Do you have hobbies?
The question is fairly straight forward. When I started in business school I noticed that most of the fund managers or PM's who would come talk repeated a similar refrain. It was a point of pride to spend every moment thinking about investing. They would all say something along the lines of, I don't watch tv/I don't follow sports/I only read trade periodicals, etc. In school I assumed this was a form of the humble brag or justification for their out-performance (I do so well because I spend every second of every day working that's how dedicated I am). But I noticed among classmates this was true and now that I've been working for a year I hear similar comments from more junior analysts. I can't tell if this is just because they feel like leisure time is looked down up and they're trying to fit in or if they truly have no hobbies/interests.
So my question is do you guys actually do things for fun or do you only do something if it will make you a better investor? I enjoy my job, I enjoy reading biographies and investing books but I also enjoy following the NFL on sundays in the fall, reading fiction books just for enjoyment or going watch a movie from time to time. Is that really so crazy? I understand when undergrads on WSO talk about how they will spend every second of every day living the markets so they will become the next Carl Icahn but when I'm talking to people in their 30's and older I expected a different response.
I'm still convinced there was one question that got me my current job:
Older analyst: "What do you like to do on the weekends?"
Gray Fox a long time ago: "My favorite thing to do on the weekends is to watch college football and drink beers with my friends."
Investing is a multi-discipline field that requires increasing amounts of qualitative judgment as more responsibility is assumed. Having hobbies, outside interests, and general intellectual curiosity is important. I always ask a similar question now when I interview people. I don't want to spend 50-60 hours/week with somebody that prays to Warren Buffet every night.
I would echo what Gray Fox said...
I find that it's almost a necessity that you have hobbies and that those hobbies are ideally as far removed from markets as possible. The benefits are just too many to list.
I think having a good non-finance intellectual hobby (learning about history/politics/technology) as well as an athletic/"healthy" hobby is a good combo. Keeps the mind and body sharp, and you never know how it may help you professionally as well.
No-limit Texas Holdem. If you study the game, it becomes very stimulating, and it never hurts to have a hobby that also happens to make you money(once you get good enough at it). Agreed with Zanderman on the athletic/healthy hobby too.
Toastmasters, cycling, volunteering, reading, boxing, and brewskis with the bros.
Never been one to watch TV (at least TV series), and we actually ditched cable entirely this month. I read "a lot" (20-24 books per year if not CFA studying), play golf, hang out with wife and friends and try to explore the city. Constantly looking for ideas to start my own business as well. Do a lot of mentoring, too. Gotta keep the mind active and not in front of the TV.
If you don't have any hobbies that aren't watching some TV series, then you need to get outside more. Sports are the exception if you can intelligently talk about it and not be one of those fake fans.
glad this was posted. I thought it was so weird that my couple of friends in PE/HF have the most boring social lives ever, and have no real hobbies. I know, I'm a huge warren Buffett nerd too, but have something outside of investing to talk about when we catch up.
that being said, since I work to live, I do have hobbies, mainly surfing, golf, and eating/cooking
Nope.
Life is so much more than 10-k's and constantly being wired into the markets, investing and your career. If anything, having hobbies and having a varied life is a huge advantage over folks who bury their head in the weeds. Especially as you progress through your career, having those experiences, stories and hobbies not only help build rapport but make you a more interesting and, while purely anecdotal, happier from what I've seen.
Personally would NOT want to work with a bunch of people who had nothing going on outside the office. All of my non-coworker friends work in other industries, and I think it's really good at keeping me in-touch and just a generally well-rounded person.
Running, Bodybuilding, MMA, and BJJ.
Bodyweight 80kgs. Body Fat 10%. Height 180cm. Deadlift 140kgs. Bench Press 120kgs. Single Dumbbell Bicep Curl 30kgs. Squat 140kgs.
5'11 is the most honest height in the world
Gotta work on that DL bro looks garbage in comparison
just recently started lifting. extra worried about breaking my back. :P
Not really sure about MMA, due to injury potential. IMHO, BJJ is the bee's knees and the dog's bollocks...
Suffered a major ACL tear to my right knee last year from BJJ. Was not able to move around for one month and needed to do re-habitation for 3 months. BJJ is extremely prone to back and knee injuries. By the time, you get to purple belt in BJJ, you would most definitely have ACL tears and back injuries.
Why does your deadlift suck so much? Match stick legs?
Gray Fox is pretty pretty much spot on. What you do in your off time is far more important than being the absolute beast in your professional life.
