Recently I was asked about my hobbies, and taking a while I can’t really find what I do enjoy doing beside building things at work. And probably the correct answer is I have no hobby at all.
I like playing video games, but after spending lots of time for some matches, I feel sorry about the time I lost. I like reading technical blogs - but just because I want to be better as what I do - still work related.
How about you?
I’m a chocolatier. I buy couvature in bulk and make chocolates. I usually bring them to events and conferences for funsies. I currently have cherry cordials, taro truffles, and candied orange peels in my cupboard.
I do a lot of cooking in general, too.
My other big hobby is juggling. I can do a five ball cascade one time in three, but these days I’ve been slacking off on toss juggling in favor of cigar boxes.
I want to volunteer more and learn knitting, but haven’t really started doing either of those.
Did you grow up with someone who was a chocolatier? How’d you get into it.
Nah, I didn’t even know how to cook until I got to college. Then I got obsessed. One Christmas I was alone on campus, got cabin fever, and decided I was gonna learn confectionary. Been doing it ever since!
I’m a chocolatier. I buy couvature in bulk and make chocolates. I usually bring them to events and conferences for funsies. I currently have cherry cordials, taro truffles, and candied orange peels in my cupboard.
Oh that sounds like a lot of fun. I didn’t think of that as a hobby, any tips for anyone who wants to get started as an amateur? Recommended books or websites?
(I would just like to try this once, sounds like a nice activity to do with a kid as well!)
I did a writeup here last time this question was asked!
Thanks for the link and writeup!
Ever since @JordiGH mentioned knitting, I’ve been wanting to join ravelry and learn to knit. I have yet to start as well.
Do it! Yarn and needles are cheap to buy at your local craft mart, so it’s low cost to learn and find out if you like it. Ravelry has lots of patterns for basic coasters, which are small enough learn on quickly and finish a project quickly.
I love knitting, it keeps me sane. I have a pair of socks in my bag that have an easy pattern, so I have something to occupy my hands in meetings. And I work on more complex stuff in the evenings so my Youtube and Netflix downtime has something to show for itself.
Time to start making your own chocolate then. I use a Premier Chocolate Refiner.
First time poster here 👋
What most closely resembles a hobby is that I’m sourcing old Romanian books online, collecting them, and will hopefully be digitizing them in the near future. I’m now focused on books that have fallen into the public domain, and XIXth to XXth century cookbooks. I’ve also been collecting found photography for a few years now, mainly from flea markets.
Otherwise, things that might be considered — if I were more inclined for self-reflection — extra jobs, but which I do (mostly) pro bono and/or for the fun of it:
I’ve been involved in a yearly event that tries to raise awareness around reintegrating the river passing through the city into the urban fabric, and we’ve just wrapped up our fourth edition.
I help run a tiny art gallery where we host established and upcoming artists. I occasionally chip in with web development things for local cultural institutions.
(I have found that these types of organizations can always use a bit of help, and just making yourself available will set you up for rewarding work.)
Finally, I can’t get enough of thinking about code and systems, so I’m always tinkering with some stupid little open-source project.
I’d like to get good at writing, archiving, and making books but I tend to start too many things at once so I’m delaying these indefinitely :-)
I think digitizing books is an incredible hobby! You might be interested in this project: Memory of the World.
Wow, I love it. Thanks for sharing!
I’m still tweaking my toolchain for digitizing the books. I have most of the parts for my guerrilla kit: Scannable on iOS + Google Vision API (because other OCR solutions are just terrible at Romanian text, especially with the older glyphs with which the language was written at the time most books I want to parse were written). Now I just need to wrap up the glue that sends a batch of images to the API and collates the results. (WIP here: https://github.com/llll-org/vizor)
P.S. If anyone has any references for open-source crowdsourced annotation (e.g. highlighting blocks on an image and manually typing in what you see), I’d appreciate the links. I know I have some buried in my bookmarks, but lately I’ve found that my searching / digging skills fail me more consistently than I remember — and switching to DuckDuckGo doesn’t quite help :-)
The people at Zooniverse have a couple of projects regarding highlighting and transcribing texts, but I don’t know the requisites to add a new project
Ah yes, this sounds like the one I was thinking of, but I also know there’s a similar open-source platform. I’ll report back if I find it.
This is a semi-pro hardware setup: https://diybookscanner.org/
Jonathan is a great resource.
I love old cookbooks. They are amazing documents. When you do digitize them and get them up, do post them here!
When you make books, do you hand bind them?
Right now I think I can produce a decent digital book and work with the printer to get it published. (Did a couple of small-run ones). But yes, the dream would be to learn how to hand bind them! As for the cookbooks, I’ll let everyone know when I have something public to show, but bear in mind these are in the (old) Romanian language :P
Photography, D&D, and learning Dutch. Fingers crossed, I’ll finally be able to get into running this year.
I recommend trying to find a hobby that keeps you out of a chair, for the sake of your back and body in general though.
Laat maar weten als je hulp nodig hebt :)
Thanks for the recommendation!
In my spare time I enjoy shooting and hunting.
My wife and I have decided we want to foster and hopefully adopt children though. So I expect that to become my full time hobby very soon.
Cycling, and keeping fit. I’m really lucky to have a good gym at work, which I use most lunchtimes, and I go on long (100km+) cycles at the weekend.
Playing bridge.
A fellow bridge player! I used to play a lot but since I finished grad school I can never find a quorum.
I hadn’t played for years while finishing some studies, but when that finished I set up a bridge club in work and got someone in to teach others. We now play weekly - I’d forgotten how enjoyable the game is.
Debating I started after realising that I sometimes struggled to articulate myself as well as I’d like to during meetings at work, and I thought debating might help me to simultaneously think (i.e. formulate arguments) and speak (i.e. articulate them clearly). It turned out that I love debating; not only does it help train your public speaking skills but since we debate motions about a wide variety of topics, it’s great simply getting a more nuanced view of things that happen in the world. Also, the people are great.
Sustainability I spend time reading about, pontificating about, or acting around sustainability. I’m particularly interested in environmental sustainability but also in any system that is ‘unsustainable’ too. I feel a responsibility to try and contribute positively to these kinds of problems (plus it’s fun, if approached with a non-cynical mindset). I try hard to live a holistically sustainable life, not just environmentally, but also socially and politically.
