What is something like a hobby or skill that you belive almost anybody should give a try, and what makes your suggestion so good compared to other things?
i feel like this is a descent question i guess.
3D printing. Suddenly you are able to fix small plastic shit in your house which would otherwise mean throwing out the whole goddamn thing. Best feeling ever to repair and save stuff.
Biking.
Moving under your own power has so many benefits:
- It’s fun
- It’s cheap (or can be, to be fair)
- It’s good for your health
- It’s good for the planet
I started cycling to commute about a year ago and it’s been such a wonderful thing for my mental and physical health, not to mention my bank account. Beware that you may get sucked down the Not Just Bikes rabbit hole if you’re not careful and end up becoming a walkable/bikable cities advocate as I have.
It’s fun
My knees disagree but each to their own ;)
I cringe watching someone struggling to turn the pedals when they are riding a multi geared bike.
Cycling is good for the knees, if you’re not staining to turn the pedals. That’s why gearing exists.
Use the gears to make the pedaling easier.
Crochet
Pros
- Documented mental health benefits
- Cheap to start, can learn from online tutorials
- Easier than knitting
- Make cool toys, clothes, home accessories, whatever you want
- Get to smush yarn into your face on a regular basis
Cons
- Fibre crafts gateway drug
I love the smushing! Find it so hard to learn though
Sounds like you have the most important part of the hobby down already, at least!
(see my reply to the other comment for various maybe-helpful links)
I like crochet, even though I’m really bad at it. It’s very peaceful (unless I’m counting stitches, then it’s a constant fight against my ADHD), and I have a bunch of cool scarves now.
I think that’s part of why I suggested it over knitting, you can do the complex projects with the counting and the actual effort OR you can just mindlessly crochet a long scarf or a bunch of cotton washclothes and end up with something practical.
Knitting is a lot slower and also less suitable for some of those small projects like washcloths so unless it’s basic garter stitch you pretty much know you’re gonna have to concentrate at least a little bit.
My girlfriend does both, and it’s definitely amazing how much faster crochet is! Like, “oh, here’s a giant amigurumi dragon I whipped up in a week,” or “here’s a poncho made over the weekend for our vacation,” with crochet, versus “I have to frog 4 weeks of work because I slipped a stitch and didn’t notice.” Granted, she’s much better at crochet (by her admission), but knitting seems tough. Love the stuff you can make with it though.
Haha, yep that sounds about right! I do love being able to do both, some things you can do with knitting you just can’t do in crochet especially if you need to create a nice drapey fabric. Being bistitchual is the best of both worlds!
Any online tutorial that could help me get started you recommend?
Well, I don’t want to be That Person but technically I made a (long) video for total crochet beginners that I know quite a few people have used to great success. It’s frontloaded with theory though and more for people like me who learn by understanding the “why” of what they’re doing.
If you prefer to do it in shorter chunks or without all the tedious theory, which let’s face it most people do, I’ve heard really good things about this Bella Coco series which has, um, slightly more views than mine 😅
There’s a fairly new (aren’t they all) crochet community over at !crochet@lemmy.ca (direct link) that seems very nice so far, I’m sure they’d love to help with your first attempts too!
Cooking is a very nice, relaxing hobby and you also get to eat some good food!
It’s also very useful and an easy way to impress people.
noted
It’s extremely difficult for me to cook regularly anymore, I just don’t have the energy. When I do choose to, though, I make it a fun event and it’s so satisfying. Put on some music, drink some beers and go to town.
I made Chinese noodles from scratch a while back and while they were SOOOOO GOOD, it was so labor intensive that I would only do it for fun and not to satiate myself lol. They were nice and bouncy noodles, cut a little smaller than chow fun.
Learning a new language. You learn a bit about how languages work, understand other cultures a bit better, usually learn new vocabulary for your native language, understand the relationship between different languages, learn the roots of loan words and generally helps your brain stay healthy, even by only studying the basics.
what lauguage would you recommend for people who only know english?
