Discussion
femto: Railway preservation (full size, not model). It looks crowded when a steam train is running and the moths gather around. The reality, when the trains are not running, is typically quite different, with a small dedicated group. If a place looks too crowded, pick a smaller museum.Think of all the jobs that have to be done to run a railway and you will be able to find a museum that does it: heavy maintenance, boiler work, fitting and turning, blacksmithing, woodwork, upholstering, painting, catering, engine driving, fireman, signalling,customer service, ...It's a great way to meet people, learn new skills and work with physical things.
xnorswap: My strange hobby was going on what I called "leak walks".I lived in a town where on any sunny day I could go for a walk and be almost guaranteed to spot a water mains leak I hadn't seen before, which I'd then report and see how long it would be before it was fixed.The record was over a year for one of them.( Yes, it was a Thames Water area. )
powerbroker: Hang gliding. It's good if you are in an area with some hills and consistent winds. There are maybe a dozen well-established launch sites around the U.S. Sadly, I broke down my glider around 2001 -- and did a post-mortem on it to discover it had a minor dent in it.Recommendation -- don't stall the glider at heights between 10 and 25 feet from the ground. Also, avoid barbed wire fences.
pavel_lishin: My brother-in-law did a lot of hang gliding, and was part of a big community that did.That community had a tendency to walk around - if they could walk around - in casts for a large part of their life.He also ended up having a heart attack mid-glide, which was no fun at all. (He survived it, though!)
chad_strategic: I decided to run for congressional representative.
duckkg5: I was into woodworking, then I got into building fly fishing rods from bamboo.Fly fishing has been around for a long time. They used to build rods by hand out of bamboo - a specific species of bamboo native to southern China - before factories started making them out of graphite, fiberglass, etc. for cheap.Modern fly rods are a few hundred bucks. If you try to buy a bamboo rod in a store, they run $2K-$5K. They take a lot of time and meticulous work to build, and the result is a functional work of art.Woodworking is a ton of fun, and challenging. Bamboo rod making is a niche within a niche, and there are not a whole lot of people who still do it ... mostly retired guys with a lot of time. It's a great tradition, and it's about as far away from computers and technology as I can get.I didn't even know how to fly fish until I built my first bamboo rod.Here's a great video showing the process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfTvRxcTuV0
shivekkhurana: I started designing my own clothes. The insight was that I spend 80% money on suits that I wear 2 times a year, and the rest was low quality clothing I actually wore.I flipped it, and made suits and pants that I could wear everyday.The fast fashion stores were crap quality, my body is not a template size and I care about fabric and comfort.The process was to learn how to sketch, to determine fabrics, colors and fit. I made pants that stay comfortable even after I eat food, I made suits that I can wear casually.I don’t stitch myself, for that I worked with multiple workshops, until I found one that works for me.Took me about 3 years to reach a point where all my wardrobe is designed by and for me.There were multiple side effects on my confidence, my life, and the opportunities coming my way.
ribs: I had a route around San Francisco that I would visit, and all the places on the route were where there were good blackberry bushes. I’d take a bucket. Around Golden Gate Park and the Inner Sunset mostly, heading down into the Forest Hills area as well. I did that for a few years. Would pick up some plums along the way as well.Now on the other side of the Bay I have a couple spots, not as dense a network. About an hour away there are masses.
skyberrys: I'm into innovation in HCI as a hobby, but it does get expensive so I would like to bring in some additional financial support for my unusual builds.I didn't really plan to build HCI as a hobby, but I have a strong interest in hardware engineering and eventually I wanted to switch back to building things that anyone can physically see.Years ago I built a hemisphere keyboard and now I've built an LED globe with a viewing portal. I started building visible things again because I had a vision and it's very satisfying to use the result. I spend more time using it now than I did originally building it, although it is definitely a work in progress. I want to build it again for a 2.0 version.
ZTX: HCI innovation is definitely an interesting hobby - anything you can share or point me towards?
