Ask Lemmy

I am an IT guy and a hobby photographer, judge for yourself:

@stoy@metapixl.com

https://metapixl.com/Stoy

I used to be really good at video games, but now I just don't have the time. I remember being able to jump in any CS lobby and jump to the top of the server. I got kicked for supposedly cheating all the time. That was always a good feeling. Knowing that I'm kicking so much ass that people assume I must be cheating.

My crowning achievement is beating Super Ghouls and Ghosts - both times through (second time with the farie bracelet). This was using an original SNES, no save states or anything. Dedicated an entire summer of my teenage life to it. Game is hard, man.

Computers used to be a hobby but I turned that into a career. I'm a principal systems engineer and I like to think I'm good at what I do.

I got really into cooking, and it was maybe a hobby at some point, but now with a family it's more of a necessity. A lot of the things I learned while cooking as a hobby turned into skills though. I'm not sure how to explain it, but like having cooking intuition. Knowing when to add more or less of something just by knowing. Also just being able to freestyle meals out of what is laying around or knowing what can be substituted with what or how to make ingredients out of other ingredients.

Best part of having hobbies is that you don't need to be good!

Why do you have to bring up my shortcomings like that?

I barely start them and then I jump to something else. I have a big problem

Type 2 fun and overthinking. I am good at enjoying both.

Bouldering: I enjoy it, even though I’m not great at it. My short wingspan doesn’t help, and neither does my fear of heights. Every climb is a mix of determination and second-guessing my life choices and I'm excellent at the latest.

Gardening: It sounds relaxing, but in reality, it’s a cycle of overthinking. First, I stress about planting. Then I wait. And once/if it grows, there’s a whole lineup of threats: slugs, cats, deer, boars, hail… basically, everything conspiring against success. Not sure what I enjoy about it but I'd say I am moderately successful and can eat a self planted potato every year

I really just play video games, and the game I was best at was Rocket League. When I played, I was in the top rank and would regularly end up in matches with actual pros. I wanted to try going to RLCS, but I could never find teammates to sign up with.

But I also have 100% achievements in all 3 dark souls and elden ring, while currently going for Bloodborne's. Sekiro I haven't even beaten yet... Gonna have to cheese Owl.

Depends on the hobby. I tend to collect hobbies and then grow bored of them, then return to them a while later.

I'll become absolutely obsessed with learning about "hobby x", and spend two months basically getting as close to an expert on it as I can with self-teaching. (Video Editing, filmmaking, screenwriting, 3D modelling for flight simulators, Graphic Design, etc...)

Then I'll grow bored and move onto a new obsession from the above list, focus on that long enough that at least 25% of my knowledge of the previous obsession vanishes and I have to relearn a bunch the next time that obsession rolls around.

I've been told that's possibly ADHD, but since I suffer from depression I'll take my bursts of obsessiveness over lack of any motivation any day.

Jack of all trades; master of none.

Awful! But the fun is having something i don't need to be good at. Though i now have a lot of things i'm at least mediocre at, those are just old hobbies.

I usually learn my hobbies at small fraction of the rate i would have learned something in school. Years instead of weeks/months. I learn them deeper this way and don't develop burnout.

I am an aggressively mediocre singer but the 2 hour rehearsal on Monday is the highlight of my week. It's so fucking fun man!

I feel bullied by this question

Well I turned one of my major hobbies into a job so I'm pretty good at it. But now that I do it for work I don't do it for fun anymore.

Hobbies are about enjoyment, not skill. You should never measure your accomplishments with hobbies based on how good you are at them.

That said... when I was younger, I only indulged in hobbies that I had any skill in. If I sucked at something, I typically gave it up quickly and looked for something else to do.

Video games were an exception. I enjoyed the gameplay so much, it didn't matter that I was awful at them. I'd grind the same levels over and over, hoping to finally beat it this time.

Interestingly enough, I'm actually really good at video games now. Not professionally so, but I have a lot more skill than most of my friends. I'm usually appointed team leader in any co-op games I play with my friends because I'm really good at tracking the mission objective and keeping everyone together. And now that I'm retired young, I spend a lot of time gaming throughout the days, which only makes me better.

I don't play games for the challenge or skill, though. I mostly play to enjoy an interactive story. So I usually turn the difficulty down to the easiest option so I don't get stuck from progression at any point. I can handle really difficult games, but I just don't want to. Unless my friends want a challenge, then I'll crank it up and then be constantly bailing them out from the nightmare they chose to play.

• Creating games: Good enough that my IT teacher was impressed enough that he recommended that I go into the game industry

• Drawing: Good enough that I've got hundreds of followers and a lot of people like my art

• Games: I can beat the original Pikmin in 7 in-game days and I also beat Mushihimesama Futari's final boss on Ultra Mode.

Not good at all, but I'm just happy to be there.

A hobby becomes a job when you worry if you are good at it.

As good as I care to be. Hobbies are supposed to be fun.

Um, I beat Noita once. I beat FTL: Faster Than Light on Hard sometimes. I beat Pocket Rogue once. I also scored first-place in some hard-difficulty Moon Rider VR beatmaps, but I gotta get back into that.

Video games? Bad at them. I play lowest difficulty and still die but I have fun. Baking? Pretty good! People like my baked goods and they are almost always eaten before they go bad (unless I make far too much)

Not very good, but that's sort of the point for me; my favourite part of any hobby is the learning. I did a woodworking class the other day!

It's taken a lot of work to get to the point where I can be comfortable with being mediocre at something and just doing it for the joy of it. I'm quite an intense person, with perfectionist tendencies, so it's nice to be able to carve out some things that I can be more chill about.

I think it is a trap to think about it this way. My hobbies are meant to bring me joy and challenge, no matter what level i am on

In a few of my creative hobbies, I've been complimented by others in a way that I would consider sincere to the work.

I'm shit at video games.

Mediocre at best, and I lack the mental fortitude to work at much of anything these days, so wherever I'm at, I'm not going to improve much.

Some people relish the feeling of swimming through molasses* for the next hit of progress dopamine, or they don't get that feeling at all, but that's what happens to me and it basically short-circuits something in my brain. It's bad enough that I struggled to write the last part of that sentence, and it's happening while I'm proofreading this as well.

* or treacle if the unintended concept of small mammal anatomy bothers you.

Unless it’s programming or sysadmin, I’m mediocre at all my hobbies, but I enjoy them a lot. It’s great not feeling pressured to do them professionally like a paid job.