Keeping healthy Keeping fit and healthy is a really high priority for me, I usually exercise three times a week, and pick between circuit training, bouldering, running, stretching and strength training. Eating well is also really important to me. I’m not sure if these class as hobbies because I’m not really willing to compromise on them if life gets busy in other areas (so they’re more like essentials), but I do enjoy them :)
Reading My favourite genre is fantasy; I love the feeling of becoming immersed in the ‘world’ of a story. Having said that, I’m currently trying to branch out a little, particularly to read books that will give me a different perspective somehow (e.g. classics or books written from an interesting point of view). I’m currently reading The Kite Runner. Book recommendations are welcome :)
Gratitude journal Every night, I wrote down things I’m grateful for in a journal. When I first heard about gratitude journals I thought they sounded pretty lame. However, I think it’s really useful to acknowledge that generally, I live in a great time and am incredibly lucky compared to many. Spending ~5 minutes to actively recognise the things that I have in life (as opposed to what I don’t have, i.e. the consumerist view) definitely makes me a happier and more contented person.
[Not a hobby] Work I work as a software engineer, and really enjoy it. I don’t think of work as a hobby because I recognise that there’s a contract between myself and my employer, but, a happy side effect of that contract is that I derive enjoyment from a job well done and getting to collaborate with great colleagues.
I share a lot of these (except debating!). I just heard about gratitude journals, and my brother has started writing one. I’m really interested to see how it works out for him. It does seem to make a lot of sense!
Exercise is so important for my mental state. I play badminton, and for the 2 or so months of the year when it winds down, I can really feel myself getting more stressed and anxious.
And living sustainably, and continually searching for more ways to do so gives my life meaning. I feel like it’s my biggest responsibility, and there are still so many ways to improve. What I love about it is that many of the changes I’ve made have not been about giving up on convenience. In many ways my life is more simple, and it makes more sense. I feel like I’m regaining control over my life!
Debating sounds interesting! How do you practice that? Are there clubs or similar?
(I know debating is a quasi-academic activity in the US and maybe other Anglo-Saxon milieus but it’s almost unknown in Sweden outside people who are semi-pro politicians).
I do British Parliamentary Debating (BP) at a local club. I just googled ‘debate club [my city]’ and found a great club :)
We debate all kinds of things, motions I can remember include “This house regrets the rise of satire in politics”, “This house, as the government, would subsidise bank loans for poor people” and “This house, as the Chinese government, would give up all terratorial claims to the nine dash line”.
Not exactly debating, but you can hone some related skills by doing Improv theatre, and to my understanding you can find lots of meetups and clubs everywhere.
Got any good book recommendations? I started reading more fantasy recently and am always on the lookout for new stuff.
For Fantasy: Malazan Book of the Fallen series is very good Also I quite liked Joe Abercrombie’s The First Law Trilogy
I love Brandon Sanderson; I’d recommend any of his series really :)
I play guitar. It’s hard to keep getting better but I keep at it. I’m thinking about recording/YouTube, as a challenge. I’m also thinking about buying yet another guitar, so.. got to find balance.
I also watch a lot of StarCraft II, more than I play, anyway. I don’t feel it’s time wasted.
I like to read “pop math” books, you know not the serious little yellow books for grad students, but paperbacks. Gamma, E, stuff like that. Most of it goes over my head.
Edit: I also like to tie knots. Useful ones, pretty ones.
I also dabble in guitar. I’ve owned one for 25 years, but last year I decided to actually improve beyond the “can play a few riffs” stage and took some lessons. Through that I realised the truth of the difference between performance (which was what I’d been doing, badly) and practice (which I’d not really been doing, and accounted for my utter stagnation) and started looking into resources to help my practice. I went through the https://www.justinguitar.com beginner course and improved significantly! (Let’s say from incompetent beginner to somewhat competent beginner?) I have a lot more fun now, and am learning some songs before starting Justin’s (also free!) intermediate course.
I have about 20 guitars. I feel like I always need more. I use most of them pretty often, so .. you know..
I love watching StarCraft as well. I haven’t played it in years! But I always follow the big tournaments.
Cool, what kind of music do you like playing?
I like John Frusciante / Hendrix type stuff, but Nuno Bettencourt is my favorite. He’s got a very percussive style that’s kinda both rhythm & lead at the same time. I just recently started buying sheet music, turns out I was playing (& practicing!) a lot of stuff wrong. Got a long way to go
That’s cool and hard stuff. Sometimes a couple of lessons with a good teacher can help not to practice your mistakes. I have a lot of bad habits in keyboard and guitar because I’m self-taught, so when I picked up the bass I took some lessons to don’t fall in the same trap again.
Techno clubbing, bodybuilding, I read about history, philosophy and human stuff. Recently I’ve been cooking a lot more and I moved to the experimental side of cooking that, for an Italian, is a huge step. I also read a lot more about labour issues.
and I guess you’re based in berlin:D?
I’m a walking stereotype
Thanks for posting this question, I too could use some ideas for non-sedentary (and ideally, non-solitary) hobbies! Currently, my most important hobbies are:
Hobby programming I spend an inordinate amount of time on CHICKEN Scheme, but I’ve been trying to do it less. I want to spend more time on non-computer stuff and I also want to avoid stagnating in my knowledge and skills, so I want to find challenging new projects to do (using CHICKEN for a change instead of just working on CHICKEN).
Krav maga Over time, I’ve tried a few sports (like swimming, judo, fitness, volleyball) but they ultimately all bored me at some point or other (usually earlier rather than later). I’ve given Krav Maga a try a few months ago and have become hooked. It’s challenging, intellectually as well as physically, which is really a combination I like. It’s also great for my self-confidence and general mental and physical health. I try to go three nights a week now.
Reading Something I enjoy a lot but also struggle to find the time to do. I used to read a lot of (science) fiction when I was young, but lately I’ve been more interested in personal growth, so I’ve been reading nonfiction. Currently I’m at the tail end of a stoic philosophy binge, reading Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.
Movies I used to be a total movie buff, watching at least two movies per week. Nowadays I find it hard just to keep up with all the fantastic series that come out (and lack of good mainstream movies) that movies have taken a back seat. Still, I like it when I get surprised by an unknown gem.
Cooking I doubt if I should really include this, as I never enjoyed cooking much. But I’ve been finding that I enjoy preparing fresh healthy food for the health and financial benefits more than I enjoy the actual act of cooking itself. Knowing exactly what went into your meal is really empowering.
This is a common meme but I don’t find it to hold much truth. Years ago I started using CHICKEN for personal projects after I got introduced to Scheme via a uni course and fell in love with its simplicity and elegance. Initially I used it to write little web and cli programs, and I still maintain lots of useful libraries and programs. In fact, most of the people in the CHICKEN community are working on their own projects, the core team is just a handful of (rather busy) people. The same is true for the Gambit, Racket and Guile communities, AFAIK. Common Lisp is notorious for being a “secret weapon” that people use to implement cool stuff.
