Many years ago, I read a blog, possibly linked from here, that gave this definition of a true hobby that I really like.<p>A true hobby is something that you don't do for money and that has no deadlines attached.<p>Once you start accepting payment to do something, <i>someone else</i> is setting expectations for your work. If you are a pretty good hobbyist photographer, one of the worst things you can do is shoot a wedding. Shooting a wedding, even for professional photographers, is one of the highest stress environments possible for photography.<p>If you have deadlines associated with your hobby, what happens if they "slip"? For example, if you set an artificial deadline to make your first ambitious Arduino project that will do something that will make your friends impressed and you get stuck somewhere, does it really matter?<p>Nothing needs to be said about the combination of paid work and deadlines. That is not hobbying, that is contracting. A long time ago, I did some subcontracting on iOS development. Beautiful weekend? Didn't matter. Monday deadline for client. Sucked.
> Because the last thing I want is you designing or coding all day and night and then getting burned out and rage-quitting.<p>Yet both examples of employees with hobbies are people who code outside of work. I'm certainly guilty of this, but I would suggest that unless you're 100% devoted to a single goal during the day, you can use your job as a means to tinker with code-related stuff you're interested in.<p>For instance, the people doing ML and AI degrees should be doing it on company time, especially if it's benefiting the business. Ask your boss and you'd be surprised what benefits you can squeeze out.<p>I'd strongly recommend getting into something more creative or totally orthogonal to your career. For example I've done a bit of pottery and learned some basic woodworking - both of which I'd like to improve on. Music or languages are two other hobbies which are generally accessible.<p>You can sometimes find odd passions via work. I've done some projects in smart agriculture and it got me into gardening in a nerdy way. The science behind commercial horticulture is fascinating - it's half cutting edge research and half "old guy" expertise. My tomato crop was a lot better for it.<p>If you want to really nail the hipster, rounded, programmer stereotype, get down to the climbing wall and start brewing beer. No surprises why climbing is popular with programmers. It's a lot of thinking, works just fine as a solo (or group) sport and tends to attract people who didn't enjoy "conventional" sports at school.
<i>When you don’t take a step back, you get caught in the startup echo chamber. Your brain needs a break.</i><p>About six months ago, I started baking artisan bread as an offset to writing code.<p>Now, while I work fewer hours, I get more done, and I feel healthier.<p>I bake two loaves at a time and give one to neighbors. They absolutely love it, and I have to say, the bread is very good.
I cannot believe people haven't come to this realization yet. I actually feel my brain rotting away when I don't spend time actively pursuing goals outside of work.<p>To me hobbies are as important, if not <i>more</i> important, than your day job. Before you down-vote me, please understand that I'm someone who learned about 95% of my technical knowledge from fun and hobbies. Although I'm full-force into computer vision, machine learning, and robotics in the company I'm co-founding, I wouldn't know any of that stuff if I weren't building robots to chase cats and deliver toilet paper, training algorithms to classify free food e-mails, and toying with neural net ideas 10 years ago when I was an physics undergrad (no, I didn't major in CS -- that was my hobby).<p>And I wouldn't have been a physics undergrad if I hadn't spent hours at night back in high school studying physics and differential equations secretly while my parents thought I had gone to bed already.<p>Likewise, what I do 10 years from now will depend <i>heavily</i> on the things I learn and ponder on nights and weekends today. It would effectively be the end of my life and career if I didn't have, and insist on having, that time to myself now.<p>I'll also add as very much an introvert I absolutely must have sufficient disconnected / off-the-grid / "me" time to recuperate. Like food and water, that's largely non-negotiable beyond occasional stretches of a day or two. I'd probably go into clinical depression if I was forced to be in front of people all day for extended periods of time.
+100 on the advice in the article. I work from home and my home office space is actually 50/50 an area where I can do development work, plus a music studio.<p>I literally have to turn my chair around 180 degrees to go from my PC & laptop to a rack of guitars and amps. Makes it easy during those long compile cycles or waiting for an up/download to just reach back and grab a guitar and noodle away for a bit.<p>And to actually get <i>out</i> of the house every now and then for a brain refresh, I recently took up Kendo as a sport as well.
Anyone who's been involved in hyper-growth startups knows that having a hobby is extremely difficult. The least one can do is squeeze in gym time at hotels during business trips, but otherwise, time is definitely an issue.<p>For a decently established startup with well-secured funding, this article is spot-on.
I've recently (since about 5 months) started learning Piano (or rather, keyboard) and I've looked forward to playing it everyday. It's relaxing and helps me reduce the stress. Plus, it helps me get out of my comfort zone and give me wonderful new perspective on things.<p>And for the past 2 months, I am also taking tennis lessons, and they've had unexpected positive influences on my life. I am waking early everyday to play, I've improved my stamina, and I get a solid sleep at the end of the day because physical activity tires out over the day and you easily sleep.<p>10/10 would recommend hobbies to all.
I agree with Josh completely.<p>It's unsustainable to focus 100% on your business. Our brains aren't optimized this way. We need hobbies, recreation, and diversions to be healthy.
So how come this is specific to founders of companies?<p>And I am not conviced having side projects as a fronted developer makes you a better developer unless you push yourself really hard.<p>What is more likely to make you better developer in any job is working with people who have a lot of experience and are willing to share it. So not necessarily a hobby, or you have to spend a lot of time yourself to discover and think about a lot of concepts, at which point is not really a hobby, more like college.<p>And i would argue also about hiking being a hobby, i never go hiking, but i love walking around the city like a maniac, is that a hoby? oh well maybe, but i’d say it would be more correct to say that you need to relax and gain strength for next working day, how exactly to do it you have to findout for yourself cos not everyone is the same...
I don't know... I feel like the only hobby you should have with a start up going is exercise. I also understand needing other unstructured off time besides exercise but really... a hobby? If you want to have a hobby you probably shouldn't be trying to start a business...