Hi everyone. I am feeling like I’ve lost any direction after getting laid off earlier this year (was working as an analyst in telecom and very recently landed a much lower position in healthcare data entry due to necessity). I already have several hobbies but I am either burnt out on them or they have lost their luster (similar to how life has lost its luster for me this past 6 months).
I would really love to learn a new skill, preferably using my hands to create something while challenging my brain. I’m willing to take classes, study, practice, and buy some equipment required for the skill.
Please tell me about your skill/hobby that gives you purpose. I’ve kind of exhausted google search which always returns the same 20 or so craft suggestions like “make custom invitations for weddings”, and while that sounds good for someone, it may not be good for me.
Current hobbies: Music composition and gardening,
EDIT: trying to move away from hobbies that involve me sitting in front of a computer. I already do that way too much.
Do you live in an area where you can go sailing?
Heh, unfortunately no. I was born and raised in Ft Lauderdale, but now reside in Missouri… so no where near water, lol.
Not trying to dox myself, but I also live in Missouri and have a sailboat on Carlyle Lake in IL (about an hour from St. Louis). If you’re anywhere in the area, our sailing club is doing our annual Try Sailing Day on June 22nd. Free rides on a variety of different small sailboats and catamarans in exchange for a gentle sales pitch to sign up as an associate member, take some lessons, and be able to rent out any of the club’s fleet boats or volunteer to crew for someone on the Sunday buoy racing circuit.
Thats super cool. I didn’t think it would really be a thing around here. I will look into it. Thanks!
Most of the larger lakes in the region have similar organizations, Perry and Smithville over on the KC side as well as the Ozarks in south central all have sailing orgs to a greater or lesser extent.
How about taking a trade?
Definitely something I’ve considered. From my decades of working in front of computers, I would love to do something with my hands. I’ve looked at trade schools in my area and weighed some options.
Maybe woodworking? It can get dusty and you need some room but you can also make smaller things that don’t need big power tools or a lot of room. Like miniature things.
Or computer programming. Create an app. Or do something fun like follow one of the coding challenges from the YouTube channel The Coding Train
I was going to say the same. My husband likes gardening and builds all different kinds of planters - raised beds on the ground, elevated planters on wheels, small box planters with handles so he can easily carry it in/out for starting seeds.
I definitely have wood working on my radar. I have some basic hand and electric tools for home improvement stuff. Unfortunately I’m really burnt out on programming and computer stuff. I spend my work day in front of a computer doing mind numbing repetition. I know I should have clarified that further in the original post, sorry about that.
You’re on Lemmy, why not try your hand at contributing to some open source projects that catch your interest?
It’s really all going to depend on your tastes and lifestyle. Like I could recommend that you get a dog and start learning how to train dogs as a hobby, but that’s just not going to work for everyone. What’s important is that you explore things and maybe even try some hobbies that could potentially improve your well-being. Maybe you live somewhere near a good hiking spot and you could take up hiking to get outdoors and get more exercise. Maybe you could learn how to cook and explore how to make healthy meals that suit you better. Or maybe you just want to create something and you could take up woodworking or make model planes or something. The possibilities are endless, you just need to decide what you’d like to get out of it.
Personally, I spend most of my time for work indoors on a computer, so most of my hobbies involve using my hands and getting outdoors. I took up a lot of extra hobbies during covid for obvious reasons. So here goes my list of >!hobbies that will maybe give you some ideas:
- Cooking/baking/bread
- Candy making
- Jam making
- Gardening
- Canning (goes great with gardening!)
- Succulents
- Mixology
- Dog training
- Camping/hiking (this one is minimal only because I don’t live somewhere with good hiking spots)
- Board games, video games, and movies during the winter when I can’t go outside
Other things I’ve considered taking up but haven’t for various reasons:
- 3D printing
- Bonsais
- Home brewing
What kind of candy do you make? I make cannabis edibles. I’ve done gummies, peanut butter cups, caramels, and hard candies. I tried peppermint melts but they were really terrible!
