I've found that as developers/engineers we mostly spend our time working within tech be it a full-time job or side projects. But for optimal work-life balance, it is great to have hobbies and interest outside of your work.
My hobby outside tech is Photography. 📸
I love taking pictures and I sometimes use this as my escape from the tech world. I'll like to know what your hobbies/interests are too.
Feel free to share yours and I'm hoping to see diverse interests from everyone in this community. ❤️
Top comments (81)
I really like cooking and baking, but the more I think about it the more parallels I see to some of the tech things I do. Just like recipes can be hard to follow or understand, docs can too. If anything I think reading more recipes has improved my communication skills, particularly when my husband is like "wait... what's 'hand mix' or 'fold in'??"
I never would have thought of it this way. I also enjoy cooking 😊
I do lots of crafting. I make felt applique kits and cross stitch. I'm trying to learn crochet right now. I'm planning on trying to learn how to knit sometime in the future.
I teach crochet! Isn't it fun?! What are you working on?
It is fun. Right now I'm focusing on trying to learn the basic stitches. I've only made coasters as well as the world's smallest cozy.
That’s great though! Keep practicing!
Thanks! Feel free to share any tips or resources with me. Right now I'm using a guide to learn how to crochet and trying to watch YouTube videos. Do you have ideas for beginner crochet projects?
Here’s a great beginner project! All you need is some Peaches and Cream cotton yarn. ($1.89) @ Walmart) and a size H and G hooks. Let me know if you have any issues. Mug Rug
Here are some easy washcloths to try, as well! Have fun!
Dishcloth Pattern
One More! This is a youtube tutorial...super cute summer shawl! She also shows how to add fringe which should be useful for the mug rug pattern.
French Triangle Shawl
Awesome! Thank you for all the project ideas. I'm going to definitely try these and see how I do. I especially am going to use the tutorial for the fringe on both the shawl and mug rug patterns.
I'm a huge aviation geek!
I love everything about flying; I even took a few flying lessons but was never able to afford pursuing it all the way to getting my private pilot's license.
I'm hoping that now that my finances are getting in order I'll finally be able to go all the way! 🛩️
I went to college for flight operations but ran out of money because I couldn't land the stupid things. There was just something about landing I could not get down (pun semi intended?) so I never got to my solo. Moved on to another major after that.
Might try again some day, but it's expensive.
Awesome! Yes you should go all the way.
I rebuild cars and do custom work like old school pinstriping. I really want to start doing upholstery.
I had to look up pinstriping and upholstery but great job. 💪💪
Gaming, visual art (varied), music creation, fiction writing, and crafts. definitely one of those creative types, i am.
The best thing about being so varied in the arts, and a gamer, is that i have an advantage in the realm of game development. :)
Cool! Have you given that a head start? Game development that is
well, i do have a few games written in python (using pygame). including a point and click adventure game engine. Much of my games however, im yet to properly finish.
As a side note, i also have written games for SBTCVM, my ternary computer simulator. Writing games in your own programming language, using your own development tools, and your own architecture, is a rather complex endeavor. (SBTCVM, as you might guess, takes a lot of work to develop, hence why my game developing is slightly lacking.)
:)
I'm an avid quilter, i sell handmade dice bags on etsy, and I run!
I used to quilt a lot. I still love it, but it is a solitary hobbie. I have changed for board games now.
I play board games too!! What is your favorite?
I joined a local modern quilt guild and that has taken the solitary part of quilting out :D
So far my favourite is Power Grid, but we have more than 200 boardgames and it keeps changing hehe.
Power Grid is fun!! We have a bunch too. I think my favorites are Sentinels of the Multiverse, Ascension, Betrayal, Mansions of Madness, and Shadespire/Underworlds.
Do you go to GenCon or Essen or the like?
Nah, so far we are attending the Spanish events, only. It's quite expensive going to Essen for us. Maybe one year :)
I also do photography. I love that it has very little in common with programming. :)
Yay Awesome! 😎 I know right it’s entirely different and I love it
Yep. What kind of photography do you do?
Mostly street photography.
Mine is almost entirely travel photography. Do you post your work on instagram?
Yes I do sometimes instagram.com/lauragift_/
Mostly out of necessity: parenting, home improvement + maintenance, landscaping, tree planting + removal, with some travel thrown in there.
Clearing unwanted trees has actually been really enjoyable, there is no better indication of a job well done than open space where a tree used to be. Also watching our apple trees grow has been fun.
If only it was just as easy to measure the quality of my professional output...
Haha. This sounds cool and I can tell you enjoy it.
Hiking!
Pretty Cool 😎
Reading and cross-stitching... because there’s nothing more relaxing than stabbing something a million times 😋
Haha now that’s a definition of fun. 😋
Thinking about this made me realise that I really do a lot of things outside of software development, starting from playing soccer, to gaming, telling jokes, reading books(Dan Brown's collections, James Hadley Chase, etc), travelling, binge watching movies, cooking, swimming, listening to music, listening to people etc.
These things help me stay focused and see the world from a different perspective every single time
Fountain pens and video games.
Right now, most of my pens are TWSBI 580s for the solid price to performance, but my main pens tend to be gold nibs.
Currently (re)playing Saints Row The Third since it's on Switch, Guild Wars 2 on Mac, and Fallout 76 on Windows.
I watch a lot of rugby (both codes) and cricket. I'm also a cricket umpire. I go to the theatre a lot - coupla times a month on average. I have a regular RPG session and also play Go. Most of my Go is online these days but I still occasionally play in in-person tournaments.
And I love cooking. I've cooked for pay in the past but didn't enjoy it, commercial cooking is engineering, it's all about reliably turning out a consistent product day after day and there's very little space for creativity.
I like to write, the problem is, I'm good at characters, small scenes, and dialogue, but have a hard time with plot. I have multiple ideas floating around and attempt NaNoWriMo each year (haven't won since 2014.)
I also do a lot of world building. I took a lot of inspiration from Tolkien, David Eddings, Robert Jordan for fantasy. And Mass Effect, Destiny, Star Wars, for Sci-fi.
Also like video games. The Mass Effect Trilogy is by far my favorite video game, hands down. I can't think of a single movie, book, game, TV show, etc that has elicited literally all of my emotions as well as the ME trilogy did. I laughed, I got angry, I . . . well . . . there was a lot of dust in my room for some reason at certain times that may or may not have coincidentally been sad or uplifting moments . . .
Music, books, parkour. I guess that sums it up pretty nice. :)
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