Ask Lemmy

Modding ipods and game boys, Collecting vinyls, firefighting in my community, biking in the mountains, I'm trying to learn how to properly swim a croll this year, roller skating is fun, boxing, and running outdoors are my current options. Hope something inspires you!

Birding. Gets you outside and is healthy for mind and body. To get started, download the Merlin app and walk outside. If you start getting into it, maybe buy or borrow some cheap binoculars. Meet up with a local Audubon group for a social outing with some generally chill people. And your observations can help gather data for science using eBird from the Cornell lab of ornithology.

Gloryhole visiting. Not saying you have to participate, but maybe check off on a map all the holes you visit. Some shops may even have a stamp or something you could get as a souvenir. I'm sure it would be a memorable and rewarding endeavor, either way. Or, you know Pickleball is really picking up steam.

retro video game collecting just a warning it's expensive as shit be ready with your wallet

growing succulents, specific the less common ones(not the ornamentals you see in peoples front yard like aeonium, pig ears cotyledon, jade plant,,,etc), not brought from stores. like lithops, or similar species, or some unusual echeveria, without killing it. also orchids. there doesnt seem to be much in orchid variety as most wild species are likely hard to grow in horticulture, or impossible(due to thier emphermeral nature, and rarity, specific habits, they are all mycoheterotrophic to various degree, fully MF is not likely to be seen in the near future of ending in someones garden.) ive seen people in my neighborhood did try to grow it outside, but they stopped because either neglected or it become too much maintenance/hard to grow them, mostly due to neglect.

Crafting, mainly stained glass and sewing

Dude I have too many. You asked for it:

• Balisong flipping
• Begleri
• Yoyos
• Airsoft
• Watching hockey (go Ducks) and do a little ice skating
• Archery
• Rock climbing
• Hiking/backpacking
• Scuba diving
• Geocaching
• Kite flying
• Rubiks cubing
• CS:GO
• Linux and FOSS stuff
• Other tech related things
• 3D printing
• Good quality pens and pencils
• Lockpicking
• Disc golf
• knives and metallurgy

Hiking - got into it because I was in the scouts as a kid. I found it boring and exhausting and onerous as a kid, until I went on my first backpacking trip. For me at least, feeling committed to a multiday journey from A to B kind of removed the distractions and what-ifs, and allowed me to really sink into the experience of being outside like nothing else had. Going backpacking is my number one trick for becoming a happier human - exercise, in nature, good circadian rhythm, disconnected from the internet.

Climbing. Got into it because I was looking for friends to go backpacking with in college, and they were into climbing, too. While backpacking can feel very relaxing, climbing feels very in-the-moment. A difficult route will challenge you in any number of ways - physically, as your lungs burn and your forearms start giving out; mentally, as you try to figure out a sequence of moves to make it up while managing the risk of falling; and emotionally, as you work through your fear of falling off and balance your mind between focusing on the task at hand and being open to all possibilities. You develop great friendships, since you tend to get comfortable with someone you are trusting your life with pretty quick. There is always something new to learn, as there are many disciplines from gym to outdoor, rock to ice to aid to mountain, and boulder to sport to trad. And it takes you to amazing places - sure, you can plan a trip to Chamonix or Thailand to go skiing or hang out on the beach. But when you make plans with a climbing partner, you actually buy the plane tickets. You fly in and immediately depart from the normal tourist circuit, getting a much better feel for life for the people in the areas you are travelling in. Then you show up in your destination, and you don't just look at the beautiful scenary - you are part of it. You don't just look at the mountain - you are perched on a tiny ledge on the side of it, watching the birds hover next to you while your partner cruxes out on the next pitch above.

Canyoneering. Similar to climbing, but easier to do with lots of friends of various skill levels. While climbing is often a fairly serious endeavor with defined goals, a canyon just has a single general goal that the whole group works on together: get out of the canyon. Thus, canyons tend to be a lot more fun and social, and often involve silly shenanigans like throwing a bag over a wall to have a rope to climb, or standing on a friend's shoulders while another lets you grab their foot to lower yourself over an edge.

DIY. I dunno, I just intrinsically like the idea of being able to build and fix all my own shit. Sometimes this feels less like a hobby and more like a job, but it is hard to beat the satisfaction of finishing a project that then makes your life better every time you use it.

Farming and carpentry.

We have a flock of quail and about 1/4 of land being used for vegetables along with a couple dozen fruit trees and bushes. We have a lot of seedlings that are popping up so making sure they don't dry out has kept me pretty busy lately.