SunshineTheCat: Traditional archery.I started a few years back and have been doing it off and on since. It's challenging but a lot of fun.I shoot a lot of older style "recurve" bows, but the main style I shoot are horsebows, that is, bows that were historically shot from horseback.They're very lightweight and you can shoot much more rapidly than you can with a more modern/mechanical recurve or compound. Right now I shoot around 20-25 arrows a minute. Not amazing compared to experienced archers, but a lot of fun.I have a number of bows, but here are my favorites:Assyrian: https://www.bogararchery.sk/image/cache/catalog/product/boga... Buryat: (No longer available)I also shoot an English longbow from time to time.The horsebows use a technique called "thumb draw" which is very different from the way most bows are shot in the west.Here's a great YouTube channel if you want to explore getting into it: https://www.youtube.com/@ArminHirmer
ribs: I want to hear more
joshuakcockrell: Someone needs to solve barbecue. So much of the industry is based on feel and experience. Why can't a beginner replicate Franklin's brisket by following a recipe online?It's probably because the main measuring instrument (a probe thermometer) doesn't provide any feedback about fat rendering, moisture, etc. I'd love for someone to throw some over the top engineering & experimentation at this.
patapong: Synthesizers! I like it because it's tactile and immediate, and you're not glued to a screen, but can create fun-sounding beats.Nowadays there are nice, cheapish groove boxes that are perfect for noodling on the couch. I started with the Novation Circuit Tracks, and also really enjoy the Teenage Engineering EP-133. Not to say that I am any good at this, but it's an enjoyable hobby! Bonus if you are friends who are also into it and you can jam together :)
vectordust: > Bonus if you are friends who are also into it and you can jam together :)How does one find these people? Asking for a friend! :DI've also gone down the synthesizer rabbit hole: prophet-6, full modular setup (rip bank account), subsequent 37. It's great fun!
sm001: Design whistle sequences to get dolphins to respond in ways that will help you figure out their meaning. A few multi-million $ projects could use that, such as Google, Baidu, and SDRP.
getlawgdon: This is very cool. Thank you. ...and that video is a pill-quality destressor. thanks again.
duckkg5: I come back to the video every once in a while and it is total zen.
thom: I don't think chess engines are a solved problem for some use cases. Yes you can make something strong, maybe even the strongest, but can you create a chess engine perfectly tuned to actually teaching a player? Instead of superhuman perfect lines and inscrutable long-horizon strategy, can you teach nearly optimal human play in a way that's actionable, modular and memorable? Can you improve on tournament prep for players against particular opponents or within a particular metagame?Also, obviously it's your life, and we're here on Earth to fart around, but I have spent a good portion of my life dipping into one hobby after another, as my dad did before me, so I'm half speaking to myself when I ask this: why do you think you can't meaningfully contribute to any of these realms, even now? To me that sounds like some deep seated fear or doubt, some aversion to competition, some overriding bitterness. I'm slightly worried you'll just be back here in another couple of years trying to find another new hobby, unsullied by the efforts and achievements of others. You won't find that! I would actually suggest a particularly expensive hobby: going to therapy. Try that, and learn that you're already enough, and if your contributions are meaningful to you, that's all that matters. Happy to be way off the mark here though.
oddsockmachine: That's a wonderful video, thanks for sharing
shivekkhurana: Fast fashion forces you to dress for the masses. Loose shirts, baggy pants and shallow pockets is not fashion, its cost optimisation for brands.I didn't want to dress up like a boy. Me and my friend were in Paris when we got inspired by the floor(fashion_sense). I was already working on my clothing, but that day we promised each other that we will not be underdressed anymore.He opted for off-the-shelf formal clothing: high quality shirts, and pants. I went all in.First I found markets that sell cheap fabrics, so I can experiment. I travel a lot, so my clothing had to be designed for all weathers. I'm Indian (Bharat), but look racially ambiguous, so I also wanted my clothing to reflect my roots and culture, yet be modern enough for any room in the world.I run a company, and write code, so comfort was paramount. But I also had meetings or presentations so I wanted to be presentable.Started with pants, because I thought pants are easy to optimise, and I just need a black, gray and dark blue one. Over 5 iterations, I reached a design with elastic straps on the side (because when I eat food, my tummy bloats a little and its uncomfortable to sit down), and loose on the thighs. Imagine pyjamas, that look like pants.Then next step was to experiment with jackets and shirts. I played with fabric, patterns, and finish (zippers, titch buttons, different cuff lengths and styles, different collars).My friends started noticing, and I also consulted some clients. Then I gave a talk about it. This is one of my skills that I discovered by first principles. The best part is that I met my girlfriend because she noticed my aesthetics, and she told me that she makes her own clothes too.
Tade0: There's a surprisingly high number of people in my extended social circle who picked up archery as a sport.It's actually a complex discipline with a huge range of bows and projectiles to choose from, each having unique characteristics you have to train for.Training using VR equipment is picking up steam, as typically you need a sizeable amount of real estate to practice when the weather is bad.
peishang: Archery is a lot of fun - I go to a monthly archery gathering where the host has a bunch of really nice recurves.
warpech: I got into improv theatre. There are groups in every city, at least here in the EU. It is both fun and developing creativity, alertness, etc.