Taking your initial post and this comment into consideration, you may be in a situation I find myself in (or I may be projecting, who knows). I started out with some regular ass depression and threw in what was originally some recreational weed consumption. After a while I found myself as a daily weed smoker. My partner seems to have a much different experience as a daily smoker than I do. For me it manifests itself as you are describing, just a lack of excitement about life. I feel like my weed hangover isn’t like an alcohol one, but rather it saps my motivation to do anything productive that I’m not being held accountable for. If I was also unemployed and unable to find a job, I’m sure it would be worse for me. At the moment, I’ve cut back on my consumption and am making it a point to only partake on weedkends. Pairing that with more exercise has worked well for me in the past, but I find it difficult to get in the exercise habit with that low level of motivated energy. Finding a form of exercise where you don’t notice the work you’re doing is also helpful. I don’t much like basketball, but a friend of mine invited me out to fuck around and shoot hoops with them. Probably the easiest time I had getting in some cardio without realizing it. Nowadays, I’ve got a rowing machine that I use while I watch streaming shows. I usually find my lust for life returning when I’ve put in the maintenance on the machine that is my body. It’s a lot easier to feel alive when you feel alive.
I mostly make chocolate based candies, but I dabble in other candies from time to time like caramels, candied nuts, candied fruits/ginger/etc. I like to make candies around Christmas time to give to family and friends as they make really nice gifts.
I really enjoyed learning to homebrew, and my family and friends really enjoyed drinking the mead I’ve made. You can homebrew all sorts of stuff, too - beer and wine of course, but also kombucha and ginger ale. I’m looking at professional kit for my next batch which is going to be a few hundred dollars at least of steel, but my first fermentation tubs were something like $35.
My only up-front recommendation would be to get a conical fermenter as it minimises loss when racking/bottling.
Two rules if you do this OP:
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clean everything all the time, this is an unskippable step. You must sanitize everything the beer touches!
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RDWHAHB
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And cider! Holebrewing is a lot of fun, and you can definitely get started on the cheap.
That sounds really cool. I am going to look into this some more.
Awesome! I found https://stormthecastle.com/mead via the sidebar of the old meadmaking subreddit and still go back to reference the tutorials and recipes occasionally. Seems like the only community on Lemmy is https://sopuli.xyz/c/homebrewing, but it’s a big one.
This was one of my favourite recipes posted on the old orange site (luckily it was crossposted to imgur): https://imgur.com/gallery/neon-knights-indigo-mead-D0IAs
Homebrew is a really good idea. You can get amazing results for relatively cheap investment. Take a look at the Robobrew and similar all in one kits. They’re basically brew in a bag systems that work really well.
Homebrew is so fun, and I love how you can make it as complex as you want. Like, you can just mix some honey and some water (in the right ratio) and let it sit, and you’ve got mead! Or you can add flavors. Or experiment with yeasts. Or brew beer and experiment with hops and grains. It’s a hobby that really meets you where you want it to.
Based on what you wrote, referencing burnout, I suspect that the issue isn’t that you need a hobby, it’s that you need to make time to do nothing at all.
Go for walks in nature, away from technology, walk alone or with friends, laugh, tell stories, share secrets and dreams.
The more you do, the more resilience builds up, the better you can cope with stress and work.
Only then might you find joy in a hobby. For me it was Amateur Radio, but it might be different for you.
All good points. I make time with friends when I can, getting laid off from my job really messed me up. I had been there for 11 years a lot of my closer friends are tied to that job and people I worked with. I still go out to lunch or for coffee with them when possible, but I don’t see them every day like I used to. I am going to double my efforts to spend time with them.
i got my amateur radio license (U.S. technician) about a month ago at a big convention. i was thinking of suggesting the hobby to the poster but first read through the comments, to check if it were suggested already. your initial advice is probably better. i’m realizing i overloaded myself and burned out during the time leading up to the test and now i’m not entirely sure why i tried getting the license in the first place. i still don’t even have a radio. I think i wanted to learn more about electronics and one thing led to another. now my mind goes blank when i try to think about what to do. i’m not OP but found it to be good advice, thanks.
Welcome to the community, we’re all still figuring out what to do with it :)
When you want to reconnect with the hobby, after looking after yourself, look for my callsign, VK6FLAB. I have produced a weekly article about the hobby for the past 13 years and there’s plenty of suggestions for things to do and learn.
I’ve (more or less) got those two hobbies as well! :D
I work on cars for fun, but that might not be the most budget friendly thing to do outside of basic car maintenance. Of course, this is assuming that you or a friend has a car to work on.
What if you get an Arduino starter kit? That involves putting things together with your hands and writing code to make the hardware do cool things.
For music production, you could check out a website like Looperman or a subscription service like Splice. Then, download a few audio samples and use them as a starting point for a song. This helped me get back into music production after a five month period of minimal inspiration.
Photography (even with a cellphone) could be nice too. You could even use it as a reason to do physical activities like hiking.