I personally just happen to spend a lot of time improving the compiler as that is what interests me and sometimes out of a sense of “duty” (because someone needs to do it). I haven’t found the time to take up interesting new projects, and doing just maintenance work on existing stuff has started to drag me down, and I don’t want to get burnt out.
+1 for KM. I loved it. I studied for three years under two different instructors from different lineages. I learned more in that first year with that instructor than I did in the next two with the other and possibly more than I had in the previous ten in other arts (which may have to do with all the accumulated experience and my maturity). I also felt that retesting to P1 in the second school was noticeably easier and not just because of my own degree of fitness.
What makes krav maga intellectually challenging? You made me curious.
I’ll add that martial arts at some point becomes like a physical version of speed chess. You’re constantly the current situation of where you’re bodies are, your opponent’s likely intent (several possibilities), how you might counter that with their failure-modes, your goals (several possibilities), how you might execute those with their failure-modes, and a certain amount of randomness thrown in there as adrenaline screws with your thinking. Under adrenaline and fast pace, your brain really can’t think of these things. So, you do most of it during instruction and experimental sparring to train your intuition (fast, best-effort part of brain) to come up with something moment by moment. And during brief times, you still will be thinking rationally about a situation to create and defeat strategy.
It’s more pronounced in MMA or wrestling where every move opens piles of opportunities and problems which are often driven by positioning and momentum. My favorite illustration of martial arts as a chess match is Bas Rutten vs Masakatsu Funaki in open-handed Pancrase narrated by Bas himself. They’re both experts that conserve energy, approach wrestling like chess, and rarely exchange strikes since they know each other are mostly immune to them. That combo of attributes means they fight in what looks like slow motion. Watch each takedown, hand gesture/grab, leg/body positioning, and so on since it’s intentional result of their unconscious and conscious analysis of each other. In this vid, Bas tells in narration how his mind was working during the fight.
The problem is: MMA and wrestling are staged. I like calling Krav Maga “martial, without the art.” While even in KM staged demonstrations are common, tournaments are not.
WWE-style wresting is staged. The main styles of wrestling in tournaments and MMA are not staged. They set up some rules. Then people go at it trying to win. We have the rules since John McCain convinced everyone that vale tudo was “human cockfighting.” He got UFC banned in one state after another until they made it safe. It’s safer than football now. If you want it hardcore or something, then check out the last vale tudo tournament: Rio Heros.
There’s probably no Krav people there, as usual. Reason is Krav, while I like it, is a pile of defensive moves thrown together. It’s not a complete, consistent, fighting system. That means it starts to fail outside the specific situations they trained for. We get Krav people in the MMA matches on occasion. They always loose. They loose to the BJJ practitioners, too, since they have no ground game. Classic example of what happens in such situations. It’s only good for an initial reaction to street situations. And exercise, health, fun, etc. like other martial arts.
You often need to perform several actions at the same time, in sync. This requires focus, relaxation (if you’re too tensed up you get it wrong) and memorisation. This is very physical in that you need to coordinate your body, but there’s definitely a mental component to it as well. For instance, there are different techniques to use when threatened with a knife from different angles. If you use the wrong technique in a real-life situation, you’d only achieve getting your throat slit.
I mostly do what I need in order to progress on ‘hobby projects’, so I guess ‘Project work’ could be a hobby…
Doing this I’ve picked up a few hobbies in themselves ;)
Programming Picked that one up really early and later decided that I don’t want to lose the fun of it by taking a job as software developer. Am now a systems/network administrator and very happy.
Photography Seems to be pretty popular with the tech crowd ;) It can also be a huge money sink once you go for the more upscale DSLR systems and lenses (especially the lenses…. eyes Canon 70-200 2.8L IS)
Event lighting / Lighting design I’ve done sound for a long time but decided to spare my ears in the future, so I stick to lighting now ;) It’s a very creative outlet with a huge technical component, and also allows you to go really deep into the matter (designing my own control interfaces and software (mainly because MA insists on stupid limitations), etc)
Amateur Electronics Designing small circuits and PCBs for problems I run into (see above), programming microcontrollers for the fun of having limitations and hardware control, and of course fixing broken things where possible ;)
Creative / technical writing Other than what I’ve heard from most people, I kind of enjoy writing documentation. For things that I like, that is, such as my own software or projects. For other people, meh.
Baking bread Sometimes I just really crave the taste of fresh bread and one night decided to just start baking some. People liked it and it became a more or less regular thing for me. I like to get creative with the recipe and ingredients, which among others has led to Bhut Jolokia bread which only a select few could eat more than a bite of ;)
I also like to read, go on walking tours (pairs well with photography), like to work with animals, etc, but not to the point I’d consider it a hobby of mine. I’d like to get into metal casting (lost wax, etc), but I don’t have the space for it and handling molten metal in the inner city isn’t gonna make you popular with the police (or fire dept.), so I stick to 3D printing for the moment.
Machining. Have a small metalworking shop home, doing mostly lens conversions and some acoustic pieces.
Some film photography too, although less of that in the last few years.
Parenting my other full-time job. Rewarding and exhausting in equal measure; I’ll quickly say it is the most meaningful work I’ve ever done, and I was never someone who had to be a parent.
Weight lifting I see a trainer once a week to check form/adjust programming/stay motivated, and go by myself once a week. I’ve progressed from stability to hypertrophy and am starting on power. This is huge progress after having my shoulder dislocated.
Cooking right now I love grilling because I can be outside and cook for my family. I’d like to do more with the instant pot (brisket!) and learn how to cook some entrees indoors for wintertime.
Video games playing Ori and the Blind Forest right now. Heroes of the Storm is my go-to for multiplayer.
+1 for parenting. Its astonishing how hard and how fun it is to nurture a young person and their young mind!
I do photography, board games, floorball and hiking.
Few things are as refreshing as just walking a few kilometers after work :-)
Photography is my hobby. Which is kind of fun, because there’s a famous introductory book in Swedish for photography titled “Foto - min hobby”, which I always thought was super corny. I didn’t have a hobby - I made art!
After a while I realized I’m fine with calling what I do a hobby.
I used to do a lot more stuff, but now my only hobby is making music. I play guitar, bass and synths and lately I’ve been focusing on electronic music.
My latest project is making Synthwave under the Velvet System 82 alias, all the sounds are ITB but I’m looking to also add my hardware synths to future tracks.
