On Hobbies and Skills

In your zeal to try out new things, you may find that you often over-rotate on some of your hobbies. Personally, this meant that the basement was full of five-gallon glass jugs when I get into homebrewing (beers, wines, even sake). It also meant spending way too much time recompiling a Linux kernel or troubleshooting a failed hard drive when my girlfriend (now wife) would rather I be doing literally anything else.

Lately it means that all of my podcasts and most of my audiobooks are about fitness, weightlifting, and nutrition.

But the thing about this is that, as we go through hobbies, we acquire skills. We keep those skills for life. I've since divested of 99% of my homebrewing equipment but I can converse with anyone about how (for example) wine is made and why certain wood varieties matter. And the Linux 'hobby' turned into a core skill that's now part of my career. I look forward to using my newly-earned strength in everyday life and extending my healthspan.

I've sunsetted the hobbies but the skills are still there.

What this means is you can predict the pattern. And you can influence the pattern. As you pick certain hobbies, you can align them with skills you'd like to have. Taking a trip to France? Your new hobby is learning French. Want to get into shape? Sounds like your new hobby is weightlifting & nutrition. Cooking, woodworking, sewing, blacksmithing, whatever it is. The best way to learn a new skill is to call it your new hobby.