We have a big renovation of an old barn coming up in a few weeks. There's a couple structural beams that need replacing and reinforcement, a wall is leaning, and the whole roof needs to be replaced. Aside from that I want to turn the far side of the barn into a more finished temperature controlled area and section off part of it to be an indoor coop for the quail for when we get crazy weather like -10 degree weather, 110 degree weather or 300 AQI.

I worked on a farm as a kid, I was a framing carpenter from 16-20 and I loved all of it. Now I do computer stuff and it pays well, the farming and carpentry is what keeps me happy. Although people will often tell me to take a break and do something for myself which is funny.

I’ve been trying many things over time but the ones that really became hobbies are the ones that just happened to me. And those are hiking, cooking and photography.

I think one problem these days is that we try too hard from the start. We hear about this interesting thing and then watch videos about it by some influencer and then we feel we need to learn this or buy that first but in the end none of that is necessary. If hiking is for you then you will enjoy it even in sandals and jeans. If not then it might not be a hobby for you. Eventually you will learn what you personally need to enjoy it even more and go to the next level. And then invest into it knowing exactly what you want.

Same with photography. You can take some serious photos with modern phones already and develop your skills with that. I took some back then with an iPhone 4 that I still love (although they look bad when zoomed in). The limitation is what makes you creative and you always have it with you.

Of course some things do have a steep learning curve and do need some initial investment. I just personally never got into any of those and I’m pretty satisfied.

Baking. It can be as simple and inexpensive, or as elaborate and costly as you want. It's very beginner friendly. And even most of your failures end up delicious.

Cooking, 3d printing, hiking, gaming

Self teaching myself piano - been going a little over a year now and I've made a ton of progress! It's a lot of fun to hear myself play some of my favorite video game songs and songs I grew up around.

Homebrewing meads and wines (haven't tried beer yet) - super simple to get started but lots of variables you can tweak to get something tasty. Takes a LOT of patience though.

Making homemade bread - it's like 10 minutes of actual work but it tastes so much better than store bought.

Knitting and cross stitch. Both are very calming and if you start with small projects you quickly have something you can wear or display, so very rewarding.

Music production, drumming, learning guitar, Sim racing, going for a motorcycle ride, homelab/self hosting stuff, capture the flag (cybersecurity challenges), woodworking, rock carving, listening to a record, 3D printing (I'm building an R2-D2), building something with electronics (I recently built a shifter knob for euro truck sim).

In the depths of my depression I had no hobbies and my psychologist said I should try everything, so I did, and continue to do so. You'll be surprised what sticks.

I speak ill of foreign countries' presidents (so many choices currently)

I have a ton of abandoned or occasional hobbies but the main one I have atm is leatherwork.

Honestly I don't fully understand what lead me to it but I saw some videos and it was like, not only do I want to do this but I want to do it properly.

So I didn't do my normal thing of buying a ton of equipment, getting in way over my head and abandoning to the pile of failed hobbies. I booked a beginner course at a place near me and the rest is history. Been slowly building up my skills and techniques and getting really good feedback from people. Some of my recent items even have people saying that if I was to open a shop then they would be interested in buying or commissioning...

If you want to see my stuff then just have look at my post history, I should really just make a site or something at this point... Most of my stuff is small goods, accessories etc. but be warned I've just created a new community to have somewhere for the darker side of crafts (mildly NSFW) - but if anyone is interested in the spicier side of crafting then come join me there!

Barebow archery, penspinning, homelab / home network, misc. coding projects I rarely finish.

Penspinning started as a kid as a selfstimming activity since I annoyed people with bouncing leg and table drumming. Looking back, I don't know why it took 30 years to get ADHD diagnosis.

Barebow archery started by doing a team activity intro archery and I noticed it immediately cured my chronic shoulder pain. It turned out to be inferred pain from Infraspinatus, not shoulder per se.

Homelab/network just stem from my desire to have a carefully controlled environment due to deep distrust in... well, everything.

Coding projects usually start by me having a specific need or problem, then I start fixing it, and generally end up over-engineering it.

Archery, penspinning and coding are relatively cheap hobbies. Homelab/network doesn't need to be expensive either. All of these CAN absolutely be money sinks, especially homelab/networks and archery, but starting out is affordable.

Climbing/bouldering. As a not overly sporty nerdy type, I found this to be amazing. All the climbs are called problems and require you to think about how you're using your body to solve them.

99% of the community is amazing because it's not really a vs sports in a traditional sense. It's you vs the wall and even if you do something that is 'easy' for someone else if they can see you tried hard they will be pysched for you.