I have on hold my Surf Rock/Instrumental project where I play guitar and bass, plus sequenced drums or synths.
For those not into music production: ITB is “in the box”, which is when you use only the computer instead of physical instruments, effects, etc.
I really like the surf rock stuff! I’m not a huge synthwave fan, but it sounds good too.
Glad you liked it! I’ve been a fan of Surf Rock and 60s instrumentals in general since many years ago, so I started making my own in some point :D
Programming - github
Photography - photos
Debating
Hacktivist
Traveling
Please share!
Not as exciting as you might think.
The last Hacktivist thing i had done was helping the employees of a company while they went on strikes and helped them fight online against the company through different campaigns.
I used at one point mdk3 to generate 100’s of fake AP’s as a form of protesting, with AP’s named like this “pay your staff better” and “stop the threats”, all the customers could see this in the building.
Its nice to be able to help in someway.
Just a side note that group won and are now getting fair wages.
That is incredibly interesting! Bravo to you!
Where was this, if I might ask?
In Berlin, Germany.
And thanks, the employees deserve the biggest applause they had to go through a lot of horrible experiences before they won.
Its worth looking around to see if there is anything going on near you, if you have technical skills you can donate to a good cause, even if its a few hours.
Nice! What kind of debating?
Any, when the rare chance comes up, find it hard to find someone who has a level mind and doesn’t take it personally.
I have recently enjoyed/hated the recent “Munk Debate” on Political Correctness, Stephen Fry was amazing and incredibly articulate. If i had to choose subjects it would be on the Human Condition, politics, society and consumerism. What do you like debating about Todd?
The debate you mentioned is certainly good! I actually enjoy debating (in the competitive debating sense) about things that aren’t controversial, because then I can consider the strategic side of the debate more easily rather than getting caught up in the emotional side.
I like almost any topic, and usually find that I only don’t enjoy debates when something is wrong with the debate itself, e.g. I dislike one-sided debates (an extreme example being “This house would make murder legal”) since they’re boring/frustrating, and I also dislike debates where participants don’t keep within the ‘spirit of the debate’; i.e. make personal attacks or obviously wrong but hard to disprove claims.
Yeah i am very very sick and tired of the personal attacks in debates, it does nothing other than show the person has no ability to continue the discussion or use rational thinking. Politics is so rife with it now, its no longer about learning and progressing the discussion between groups.
I listen to a lot of music – all kinds of music. Pop, “contemporary classical”, metal, avant-garde / improvisational, hip-hop, electronic, you name it. I find it mentally stimulating, yet relaxing, and the fairly abstract nature of the art allows me to choose how invested I want to be into listening at any point in time.
Otherwise, I’ll occasionally snap a few photos (but don’t consider it a hobby per se), and I try to keep up with going to the gym. This year, I’ve also started working towards finishing my BSc in Physics.
Apart from hobby programming, my main hobby to get out is rock climbing. I just moved back to mainland Europe from London and hope I get to do some nice trips around the continent over the next year.
Also, like whjms learning Dutch. I’ve been learning French for about a year and switched to Dutch as I moved to Amsterdam (which is really hard because everyone keeps speaking English to me).
In the evenings I like to unwind reading with a blanket and a cup of tea. Currently reading Hawking’s A Brief History of Time. I’m always reading something, probably 70:30 non-fiction:fiction.
My most practical “hobby” is cooking. I need to eat, and preparing food is more fun and frugal than eating out all the time, which is one of my worst habits acquired in London.
My two hobbies are woodturning and playing the guitar.
Guitar I was a music major in college, and I studied classical guitar between the ages of 12 and 24. It was fun, but I became burnt out by the end of it. I started playing a little here and there a few years ago.
Woodturning I find that after a day of living in the abstract (programming) doing something with my hands is extremely rewarding. I started with “flat” woodworking, but then I fell in love with turning this January and have been doing that ever since. I mostly make pens, bottle stoppers and bowls, but I’d really like to get into segmented turning.
I’ve semi-recently discovered the wonderful world of woodturning videos on YouTube.
Frank Horwath has a ton of videos. Here’s one with a segmented bowl, which I found fascinating.
I love Frank’s channel! His little bits of stop motion are so fun.
Check out Kyle Toth as well. He does some nice segmented vases. Here’s a mini vase he made
That sounds lovely! Woodturning is something id really like to get into as soon as i have a stable place to get a lathe.
ping me on twitter, same as this user name, when you’re in the market for one. Happy to provide any advice I can!
I feel so basic writing them out, but:
I recently started bouldering and climbing regularly, and I’ve enjoyed it thoroughly. One of the things I’ve found most interesting, is that at a basic level, it’s a problem solving activity. I spend most of my workday problem solving in code, and then I can hit the climbing gym in the evening and work on a totally different kind of problem! It seems to have helped my mindset and kind of changed the way I approach thinking about solutions at work.
That’s my favourite part too! I especially love how problems can just open up once I learn/master a new move.
No such thing as too often
I sprained my right hand’s middle finger; and 36 year old me doesn’t heal like 26 year old me did. 😖
I stand corrected for my silly comments, sorry to hear it.
I’d normally agree with your silly comment! Cheers mate.
I brew beer, I’ve been a craft beer fan for a long time (10+ years) and about two years ago I got a beginners kit from my partner, it escalated quite fast and now I brew 8 - 12 times a year in a small all in one brew system.
I’ve mainly done clone recipes, but recently started designing my own ones.
I love how brewing your own beer enriches the experience of drinking beer, just as cooking makes you enjoy food more because you understand and participate in the process, ingredients, work…
Reading has been a long time hobby of mine. I have been doing archery for the past two years as well. It’s nice in that it strengthens your back muscles, which is a good balance combined with work in front of a computer. But archery is asymmetrical for your body as a whole, so you must do other stuff to balance out.
baking bread, gaming (not the hardcore kind, mostly single player stuff), cycling (want to get more on this), trying to start with game development too. trying to pick up other things too, such as fermented drinks (e.g. homebrewing) and whittling (my issue with this is that i live in a flat and it generates a lot of “debris”).