EDIT: Have you been hanging out with friends regularly? If not, I think that it should be
Drawing. It’s seen as a skill reserved for an elite few, but in reality anyone can develop it. I learned it at school from lessons very similar to how Peter Gray teaches it (see this book for example on the Internet Archive).
All you need is a pad of paper, a few pencils and an eraser. And then sketch away, plants, people, landscapes, characters, whatever you want to explore.
Definitely a good idea. I’ve never been talented in drawing or painting, but that doesn’t mean I can’t develop it.
Does art interest you? I personally really love drawing!
I’ve never been particularly talented at visual arts like drawing and painting, my artistic talents mostly come in music. Which I’ve been doing for a long time and burnt out on. I do know you can develop a talent like drawing with enough time and effort, so its not totally out of the question.
I fondly remember a time where I could only draw stickmen. I’m sure if you spend time and effort, you can do pretty much anything! If you don’t mind me asking, have you shared your music anywhere?
Yeah, I’ve got a ton of music published, its all on Spotify/iTunes/etc. The name of my band is Giant Monsters on the Horizon. Been doing music for a long while. https://open.spotify.com/artist/4HmglWNfF7jAYQxbEjv9Xt?si=wKM8b_rATrSgx5WV7ITDdw
Holy cats - just bought Night City Redux on Bandcamp. Great stuff!
If you’re burnt out on music making, have you tried other ways of creating? Like if you’re used to a DAW, invest in hardware like a groovebox or a handheld tracker (my current love is the Dirtywave M8) or something. Try modular (but don’t, it’s expensive) or some weird boutique noise machine. Or dive into orchestral instruments and perfecting a classical music performance.
It could be a way to defamiliarise yourself and make music creation new again.
You are my favorite person, I appreciate you! :D
Seriously, thank you for supporting. I’ve worked with softsynths all my adult life, mainly Reason for production and arranging, Ableton for live shows. One of my bandmates is a gearhead, we’ve tried all kinds of his hardware including modular stuff, and it was just a learning curve that I was not really interested in. My music production time is really limited (One of my bandmates and his wife just adopted 2 kids out of foster care, and my other bandmate is a full time teacher), I only get about 4 hours a week to actually collaborate with them. Every time we’ve tried writing and creating with hardware, it just left us with getting nothing done during our once a week session. We stick with the softsynths we know and keep the train moving forward. So the balance struggle there is, do we take several sessions off to try something new? Or do we keep creating and being productive. Its tough.
One of the former guitarists of thrash metal band Anthrax became a watch repairman. I think maybe he work(s/ed) on antique watches, but I might be making that part up. If you like working with your hands and challenging your mind, this could be great. I listened to a podcast miniseries about a guy who, among other things, repaired clocks. There was a lot of commentary about how reverse-engineering the original design was a big part of the job. (The show was S-Town / Shit-Town).
That sounds really cool and challenging. I am going to look into it. Thanks!
My father is a clock repair guy. He’s been doing it since he was a child and switched to doing it full time during the 2008 recession.
He lives an interesting life! It’s a very solo/work for yourself type of activity. He outsources some stuff to experts, like restoring dials, making new wooden gears, etc. Every clock he fixes gets run on a test stand for a month before going back to the customer.
That’s cool! If i start learning now, maybe that could be my retirement job!
A few years ago, mid pandemic, I started collecting ancient coins. I was really passionate about it even thinking about finding ways to make it a small after-hours job or such, but I’ve since run into a few walls and have subsequently lost my drive. For example, I wanted to take very high resolution pictures of the coins and then compose a catalog of sorts, but while I have all the gear that I need (camera with a macro lens) my shots keep coming out wrong and I’ve since kind of given up on the idea altogether.
My entire life is one long succession of passionately started projects that got abandoned either midway or after heavy setbacks. If I ever find one that brings me lasting happiness, I’ll gladly share it, but for now I’m just as much on the lookout as you are.
I know that feeling. You and I are on a mission to find what gives us purpose and happiness. I hope you find it, friend.
It’s cliche but perhaps the journey is the purpose. I also have had a multitude of different hobbies throughout the years, but I enjoy learning new things. The aspect of learning a new hobby is often more fun than the hobby.
I recently got into video game development, and I’ve had so much fun, and it’s given me some much-needed meaning. I’ve solved problems unique to my game using programming skills as well as game design skills, and it feels meaningful because i can send it to my friends and they can enjoy it without needing to appreciate any of the technical aspects. I get to be creative about how people I care about can have more fun. It could also involve your music composition hobby, since every good game needs some music and sound design! I’m a programmer for my day job so most things I do there are only meaningful to other programmers, and the problems I solve there are incredibly boring ones.