There are lots of beginner groups and meet up days or if you go on regular days, you'll end up talking to the same people about the climb you're doing so you build friendship as an adult which is difficult otherwise.

Also it's not in front of a screen which I love.

I'd try looking for your local gym and doing the intro course and seeing if it vibes with you.

Self hosting, lock picking, sleeping

My three long term hobbies: reading, crochet, partner dancing.

I also have a number of hobbies that I either cycle through or that were a part of my life for a while but I don’t do anymore for whatever reason: other partner dances, knitting, tropical fish tank, paint by numbers, dog sport agility (would love to get back into it but really don’t have the space or time), camping, hiking(in a meandering sort of way), embroidery, letter writing.

ETA: I have a "fermentation" hobby too. I brew beer with my in laws about 3-4 times a year and have a constant kombucha SCOBY in my pantry.

This year:

• Picking and processing psychedelic mushrooms -cheap

• Replacing phone & tablet screens -surprisingly cheap

• Mountain biking - not cheap

I woodwork, set up servers, build guns, garden,play guitar, design furniture, and teach others to do each of those things.

I try to do anything that regular people have figured out on their own. If someone can do something without training, I can probably figure it out in a few weeks.

I don't watch things, and I don't use social media outside of Lemmy on occasion. Because of that, I seem to have far more time than the average person.

Fish tank, houseplants, vacuuming the floors, doing the dishes.

Two are passive hobbies that require more work but only once in a while

Two are things that need done that i treat like hobbies so something fucking gets done around here

I might have ADHD

After playing a few musical instruments (bass, guitar, keys) for a few decades but never having satisfying experiences playing with friends, I joined an adult band program at a nearby music school. It's been great! Three performances so far this year, and it got me in a separate cover band cuz one of the guitarists was in the same program, and we did an open mic night a month or two ago that was short but awesome, and we have a real gig coming up in a week.

Before 2025 I never performed music for anyone other than maybe a few friends who were already visiting me and thus had no polite choice to not listen!

The music school I do this with is a local "School of Rock" franchise but some other music schools have similar programs. Highly recommend!

photography, video games, film review, writing, cooking + making preserves, reading, book reviews, walking, running, genealogy, listening to music, transcribing on musescore and playing music.

if that sounds like a lot bare in mind i tap into each one on an ad hoc basis rather than scheduling it out. the only ones i technically do regularly is walking, music and video games, like most people.

also going to art galleries + theatre 👍

Repairing distressed audio equipment. I'm particular to early 80's to mid 90's gear.

Role Playing Games: I have three groups, two virtual and one in person that I play a variety of RPG's with.

Hiking: Mainly for health reasons, but I've always loved going out on a new trail and exploring. My days of backpacking are behind me, as I have a back injury now, but I'm still able to do day hikes.

Here is my latest electronics repair. It's a Carver TFM-15CB stereo amplifier. The power supply filter caps (two black with silver top cylinders in the middle of the photo) went bad. Which is just something electrolytic capacitors do when they get old. So I replaced all the electrolytics (13 in all) and replaced the meter's lights with LED units. The amp is 40 years old and is probably good for another 40 years. I'm actually listening to it as I write this post. As far as how I learned to do this, I'm self taught. Just read a lot of books and then started working on things that I didn't care if I blew up, or fixed. Then moved onto things I wanted to keep as my confidence and skills grew.

Textile work! Could be sewing, weaving, dying, etc. I love working with fabrics and making them into usable 3D objects. Recently, as in the last two weeks, I've started working with wool felt with the vague idea of making insect brooches but I ended up making a cat toy instead lol.

Crochet, cross stitch, reading, video games

Resistance training is probably the biggest one currently. At first it was just for health reasons as i was getting overweight, but over time(almost a year) i started to like it more and more until now it could be qualified as a hobby.

I really like that it's something that heavily depends on me and has very little luck in it.

I like exploring abandoned buildings, it's called Urbex (portmanteau of Urban Exploration) but not all the sites are in urban environments.

Photography also goes hand in hand with that.

Here's a website to see the sorts of places people do

https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/

Gardening and hiking - both get you out into nature and are good for your mental health.

Racing cars. It ain't cheap but 10k gets you a racecar.

3 hours at the wheel going 10/10 running 6-8k rpms the entire time.

It'll change your life. You'll live for the few events you get to do each year.

Pyrography. Starter kit costs about $20. My favourite tool is still my cheapest one!