No hobby? I must be taking up space for a few others… My non-work time is spent on:
I recently had the same thought. I sat down and realised that because I love programming, but it’s also my job, so if my job burns me out it directly affects the hobby part of programming (because I get unmotivated to work), I thought I also haven’t lots of hobbies. There are however things I like to do, and like in general.. I think I can call these hobbies, although they are small things that make bad times good and good times great. I’m into music.. More than I used to be. I listen to music everyday, on my way to work on my way back, when I work and home. But I started digging lately more into specific genres I kind of fell in love with.. So much to the point I thought about learning how to produce music, as a hobby.. Besides that I play video games. I consider watching series a hobby too, for the same reason I consider music a hobby because I tackle it differently than just watching it. I really get into them and explore them and relate to them, trying to connect to what the creators of the series are trying to show, the ideas and situations they show and the way they portray it - what are the things they give depth to, what are things they mark as unimportant, even camera angles, everything. It’s also refreshing for my mind. So I guess these are it :)
I boulder two to three times a week, which probably makes it one of my most significant hobbies. I read voraciously. I like cooking and making cocktails a lot too, tho my current kitchen setup is poor enough and my current job takes enough mental bandwidth that I do not do nearly as many meals as I’d like. I have a pretty extensive container garden on my balcony.
When I Cash Out (tm) I’m going to move to the country and build a pizza oven and permaculture garden. Hopefully this is sooner rather than later.
Climbing, keep my fit and sane. With my new business I don’t have time for much hobbies, but I promised myself to always make time for climbing and even manage to keep doing climbing competition and use conference travelling to climb more rock. This is definitely my best way to disconnect from everything else and it’s also a good reason to meet up with old and new friends.
Besides programming: cycling, music (listening, going to concerts), reading (mostly news & commentaries), enjoying some good shows with my wife, cooking.
I used to meditate, but somehow that got in a slump in recent years. But recreational cycling is something that I enjoy a lot. I recently moved from Germany to The Netherlands. In Germany I used to cycle an hour everyday (back and forth to work). I have to work that into my routine in a different way, now that I am too close to work. Though I did get a frame seat for our 4yo daughter last weekend. We went for a ride and she enjoyed it intensively, so we’ll do that more often ;).
chess.
I cycle 3 times a week, it really helps me lose my thoughts. Apart from that reading / electronics, soldering is a lot of fun :)
I used to love hiking. I still do, but with 1 year old twins, our hiking opportunities are rather limited. Nevertheless, I still consider it a hobby, just one I don’t have the opportunity to enjoy at the moment. In due time, we’ll throw ourselves into the woods as a family, and all shall be well.
We’ll find a nice, hidden place, take out the dice and play some D&D. Because RPG is another hobby of mine, and the two can be combined quite well!
In ages past, my hobbies were hacking on my personal projects, but since then, I learned that hobbies that take me outside are much more fun. They allow me to recharge, it’s a different scenery, not the same old stuff all day in front of monitors. Going outside is refreshing. 20 year old me would have disagreed, but thankfully I’m not that guy anymore =)
Road cycling. I ride outside during the summer and ride on Zwift during the winter (starting now in October). I follow a training plan but it can be hard to stick to it when you have work and exams.
I’m still trying to find a personal project that combines cycling/Zwift and programming/tech.
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Webmastering and mechanical keyboards.
I race motorcycles. I found that giving 100% of my attention to the handling of a machine to keep me safe is a great way to relax.
I started to get my hands into mechanics as well, though the sheer amount of tools and equipment needed to do it right is astounding.
I tend to binge read, mostly Sci-Fi (the expanse series is great!), sociology, history, philosophy, politics, economy, and detective stories.
I’m a modern human so I also binge watch TV-shows, usually when I feel sorry about myself and I don’t have the motivation to do something more constructive.
Actually nowadays the only thing I call a hobby, really, is fansubbing. I started recently and for the first time I feel like I have a proper hobby, besides programming all my life and watching YouTube videos.
Fansubbing Japanese to English, mostly radio programs and so on. Which is much more time consuming and difficult than fansubbing scripted content like anime or so. In radio people speak faster, less clearer, go on tangents, don’t finish thoughts, interrupt each other, speak over each other, speak slurredly, speak whilst laughing, speak in jargon and in short form, etc. etc.
I’m still inexperienced so I’m not the fastest, but translating 25-30 mins of content took me 6 solid hours. I’ve done another 6 hours on timing now (matching translation to the sound) and I’ve only gotten through 15 mins. So this stuff is time consuming work.
It’s all worth it though cause I’m enjoying the show over and over as I translate and time, and I get to share my favorite moments with others who enjoy similar content, but don’t know Japanese.
After moving to NYC, I fell deeply into the art film world. Film is one of the most consistently thought-igniting, beautiful, and direct mediums of art. The relentless pace of film screenings here keeps me busy, and sometimes exhausted.
I also work on Wikipedia articles. I mostly create/edit cultural articles and copy-edit. It’s enormously gratifying. (You can see how many people visited your articles, for example.) I have also worked on automating some aspects of the editing process. I took a database of film articles and made a tool to generate stubs, for example. There’s a great deal of work to be done and lots of work especially for people who can program.
I take photos mostly when I travel. Getting a beautiful shot is thrilling and satisfying. But trying to practice photography respectfully and unobtrusively, especially in other countries, is challenging. I have mixed feelings about photography.
I do long distance cycling once in a while. It’s amazing that a human can go a hundred miles in one day, powered by clif bars and gatorade.
Any movie theaters recommendations in NYC?
Plenty! Film Society of Lincoln Center for contemporary and older films from around the world. They’ve got extensive series, retrospectives, and festivals all year long. Their theaters are also the most comfortable. I loved their International Melodrama, new Latin American, and Luchino Visconti series this year.
Film Forum is like the reliable old man in the bunch. Mostly older art movies, with some newer ones too. The screens are small and the seats are iffy, but their programming is excellent. Their Ingmar Bergman retrospective this year was bomb.
Metrograph and Quad Cinema are the new kids on the block. Metrograph shows movies that are less well known, but also very good. Metrograph’s recent anime series was excellent. Quad is mostly for new cinema and a few older movies. They have great Q&As.
MoMA and the Museum of the Moving Image show tons of films all year along. MoMa is mostly about lesser well known 20th century films from around the world.
Videology and Nitehawk Cinema for the midnight movie crowd. Videology often has movie/food combos - like Marie Antoinette + champaigne/cake.
Spectacle Theater is the smallest of the bunch. A co-op-run room in Williamsburg with a truly zany program (Argentinian video experiments, North Korean cinema, etc).
This is going to sound really lame, but the answer for me is: none. I work, I take care of my family, I go to sleep. That’s it. It’s been years since I’ve had time for anything else. Eventually, my child will grow up and work will end after I retire. I’ll revisit the subject of hobbies then.
Don’t forget to exercise a bit, the older you will thank you.
Adding a 7min cardio to the morning routine can already made a good difference in terms of energy levels and fitness if it’s done every day.