Edit: I saw your comment about being burnt out on programming, and I totally understand that. That happens to me frequently. I enjoy programming as a hobby when I’m not burnt out so we’re kinda in different boats there. There are lots of skills involved in making games and the variety has really refreshed me, though I’ve still gotten sick of sitting at a computer while working on it.
I appreciate what you are doing and am glad you found something that you enjoy. I’ve tried to contribute music to game development before, and each time the project ended up falling apart and the game never finished. I even wrote a score for an independent film once… then covid hit, funding fell through, and the movie was left in post production hell. I’ve released a ton of stuff on my own, but as a big ol video game nerd, I would love to breach that medium.
There are some great suggestions here already. In addition to creative stuff, I personally think it’s super important to do something physical as well. I can’t list all of the positive effects weightlifting has had on my life since I picked it up. I feel physically and mentally so much better in pretty much every way possible. If it interests you at all let me know I can give you some reading suggestions
While weightlifting is the go to example (and of the the most effective ones), it’s by no means the only option. Yoga, a team sport, hiking, walking, biking, rollerblading, running, etc all would be great to do.
I have a small machine shop where I make little doodads out of metal. All of my equipment is manual. If I want to cut metal on my lathe or mill, I’m spinning handwheels and engaging power feed levers. I then have to sit there, watch the beautiful blue steel chips fly, listen to the sound of the cut, and wait for the cut to be finished so I can turn off the power feed. Then I turn off the machine, get out my micrometers, carefully measure my cut, and do it again until I’m done. Then, I take the work out of the vise or chuck, grab my file, debur all of the sharp edges (I love the sound of a good file knocking off metal burrs), and get to work on the next part.
It’s intensely peaceful. Machining tools are relatively quiet and stately (power woodworking tools scream like evil demons). Small hobby tools are slow, so you always have plenty of time to enjoy yourself. It requires a lot of planning and thinking, and it helps you develop a much more attuned mechanical touch. You get to make really cool shit out of the best material (i.e. metal), and it’s a genuinely useful skill. I do software development, and I spend way too much time sitting at my desk. Machining is my escape.
One downside is that it can be expensive. Good tools cost money and good metal costs money. I’d guess that I have $20K invested in my shop, but I’ve also been doing this for 7 years now. The initial investment isn’t that high. You can save a lot of money by making your own tools, which I didn’t always do. Used tools are also a really great option (except for measuring tools, sometimes you have to buy those new). To get metal for cheaper, go to nearby machine shops and ask nicely if you can buy scraps from their offcut sections. If you tell them that you’re learning machining, they’ll be very likely to oblige!
The other downside is that it requires you to be careful. Human flesh is soft compared to metal. Machining is only dangerous if you’re incautious, but I feel like it’s important that I bring up safety when I recommend machining as a potential hobby.
If you’re interested, check out Blondihacks on YouTube. She has some great videos on how to get started with your own hobby machine shop. I also really like Clickspring and This Old Tony. Clickspring has some good project videos on his channel, and TOT is hilarious and educational.
Here’s the thing I’m most proud of making. I adapted the design of a 3D printed yarn winder to manual machining and built it from scratch. All of the metal parts started out as raw stock (everything is 4340 steel, except for the base plate which is ductile iron). The base is black walnut. The little feet are brass, with sorbothane feet on the bottom.
Ha ha, read this wonderful piece through thinking, sounds great but what would I ever make? And then omg, yarn winder. I’m a knitter, and my yarn winder is a plastic monstrosity. I mean I’m never going to do it myself, but there definitely is a market for beautifully machined yarn winders.
Honestly, that’s really beautiful. I can tell you have a lot of passion for your hobby. I am going to look into this and subscribe to the youtube channels you listed. Thank you!
It’s definitely been life-changing for me. I never had the “touch”. When I’d do stuff around the house, I’d put in screws at crazy angles and drill holes in the wrong places on walls. I never felt like I could fix or build anything. Machine tools let you build crazy shit without relying on your visual reasoning or coordination. You want a hole at a spot? Move the handwheels to that spot and you’re there. There’s no fucking around. That built up my confidence, and the stuff that does require spatial reasoning (like using a file to turn a round hole into a square one) happens slowly enough that you can make mistakes and still be okay.
If you decide to get into it, I’d recommend getting a lathe first. if you can’t afford a mill, a drill press is still very useful. You can do almost anything on a lathe if you try hard enough, and a drill press makes some things a lot easier. Blondihacks will have a lot more to say about it, but I believe that’s her recommendation.
