Learning how to get better at critical thinking.
I study rhetoric and argumentation for fun. Rhetoric is for understanding how people persuade me, argumentation is for understanding the tactics they use to achieve that goal. I've developed a certain style of rhetoric and argumentation that I like a lot. Essentially, I think people should learn to identify their own assumptions and make them explicit. Far fewer misunderstandings would happen if people know wtf they themselves were saying.
Reading math books, Linux, Lemmy, and Extreme metal. I have nothing to talk about with people IRL other than the fucking weather (that I actually want to talk about).
The overlap between math and death metal fans is larger than im comfortable with.
I'm currently making an Astro theme to make static sites way easier and then after that I'm probably going back to working on the API viewer I was making with Svelte, Tauri, and Rust. (Think of something like Postman but way less bloated.) I mainly just need to finish the settings and redo the data input form and then it should be ready for a first release (but it'll still obviously be far from finished.)
Honestly I can't narrow it down to less than 2:
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Australian Stingless Bee "farming": as the hobby is niche, even in Australia, there isn't much publicly available advancement in hive designs, propogation methods and care techniques for native bees. This makes the barrier for entry high, and the chances of losing a hive when inexperienced is moderately high too. More people in the hobby would hopefully bring in more discussion and experimentation, and make the hobby more accessible to others by hopefully bringing the price of hives down.
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TTRPGs/Wargaming outside of the big 2 games: if its not 40k or D&D, you are unlikely to find anyone that knows of alternate systems, let alone wants to play them. Makes it a lot harder to find a group outside of a game over discord or similar
If you're looking for a TTRPG and not wanting to worry about the lfg hassle, check out Ironsworn! Grimdark low fantasy, playable in solo or co-op. Just takes some getting used to, and reading lots of player advice, but playing solo become very easy if you already have that rpg brain leading the way. Also free materials online, but I bought the core rules and the "dungeon" expansion hardcopies for about $50 (USD).
I've since converted a couple of things and am solo playing to beef up the plot of a book I'm writing in a world I've been working on for about 5 years. Makes that process engaging for the gamer side of me!
Can't help you with the bees, I'm afraid...
I'll have a look into this! I've been playing solo OPR to get the wargaming itch, but I haven't found anything for TTRPGs so Ironsworn might fill that hole nicely.
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Juggling. Friend decades ago taught me how to group juggle with other people. Lots of fun. But I've learned never to admit I'm into juggling, cuz apparently it's serial killer weird
I can juggle 3 balls but no more, its quite intuitive once you try! I know 3 is basically nothing, I just learnt it when I was like 10 and never took it up.
But that is a great hobby man, join a circus or smth idk.
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Privacy
Protects one of your fundamental rights, or nearly all of them if you think about it, as well.
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ham radio
Getting certified is super easy in many places and there are many hobbies within, such as electronics, building antennas, etc.
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poetry
This hobby has to be the cheapest of all. Go to the park with a pen and paper, bonus points if you leave your phone at home, and let your mind wander :)
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Learning languages. It'd be nice if I could meet people irl who are interested in learning different languages and it'd probably keep my motivation up as I've been slacking.
Taking classes would basically put you in the perfect situation.
A few years ago I was in some discord servers for language exchange, but I had to put it all on the back burner to focus on job hunting and I lost motivation ever since, but I'm trying to reignite the flame.
