Hobbies are not for making money. That’s what a job is for. Hobbies are where you sink the money you have left from your job and all the other expenses are paid.

That said.

Hobbies for me include:

Hiking (lots of good trails nearby)

Making sounds on my Synth (I’m building a case right now)

TTRPGS (when you can wrangle enough folks)

Skirmish Games (mainly Gaslands)

Video games (slay the spire, and casual WoW)

Electronics projects mostly.

Mostly smart home PCBs and interconnect boards and 3D modelled housings. Examples:

• esp32-C3 dumb doorbell (just a doorbell that sends an MQTT message and sleeps the rest of the time). It works fatastic except that my Proximus ISP modem/router completely fucked up and so the network is no longer usable and I had to set it in bridge mode to a router it can’t reach. I want to release it, but haven’t had the time to water - resistance test it or make assembly instructions
• esp32-S3 voice assistant satellite attached to an IR blaster, I2S mic, and PCM5102 to control and send audio to my old Yamaha RX-496RDS to control it via IR and can play audio (local or Spotify) via music assistant. Pretty much an Alexa echo attached to my speaker system. PCB link which I am planning on releasing.
• My unfinished Flight Stick with custom electronics, fully custom 3D printable housing, etc… It is almost done, but needs like 2 more small iterations, but we moved and started doing a full-strip renovation, so my 3D printer is no longer set up because it is too dusty inside, and I don’t want to spend another $100 doing a PCB test iteration to use a better ADC with less components. Eventually as firmware practice, I want to rewrite the firmware in Rust or something. I also just looked at the Repo and the quick logo I drew up has been modified somehow without any commit. I know for a fact it was correct before. Very weird.

I also have tons of new project ideas that I don’t have time for.

My other hobbies

• weightlifting, again completely dropped off due to every free moment renovating

• Running a home server with replacement services for everything I need

• Running (my motivation has been 0 recently…)

• cooking. I try to do a few new recipes per month

• gardening. With the renovation, I just grew a few courgettes, tomatoes, and squash this year

• video games (more of a de-stresser nowadays than a hobby, most recently casual rocket league with friends is fun, hadn’t played since 2018 or so)

Fishing has been great for me. Gives ya a chance to learn what’s around you by researching local waterways and what fish live in em. Then connect with them by studying their habits throughout the year and their diet. You plan your tackle box and rod set up around that and test your studies by trying to catch the dang things. And in the process of that you get some lovely, peaceful scenery and maybe a hike.

It’s fairly cheap, too. The fishing gear on Ali Express is damn good for the price and while I can see arguments on spending on a quality rod and reel, I’ll tell ya I prefer my $65 Pflueger President spinning reel, but I wouldn’t have paid that much if I had used the $12 one I got on Ali Express first. You’ll be replacing line, lures and hooks somewhat often when you start anyway so no reason to break the bank.

In the winter months, I do more model building and painting indoors. Gunpla don’t have to be expensive and you can go all out on learning new techniques to erase mold lines and seamlessly join parts and that kinda technique learning keeps me engaged. Plus, when you’re done, you have something you can put on display. I also give completed kits away to younger relatives when I get tired of it or I wanna try the kit again with new techniques.

As far as fitness, it’s not quite a hobby, but I hop on a stationary bike and watch star trek. I fucking love Star Trek!

I don’t care about making money with my hobbies, I do them to help me feel better and have some good time. As a whole we’re all already way too focused on making money, at least that’s what I think.

• Long walks. Daily. This is the (second) best change I ever made into my life. I would encourage anyone, even more anyone that is like I was (in a very bad physical and mental shape) to give steady walks a go. Start small but don’t give up even though It’s hard to begin with, and slowly increase the distance you walk and your steadiness. It’s so much worth it. I was a potato couch but nowadays I could not not go out for a few miles walk at least once a day (as much as possible I’ll go everywhere I can by walking instead of using any mean of transportation). It also helps in the head, immensely as far as I’m concerned.
• Writing &
• Reading. Reading and writing should never go without the other as far as I’m concerned. Read (like you write) widely, don’t be afraid to read stuff you don’t normally read, or stuff/author you don’t like (there is a lot to be learned when confronting your own thought to those of people you don’t agree with), or read unpopular stuff.
• Sketching/painting. I’m not an artist, I don’t care I just enjoy doing it. I try to do more of that outdoor, while I’m out walking)
• DIY, making stuff with my hands (book binding, woodworking,… those come and go along the years) & also
• Fixing stuff. Reducing the amount of waste we create by making our stuff last a little longer.
• I had to quit model making, but I liked that a lot.
• Music.