One can even exercise while watching and playing with the kid. Many of my family, friends, and I can get plenty of cardio just being outdoors with them. Only problem is they seem to have unlimited cardio. We don’t haha.
I used to learn more about computer science in my spare time, reading papers, playing with niche and research systems (cutting edge and ancient), etc. especially w.r.t. programming language theory.
This lead to me getting a scholarship and quitting my Web dev job to do a PhD; hence it’s now not a hobby, either because I’m getting paid to do it, or because none of my time is really “spare” now (depending on how cynical I’m feeling ;) ).
I also like cycling, not as a sport but just getting outside and exploring (e.g. “pootling”).
I’m into heavy metal, so I keep an eye out for local gigs and go to a few festivals every year (it’s a great way to catch up with old friends who’ve spread out over the country/world).
I’ve got quite into real ale/craft beer and cider too, but that’s largely a coping mechanism for being British, where alcohol is a large component of social life, but the ‘standard’ drinks are horrible lagers and fizzy pop cider. I’ve tried making home brew a couple of times too, but my chocolate stout tasted more like farm runoff than a delicious dessert :(
I work as a software developer, and have these things that I consider hobbies at the moment, but which aren’t always the best at getting me away from the screen:
Writing programs using tools that I do not use at work, and shipping said programs. I don’t do it every day, or even necessarily every week, but there have been times where doing something that’s mostly alien to what I do at work has been a nice way to remind me what other types of programming. For quite a few years, Go was my langauge of choice for this, nowadays I’ve tried out Erlang, and Lua, but I may be trying out F#. (I work in C# and Javascript)
Video game design. This covers a lot of angles, from watching youtubers like Mark Brown, Extra Credits, and various GDC talks (which can be a gold mine), to participating in a few game jams, to playing various indie games to get a small sense of what’s out there.
Computing history: I like keeping up with websites like The Digital Antiquarian, or books like Coders at Work, and Windows 95 Unleashed, as well as learning tools like awk and sed, and/or reading about things like COBOL and MUMPS. Lobsters is often a nice way to find information on things like this. Generally, I like understanding where computing has come from as a whole, and the history of things like the Commodore 64, or the PDP-11 can be fascinating. You can also research this sort of topic at a library, if you want to get away from a screen.
Things that I could consider minor hobbies that are good at getting me away from the screen:
Reading in general, taking long walks, spending time with friends and family, table top gaming (of both the role playing and more general types), and/or finding new places to eat out with friends.
Audio production (music, podcasts, live comedy), stand up comedy, photography, and cooking. AMA!
Nobody else said it, so martial arts tricking and dance.
Martial Arts Tricking - I like to explain this as a “youtube sport” even though it got its start in the 1980’s North American Sport Karate Association (NASKA). It’s a combination of all the flips, kicks, and tricks you can imagine from all the various martial arts disciplines, flips from gymnastics and capoeira, and some homegrown tricks. It exploded in popularity when YouTube became a thing.
Dance - mostly hip hop styles (bboying, popping, locking, etc.), but I have a strong appreciation for the technique in ballet and the aesthetic of just about any kind of dance.
How did you go about starting to learn hip hop dance?
To be honest, YouTube tutorials and, when I was a student, the hip hop/bboying student organization (Floor Lovers Illinois). It’s where I met a lot of friends. There was also a few chances to perform with the Asian orgs on campus.
If I were to get back into it now, I’d look around for community spots (like this post to r/bboy) and go on a regular basis, try to make friends even if I suck and I’m out of practice.
If I were just starting, you should probably do the same, but I’d be pretty hesitant without some sense of rhythm and movement. I’m already hesitant. Take this with a grain of salt though - I was just telling my wife that I’d grind in RPGs to be 3x the level that I’d need to beat the next boss. You should do as I say and not as I do in this case - probably just go to the sessions and learn the basics. Breakers are generally friendly and like to share the culture.
Other styles have similar scenes, as well. And if you want, you can just find a dance studio to learn choreography at, which is more or less a different culture than the hip hop scene. If you’re in Chicago and want to ask more, feel free to send me a message.
Thank you for your helpful reply!
Kyudo I used to do medieval Archery and picked up Japanese Archery 4 years ago and do it intensively. For a lot of people, it has the air of being a little bit religious, but I purely practice it as a sport and my vehicle for interest in Japan. I like it because you train in a group, but it’s an individual sport and you can move at your own pace.
Generally, I find having a set time for training helps me actually doing it and a group helps even more.
Kyudo (or archery in general) for me is concentration without thought, which is quite different to my usual endeavors.
Archery is a whole-body sport and also helped a ton for my back. You have to stand upright without moving an inch, which is surprisingly hard in the beginning. Also a reason why many archers have surprisingly strong legs. (Especially the Kyudo ones, as, additionally, we need to kneel)
Functional training Just to keep me in condition, but I also enjoy it. Strict rule for me: no music, no nothing, just training.
SCUBA-Diving Let’s see how long that one lasts - I recently got my diving license and started. So far, it has been fun, but I’ve only been diving in lakes around the city.
Snowboarding Infrequently, but I do love it a lot.
Generally sports I may not look like it, but I try out sports frequently and am usually active on holidays. Currently, I’m spending my time on La Reunion, mostly hiking.
Recreational coding I don’t practice it a lot lately, but I do write useless stuff for fun. A reimplementation of
sl, an embedding framework for JRuby into JRuby… nothing that can ever become very useful, which is why a lot of those things are never finished.Gaming I do enjoy a little game or two, on- or offline. Currently, I spend most of my time in Destiny 2 or Titanfall 2.
Cooking Well, it’s a great skill to have and it tastes good :).
FOSS work Yes, I do consider that a hobby and put a strict boundary to my job. That includes running conferences.
Swing Dancing (specifically Lindy Hop). There’s a surprisingly large (and very welcoming) scene in Seattle. I started off just taking lessons, eventually turned into a way to lose weight and eventually moved on to helping run events. I’d definitely recommend it if you get a chance to try it out.
Github: programming for fun, that is. Rust is particularly enjoyable in this context because it lets me do really small incremental steps on a project that interests me, and as soon as it builds, it runs, usually correctly, and I can call it a night and turn in.
PDFs: there’s always enough fun stuff gettiing posted to open access journals. FInd something, download, read, move on.
Reading more generally. Going through Charlie Stross’s oeuvre at the moment.
Cycling - it’s hard to fit in by I have a good bicycle commute.
Want to do: CAD and 3d printing. Jiu Jitsu. Camping.
