'm mr chef.

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arnold_palmur
Playing music (mostly guitar) and exercise are my primary activities.

I've also become a bit of a tea aficionado recently.

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jimmahoney
Argentine tango. At its best, a powerful, intimate connection between you,
your partner, and the music.

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madengr
Fencing. Besides the fact that sword fighting is fun, it should help my brain
and reflex as I age; 44 now.

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cweagans
What's a non-computer activity? :P

I cook, I exercise, I play video games (PS4. That's not a computer, right? :P
)

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brudgers
Parenting and refereeing soccer.

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khein11
Running, and working out at home with some dumbbells and bodyweight exercises.

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tmaly
I installed hardwood floors at my place. It was easier than I thought.

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galfarragem
non-computer activities I like: snorkeling, hiking, travelling, cooking, DIY,
boardgames, gardening, reading.

most useful: cooking

most relaxing: snorkeling

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urxvt
Spinning fishing

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innertracks
Argentine Tango!

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crispytx
Wingsuit!

~~~
i336_
Wait, really? That sounds awesome!

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Lordarminius
Chess Reading Running

~~~
eecks
Do you play Chess online?

I liked Chess and was good compared to my peers when I was younger. When I
play it now, the game feels very limited and not that interesting. I wonder if
this is because I am no longer any good at it compared to my peers or if I am
overstimulated from other games.

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pshyco
Playing Cricket !

------
eecks
Travel