Boardgaming and RPGs kind of tie into my profession in design. I see my job as organizing information, so when I play games I’m just naturally working out ways to present the information for myself or other players as efficiently as possible. Or I’m writing/designing homebrew material because for some reason I get inspired sometimes.

My physical “hobby” is walking/exercise, though I have hard time calling that a hobby, it’s just something I do without thinking about it, it’d be like calling eating a hobby, it’s just something I do that seems important for my survival.

Beekeeping, rowing, swimming, knitting, photography, gardening. I also do quite a bit of tech stuff, and some sewing and baking. None of it is for income, though I have been paid for a few photos.

Beekeeping is far and away the most absorbing and interesting hobby I’ve ever had. Where I live there are very active local associations that support learning and hold social events. The national association organises courses at all levels. A government department sends out bee inspectors to check for disease; great support and another learning opportunity.

If you want to, you can make good money from selling honey. It’s a lot of hard work, but really enjoyable.

Fitness: cycles through the year, some combination of running, indoor climbing, rowing or dragonboat, backpacking

Creative: woodcarving, music, gardening

Moneymaker: nope, I am fortunate enough to have one job with good salary. I do not turn hobbies into side hustles.

Instead of moneymaking, the third category I look for is social. Many of my hobbies can be solo, so I want to make sure I’m doing something that has me out meeting new people. And that my socialization doesn’t become predominantly meeting friends in bars.

I own an LGS, so my hobbies have become part of my job. Before i opened i built and painted miniatures, and played a lot of miniature games. I also played RPGs and MTG quite a bit.

Now, i guess my hobbies would be my old job, audio engineering.

For fitness running, walking and weightlifting. For creativity reading, writing, sketching. For money, software development.

I’d recommend keeping a semi regular (daily to weekly) diary above everything else. It’s been invaluable to be able to check in with myself. It’s also fun to work on your lettering.

3d printing. [email protected]

homebrewing [email protected]

baking [email protected]

drooling over big thighs [email protected]

Lifting weights, motorcycle, programming at home for fun and not profit.

Lifting weights is awesome. You can do it with friends, but I tend to go solo. It’s meditative and humbling. At the same time, it’s an absolute ego boost to start seeing your progress and comparing with others.

Motorcycling is a ton of fun, but quite expensive. Buying a bike is a gut punch, then all the over priced gear. You can be thrifty about it using Facebook marketplace but you’re gonna be out quite a bit of money.

I’m a software engineer at work, but I honestly enjoy programming. I have a discord bot or two that I wrote just for my discord channel with some buddies. I also run 4 raspberry pi’s at home that require occasional IT work to do their various tasks. It’s low risk and rewarding and helps keep me a little sharper at my day job.

i took up drawing this year and enjoy it a lot, i’m not good at it quite yet but it is cheap to start, fun, you can do it pretty much anywhere, and it’s given me a nice confidence boost tbh because i was always convinced it was something i could never do. i like that i’m always learning something new with it too, and progressing in a visible way. i’m not looking at it with the aim of making money though, it’s for fun & good for my brain. highly recommend.

Fighting games and Riichi Mahjong.

There’s usually a local event for at least one of the games I play every month or so. I travel out to Combo Breaker every year for the big major as well.

For Riichi Mahjong, the local club here meets every week. Haven’t had the chance to attend a big tournament yet, but I’m hoping I can fit one into my travel budget at some point.

I’ve been making mechanical keyboards “from scratch” for the last year or so. I leverage a lot of pre-built parts and existing tools of course, but I tweak the standard layouts to fit what I want to do, fabricate the plates and cases with my laser engraver and 3D printer, assemble everything, wire them up to the switches and the microcontroller (usually “dead bug” hand-wiring, but I have done a very basic PCB in KiCAD as well), and configure the firmware. It leverages a lot of my other interests, provides an opportunity to improve incrementally between projects, and results in a product that is legitimately pleasant to use.

Little bastards are piling up, though.

Warning - do not make your creative/fun hobby the one that also makes you money. I’ve met several people who were into woodworking as a hobby, started doing it on commission for family, friends, referrals, etc, and it quickly became a job rather than a fun hobby. The timelines and demands that come with doing commissions killed it for them, they still occasionally do woodworking as gifts/favors, but very explicitly just for family and close friends without timelines, and only charge for materials