Music – If you’re interested in listening, my favorite tracks are Un Deux, Dream State, Smoothie, Robber, Citron, 10:02, Amber, and Noted.
There are some clunkers in there (and the most recent track Auger is probably the most unusual style .. almost like a southern rock?). If you’re looking for a faster paced song, check out Spelunk, Shun, Grendel, or Return of the Crumbs. If you want something a little slower, check out Citron, Pony, Amber, or Robber. There’s a decent mix of stuff in there.
Oh yeah, I also ride my motorcycle a bit.
Homelab!
I really like cooking, I’m trying to learn more about techniques and stuff. Also I’m interested in knowing more about beers, i.e. types, brewing methods, and so.
I have too many, but most of them are not that time consuming so I can stay up with all of them. I’m in Tokyo, by the way, and love showing friends/acquaintances/strangers some things off the beaten path. Feel free to hit me up if you’re ever in town.
Judo - Twice per week, fantastic exercise, fun and challenging, not a huge time commitment, and my dojo community is great.
Weight training - Time-efficient exercise and time to catch up on audio books. It’s fun to get consistent, measurable strength gains as well. Performance in the gym is also a good proxy for how well I’ve been eating and sleeping recently.
Reading - Audio books, ebooks, and sometimes even physical books. Mostly non-fiction lately, but I go on fiction binges as well sometimes. I’m also starting an online book club so I can share thoughts with people about books that my friend groups don’t read.
Fantasy baseball - I’m very competitive, and fantasy baseball is a great mental challenge. I made a few grand on daily fantasy when it wasn’t so sharp, but now focus on season-long. I play in 4-5 small money leagues yearly and win a good bit more than I lose.
Baseball - Not a time-efficient exercise, but a good excuse to get outside and under the open sky for a few hours at a time.
Video games - I’m not currently playing any games competitively, but I’ve been in the top percentile of players in a few different games. I play more narrative experiences recently (Yakuza 0 being my favorite of the year so far).
Attending live music shows - Experiencing a small (20-300 person) show is something I’ve enjoyed from when I was 15. Anything from pop-rock to hip-hop to ska to metal. The next show I’ll go to is a death metal festival at the end of this month (Asakusa Death Fest).
Baking It’s like programming, but with matter. And also everything is rife with side effects.
Running I find running very meditative. I did have to learn how to not gas myself immediately.
Other than that, various entertainment like books, TV, games. I keep meaning to read more. I’ve largely stopped programming in my free time and may come back to that.
I write guitar music. Here are some terrible recordings
Bikes. All kinds of bikes.
It started with looking for a better way to get around the city. Then came the road bike, long rides, a race and cyclocross. I bike toured for a few months last year and this year has seen me on the trails with my mountain bike as often as possible.
It’s a great way to get around and a perfect speed at which to see the world. It’s not for everyone but it’d be cool if everyone tried it.
Other than that, photography (which has come from wanting to take decent pictures of the things I see on bike rides) and music.
I think one of my hobbies may be finding more hobbies, as I have a lot of them. Tabletop roleplaying (D&D but different rules/settings), hiking, camping, leatherworking, miniature figurine painting (think Warhammer, but these days it’s mostly boardgame minis that I’m painting), boardgaming, baking (mostly sourdough), canning and preserving, brewing beer and kombucha, and I’ve most recently got into wood working.
Running, which I got more serious about 4 years ago.
Board gaming with family and friends.
Craft beer, I brewed beer for a number of years but it is so easy to find a variety of really good options now that it is difficult to motivate myself to brew a batch much anymore.
I want to learn to play guitar, something I dabbled with over the years but never pursued.
I am incredibly busy with my kids activities so I do more as the kids begin to be able to take themselves to activities. I used to program a lot at home and build web applications but I have started to leave most of my computing activities at work now. Occasionally I will mess around with some code, but I mostly try to spend time with people more often.
I also try to read books not related to my field, I try to read everyday over lunch or before bedtime.
This possibly also counts as work related, but the one activity outside of work I routinely spend time on is Toastmasters, which is a non-profit organization focused on developing soft skills (officially “leadership”) and public speaking.
My club focuses on debate and does one or more every meeting. For the debates you have to come up with arguments for things you don’t necessarily agree with because the sides for the impromptu debates are randomly chosen, and that can be quite a challenge. We always go out to dinner afterwards too.
If you are around San Francisco south bay on a Tuesday night please come visit, the more the merrier.
What? No, no time for hobbies with a 2yo kid.
Instead, I’m teaching my kid all my hobbies: baking and drawing.
Biking I ride for fun, exercise, and transportation. Skiing I try to get at least 50 days a year. Running Mostly trail running, but some road/sidewalk, too.
Coding Mainly on my own tiny projects, but I also contribute to some of the open source projects I use.
Reading I’ll often have one fiction book and one non-fiction book in progress at the same time. Non-fiction depends on whatever I’m curious about at the time, usually math, science, or technology related, though most recently I’ve been reading self-help books on motivation and getting things done. The fiction is usually sci-fi, fantasy, or horror, but other genres, too, especially if a book is recommended to me. I particularly like short stories.
Photography Haven’t been doing this much lately, but I’ll often take my camera along on errands and other bike rides. I’m not great, but it’s fun. 500px SmugMug
Cooking I’ve been slacking on this, too. For a while I tried veganism, and cooked quite a bit, but after giving that up I’ve gone back to making the same boring meals most nights.
Running D&D for a couple of groups and more recently, minatures painting. I realised some time ago that I dodn’t really do much outside of work or work related things, and made an effort to dedicate my time to something that I wasn’t being paid to do. I’d still like to find other hobbies though.
Hobbies? I live in the burbs, I rent, and I don’t have spare money. I’m just trying to keep my head down, try not to make too many stupid decisions (which seems quite difficult), and if I’m really lucky try to save an emergency fund before the next external event comes along to fuck my life up.
I often go from hobby to hobby. In the past, I’ve tinkered with electronics, reading lots of programming topics (especially language theory), and more gaming than I care to admit. Lately, I’ve been:
Brewing both beer and now wine/cider. I started with a kit, then faked my way through a couple of recipes. Now I’ve got 2 beers conditioning in bottles and just finished reading my third book about the hobby. Hoping to finally get to the point where I can make something drinkable and dial in my consistency. I’ve also got a muscadine wine from some grapes we picked, a Welches concentrate wine (with $6 in it in total), and an apple cider from some leftover apple juice.