Been playing video games pretty much all my life. Like with all forms of popular entertainment, there are so many genres that I'm sure there's something out there for you. If you want, I can offer some suggestions based on what devices you own and what you're interested in.

Other than that, learning to cook new recipes is always fun and pretty much essential to live haha. I've tried a few Ina Garten recipes and they've been relatively easy and tasty.

Drawing, model kit building, crochet, knitting, sewing, 3d printing, fishkeeping, plants/ terrarium keeping, games, homelab....

Lots of these have overlap. Drawing and model kit building started as a kid, and 3D printing (resin) is a natural progression from that, because I can build custom parts or scenes or whatever.

Fishkeeping / terrarium keeping came about a few years ago when I was living in a pretty shit place. I saw a video online of shrimp being chill and just eating algea and I went huh I wonder how hard it is to get shrimp. Went to the pet store and got some shrimp, failed to keep them, and researched how to properly care for shrimp and snails. That evolved into fish keeping, with multiple large tanks. Then I found serpa designs on YouTube and became hooked. From there I tried making moss terrariums and I want to branch into vivariums when I'm in a place to do so. I want to implement some of my modeling skills to make living scenes with things like moss and other plants.

Homelab came naturally to me after wanting to figure out how people did piracy nowadays and learning about the arrs stack. Taught myself docker and started tinkering with other containers and programs, which got me into learning programming.

Crochet and knitting are my weakest hobby - I was moving between countries and wanted to learn something I could do in my downtime that was travel friendly. Hooks / needles and some yarn can fit in a small carry case. I want to make stuffed animals but I need to learn more to get to that point.

Hunting.

Got into it via family that hunts, but I live in a part of the country where I'd eventually have slipped into it no matter what.

You never learn as much about nature as when you're out there. And then you never know if you'll be lucky or your prey will be.

I paint minis, focusing mostly on Warhammer right now and I'm telling myself I'm going to start playing.

I started with the Reaper minis learn to paint sets, they do a pretty good job of teaching you the basics, give you a couple minis to start with and a workable if somewhat limited set of paints and brushes.

It sounds a lot harder than it actually is. If you dilute your paints down right it kind of tends to flow exactly where you want it to.

Sourcing minis to paint can get pricey depending on what you like and where you get them from. To support that hobby I've also taken up 4d printing, if you hunt around a bit you should be able to get a used resin printer for pretty cheap (but don't skimp on proper PPE and ventilation, liquid resin is pretty nasty stuff)

I dabble in a little bit of woodworking. Nothing too fancy, I'm not doing intricate carving or anything, but once in a while I find a problem in need of a solution and think of a way I could build that solution myself from some boards and hardware and while I may not be saving any money over buying some off-the-shelf solution to that problem, I do think a lot of those thing I've made have ended up being better than anything I could have bought and they are certainly more satisfying to use knowing I made them myself.

I camp, hike, and fish a lot. These can get pricey if you let them, but you can probably get enough fishing gear to go catch some fish for like $50. Depending on where you live, you can hit a lot of trails with just a sturdy pair of sneakers, a water bottle, and maybe a pocket full of snacks. And you can probably outfit yourself for some decent weekend at a state park campground for about $100 worth of Walmart gear (tento sleeping bag sleeping pad,) and some stuff you probably already have at home (flashlight, matches/lighter, first aid kit, some pots and pans)

Reading of course is always a worthy hobby, and you can pair it with some of the others. (I sometimes joke that the reason I fish is because it sounds better than saying ”I'm going to go off into the woods alone to sit on a bucket by a stream and read a book”)

I also enjoy cooking, trying out new recipes and such.

I've dabbled in a little ham radio. It didn't particularly hold my interest, I liked tinkering with radios and it's cool being able to talk to people far away with your equipment, but that equipment can get really pricey (there are often good deals on used stuff but you need to know where to look for them and be patient) and at the end of the day you can really only talk to other hams, and they mostly fall into 3 main categories.

1. Radio nerds- all they want to talk about is ham radio.
2. Old guys who want to talk about their medical issues.
3. Weird paranoid prepper types.

And since the whole point of radios is to talk to other people, and I don't particularly enjoy the kinds of conversations those people want to have, I never really got too into it.

I've dabbled in wood carving. Stuff like whittling, relief carving, and my favorite kind was chip carving.

I also enjoyed doing some wildlife photography.

Maybe the weirdest hobby I ever tried was when I made a home-made furnace for melting aluminum.

But the thing I spend most of my spare time on by far is video game development (everything from the coding to the 3D modelling and animation and a little bit of sound design).