Not OP, but I’ve asked myself this as well. I think it depends on where you live and what you want out of your language learning experience. If your goal is to learn something more useful in everyday life and you live in the southern US, Spanish is a great option. If you’re from Canada, French is probably the most useful. German and Mandarin are useful in the business world, but the latter is significantly harder to learn. If you’re not worried about maximizing the utility of what you learn, Norwegian is considered one of the easiest languages for English speakers, and let’s be real, Norway is awesome.
It’s more important that you stick with whatever you choose though. That’s the part I’ve struggled with.
Public Speaking
You never know when you’ll have to say something in front of a crowd.
I’m so sorry, but I have to reply to this, I misread this as public spanking, and have been giggling to myself for about 15 minutes.
Apologies.
How dare you, you dirty dirty child. You have a dirty, filthy mind. You should be…
Wait, what were we talking about?
Basic knitting. It’s a great way to relax in the evenings. And makes for good gifts.
At work, I have a reputation for being the guy who never shuts up about trying to get new people into scuba diving. If there are 2 or more divers at the lunch table I honestly feel a little bad for everybody else. The cost of getting trained and renting or buying all your gear can scare people away, but I would at least strongly recommend that anybody on an island vacation or cruise at least try a “discover Scuba” class. You’ll learn everything you need to know to not die by watching a quick video, and working in a pool, then you get to go have an amazing dive in the ocean with an instructor.
Thinking of learning sign language…
Self-hosting. You learn how to use Linux, security, managing services, and after all that you have your own little ship on the internet. After all that you gain a massive understanding of how the internet and the technology you use daily work and run (to an extent).
Mindfulness and Breathwork! Mindfulness is an incredibly valuable practice that can be a game changer for mental health and anxiety. Breathwork goes a long way as a fundamental technique.
There are a variety of free tier apps like InsightTimer that have beginner courses in meditation. Working to create space in your life between things like work and family give you breathing room. Starting to live in the moment allows you to step out of the anxiety of the past and worry of the future.
I’m not saying mindfulness can’t have serious benefits. However, I would caution anyone who’s into it to read the book McMindfulness. A lot of the “science” behind it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, there can be genuine drawbacks to it, and it’s often used in unethical ways–like to make CEOs of ruthless companies more able to shove aside their feelings of guilt, or to sharpen the minds of soldiers for killing.
Wait, there’s people making money off of this shit‽ Like, my therapist and I work on mindfulness, but for me that just means being present in my body (not escaping into books/games/videos), considering my wants and needs, and listening to my emotions (even when they’re unpleasant). Is there some other definition? I like talking to people about it, but I’ll have to be more specific about what I mean in the future if there’s someone out there selling something.
Writing and drawing!
It requires no upfront investment, can be done individually, and it’s one of the few arts which is constrained by skill rather than budget. You can write a bestseller novel with just your computer but good luck doing a blockbuster film on your own.
ive always wanted to create a book or a comic but i stink at everything and im bad at spelling, i can only draw stickmen, but i still have the urge to be creativ eand share it.
For writing, practice writing short stories using writing prompts (I normally use Reddit’s /r/writingprompts but I’m trying to find an alternative here) and post them on the thread even if they suck. The commitment is low since it’s a short story and you can afford to twist the story to match your writing style rather than the other way around. You’ll also get votes and feedback from other members.
I started drawing as a kid, stopped for a while, and got back to it in my teens since I started doing a lot of writing then and wanted to visually depict what was happening as well. One thing that helped me a lot was to not look at other people’s art or photographs but rather solely work with what you’re visualizing in your mind and reiterate (with many many strokes) until the quality becomes acceptable. Use pencil and sketch with short and light lines. The point here is to develop your own intuition for perspective, splitting an object into basic shapes, and so forth.
I’ll also add that it’s extremely important to create your own style both for writing and drawing. Make your stuff look good, but always keep in mind that it’s fine to have your own quirks and distinctions. E.g. if your lines are a bit sketchy or if your circles aren’t perfect that can easily be part of your style.
As a car enthusiast, I’m a little biased with this one, but beyond knowing how to change a flat, you should know how to do basic maintenance on your vehicle. Oil changes, brake replacements, etc. Some people are just not interested, which I fully understand, but for those who are, you can save some money with labour costs (and parts in some cases) doing the maintenance yourself.