Reading is something I’m trying to get into. I used to read a lot (of technical books) when I was younger, but I find myself sticking to digital media more often, which I’d like to cut down on. With the brewing hobby and books I’ve read, I’m beginning to really like reading physical books again. I just need to find a library nearby so that this hobby doesn’t get so expensive.
Kitten care is a new one for me. We’ve had a kitten before, but my fiancee took care of him mostly. With our new kitten, I’ve been trying to take more of a role in taking care of her. Still learning, but so far it’s been fun.
Good luck with the Welch’s wine. Have you made it before? I did a batch and while it was a “success” in that it “produced alcohol”, it also tasted like… well, grape juice. (Also, I hope you didn’t add any acid: my second batch I tried a bit, and it ended up tasting like stomach juice. Yuck).
Now, if you haven’t tried EdWort’s Apfelwein - THAT is a cheap and tasty treat. I need to make 10 gallons of that next time I get a chance. I love that stuff.
Thanks! I’ve never made it before but the little bit I’ve tasted as it’s been fermenting has been good, albeit very sweet still. I didn’t add acid to this one, but that’s good to know that it becomes overwhelming very quickly. How much did you add to yours / how many gallons?
I think that my cider that’s fermenting is pretty close to apfelwine, at least based on the homebrewtalk post I just found (which only said apple juice, sugar, and yeast for the ingredients). Definitely excited to give that one a try!
Ice Hockey is the main way I deal with the stressors of working a full-time+ job. I play in a beer-league team and watch plenty of it on TV.
Finishing my BSc, which consumes the most of my time outside of work, is not really a hobby but something I find rewarding when I do well (something I can’t seem to do as a programmer; I’m a terrible programmer).
Also, specifically not Programming. At one time maybe, but it hasn’t been for a while. It’s hard to enjoy something you have to do everyday.
I like to go on bike rides with my kids. They’re 6 and 3, so I have a kid trailer I put them in. Recently I’ve started a daily meditation practice, which has been very rewarding.
I like cycling and reading. Sometimes I also write, but not often. I also am into photography, though lately I have not had much time.
I’m currently reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz, recommended by my girlfriend.
Whenever I’ve felt like it’s hard to articulate my hobbies, it’s often been linked to a sense of inferiority comparing what I do with my time and what I feel the person I’m talking to might do with theirs. So just a note to say: I really think most of what most people do day to day is absent of moral or social value–and that’s gotta be okay! It’s no more noble to read Game of Thrones than watch it, by virtue of medium alone (though you might personally like one way more than the other). And making something at home doesn’t bring anything more to the world than buying that thing (though you might get more satisfaction from one than the other).
Anyway, I find it encouraging to strip away normative weight from things-in-themselves this way. Then, it’s easier to build up what I want / ought to do with my time by considering things like what character traits I want to develop, and–most importantly–who I want to be surrounded by.
Hope that helps someone :)
I love making things. Two major outlets.
Cooking. I’ve always enjoyed this even if I’m not a great cook. My background is super anglo but my partner’s family is Malaysian Chinese, which has widened my cooking range considerably.
Tech. This one is a bit vague because it’s an ever-shifting pile of sand. I make little things around the house to solve local problems; I grew up with a soldering iron in hand and added a 3d printer a couple of years ago. I’ve gone as far as turning things into products every now and then, eg. the Drag’n’Derp cartridge for Game Boy and the Saturn Satiator for the Sega Saturn. Lately I’ve been making keyboards (for typing) and as soon as I’m happy with one I’ll stop and do something else.
Reverse engineering. Hardware in particular, retro tech in particular. I count this as making, because it’s almost always in service of making something (eg. the Saturn Satiator is entirely dependent on some extensive reversing).
When I think about it my hobbies look a lot like my day job… except for the cooking, sadly!
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Collecting mechanical keyboards, gaming, web dev and all things cyberpunk.
Weightlifting, running, cooking, learning 中文, and shredding drums. I’d like to branch out and try some new things, though, so I’m looking forward to reading through these comments
Major: reading, video games, board games, movies.
Minor: electronics repair, weeding (not preventative care for the lawn, just weeding it. incredibly enjoyable).
It used to be drums.
I was a teacher, and I played all over Europe and sometimes further afield. There’s no money in it though, and eating with the homeless isn’t fun (believe me), so I started a career in programming.
Nowadays I write Haskell and Elm, and I travel a whole bunch.
Wow, that’s quite the change! How did you find a way to write Haskell and Elm professionally?
Thanks :)
With Elm/Haskell, it started by me essentially sneaking in projects/tools that I wrote in my spare time at a previous day job, and then joining my current day job that already had a couple of Haskell projects — though mostly this company does Clojure/ClojureScript.
I have three side projects, all of them in Haskell with the Yesod framework, with the more complicated UI parts written in Elm. One of those projects has been making a bit of money for over a year. Another project is due to launch next week, and the third project is still in stealth mode awaiting VC money.
To some degree I’ve had to grow my own Haskell/Elm jobs. One critical aspect of this was to stop flirting with these languages, and to just go out and build a real product. Counterintuitively, I think it’s not constructive to experiment with something like Haskell by doing some trivial toy program, but this is the approach people appear to be taking most often. I think the benefits of these languages compound over time, so the bigger the project is, the more benefits you reap.
Travel: I’ve spend about 4 - 6 months of each of the last 3 years working remotely and traveling. Staying in new cities for 2 - 3 months at a time. I foresee doing it for at least the next decade until I have kids. I just enjoy wandering around a city, getting the feel for it, dabbling in the language, observing the fashion.
Exercise: The first thing I do when landing in a new country/city is find a gym, and if I feel safe enough, I cycle as my main mode of transport. Started doing Starting Strength years ago, but my latest exercise obsession is the rowing machine.
Tennis: I don’t play while traveling, but at home I play a couple times a week.
Board Games: I’ve been a gamer all my life, but I need time away from the screen so board games are perfect for this. I love the social environment board games bring. The fact that board gaming is becoming more popular every year makes it easy to introduce it to new friends, form social groups while on the road, while maintaining existing ones at home.
Other than that I wet my feet in other fly-by-night activities but nothing serious. This thread has opened my eyes to what is out there.
Like a few of you, I climb, hike and play D&D.
I also slackline and do the travel rings. If any of you are in Los Angeles, I would recommend coming down to the travel rings in Santa Monica on Sundays. Lots of people doing acrobatics and circus tricks of all sorts: acro yoga, juggling, poi, capoeira, slacklining, and much more. Sometimes people bring speakers down and do DJ sets on the beach. Pretty interesting crowd.
Random video from youtube that has a sample of what you can find there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VplWlHfcPuo