For me? I love hiking, watching college football and drinking beer on Saturdays, watching hockey, cooking, screwing around making drinks, I've been slowly getting into photography (and that's on hold until I replace my old Nikon D700) and building furniture. Nothing says Total 180 from working in high finance than going antiquing, furniture shopping and keeping a good logbook of ideas and inspiration for building your own furniture. I'd rather not be bleary eyed, staring at a computer screen and thinking about my next trade/deal/investment thesis, and instead focus on designing and building a piece of beautiful furniture than I would be proud of. Some times you end up with amazing results, There is nothing more joyful than building a table out of cherry or walnut and leaving it unfinished and exposed to natural light until it reaches the beautiful color you are looking for and then some. Man... I can't help but think of a coffee table I built where the cherry, in less than 6 months, was a beautiful shade of red and the grains in the board really started to shine on their own. Even if it's not for my own use, woodworking is a hobby that has allowed me to give amazing gifts and develop a skill that most folks don't have. Plus... it's nice to have something I can brag about that very few of my friends can do.
does buying stocks and then regretting it considered as a hobby? cuz i'm pretty good at it
Cooking, Crossfit, Golf, Guitar, Music Production
in alphabetical order
I ask everyone I interview about their hobbies/interests. I get really mad when they say "following the industry, reading trade rags etc." I have to spend 50-70 hours with someone, I want to spend it with a person and not a robot. If I wanted a robot, I would get a Roomba and at least get something out of it I couldn't get from a Bloomberg Terminal. As others have stated, I like hobbies that show some sort of curiosity. I will also talk sports with some candidates as the language/metaphors from sports can be really useful in explaining things.
Training for triathlons, Starcraft II and playing live tournement poker. I also enjoy going out to bar and getting shit faced with my friends. Fucking girls with daddy issues and never calling them again is also fun.
you might have a daughter one day and I hope you revisit this comment then.
having hot daughters is my biggest fear in life
I don't mean this to be a trolled comment, I'm genuinely interested: how much time do you guys have for hobbies outside of work?
I only ask because i find it very hard to keep hobbies due to the hours / unpredictability of work. I make sure I drag myself to the gym, but beyond that I've unfortunately had to give up hobbies because my work schedule doesn't allow.
For reference, I work at a large multi-strat on a fairly lean team (in terms of AUM to team members). I've been there about 2 years.
I make time. I have projects I've designed in off hours that I haven't gotten around to completing because my backlog is extensive and there are times when work takes precedence. I think I have some 2 dozen pieces that are fully designed and have completed the cut lists for. Even with the unpredictability of work, I make sure to take at least 1 weekend a month to spend time in the shop.
As for other hobbies, some I make sure I do daily (ie fitting in an hour a day to get to the gym or spending a half hour trying to work on a drink idea or variant for me to relax and sip on) or make sure that I can find time in the week to do them (I tend to prep my meals a few days out and will cook meals for 2-3 days at a time so I will spend 2-3 hours in the kitchen getting all the prep done and then find the time to cook and relax, or home brewing where I need a good 4-5 hours of time, but it's not all in one sitting). I block out time in my day that I need for me. It all comes down to balance.
If you say you find it hard to keep hobbies because of your hours and the unpredictability, it means you need to better organize your day and block time in to do hobbies because there are very few jobs that have requirements where you need to either keep a beeper on you or work 24/7 all the time. And even when I worked in an environment where I kept a beeper (and had a boss that liked to call 2 minutes after the beeper went off because he was an asshole), I made sure to block off even just an hour on some days to get time in for my hobbies and passions and would not stop until I reached a place that I could safely stop what I was doing, especially when working in a wood shop.
I always recommend running (long distance) as a good hobby for busy people. All you need is pair of good running shoes and bottle of water. You make your own schedules. And when you have time off/vacation, you can sign up for marathons around the world.
I try finding a balance between reading non-finance material and exercising, preferably outside.
I think your hobbies should make you more well-rounded intellectually and just keep you healthy. No sense in going for a few years without seeing the sun.
Sports, traveling, reading, girlfriend. what else?
I've always believed that having a balanced life is the key to success, especially in performance based fields, so yes, I stay very busy outside of work related tedium :)
Enjoy European football (Mainly the English premier league), Tennis, skating and the occasional book. I used to be a huge book worm but seem to only read during vacations these days.
Just the title of this thread makes me want to harm myself...
Liquor n whores
Watching football and drinking beer are considered interesting hobbies?
Looks like if we want to find the top candidates for investment jobs all we have to do is walk into the nearest Sigma Alpha Epsilon house
Big into sports (playing, not as much into watching) and lifting, playing guitar and singing, cooking, and video games (N64, GameCube and Wii - in case this was not obvious given my username). Each of my interests are bite sized and can be done in 30 min to 1 hr chunks which makes them easy to maintain while working.
I play golf and workout consistently. Also, evening runs, if that can be considered a hobby... Unleashing physical energy helps me relieve the stress (and frustration) of the workday.
Video games, TV shows, and books. Basically the ones I could do mobile and/or at home at weekend.
Also used to be much into photography, but can't find enough time (or energy) to do that as often as before. Nowadays, only during a real, long vacation I would take my camera out.
Golf, triathlon training, classical and jazz saxophone, reading mathematics textbooks.
I was seven when I first fell in love with a DCF model. I knew right then, and there that my destiny was to sit behind a desk, and do god's work in an enchanted place called Wall Street.
I'm utterly disappointed to see all of you be distracted by these useless things that just take you further away from the true path of a financier.
how does this not have more SBs
Good point... SB'd.
That DCF model must have been gorgeous...
Get me my comps spread you bottombucket squat cobbler
Money shit on my weight lifting stats. Lol. I guess most of you guys don't lift. T.T
Running, Bodybuilding, MMA, and BJJ. Bodyweight 80kgs. Body Fat 10%. Height 180cm. Deadlift 140kgs. Bench Press 120kgs. Single Dumbbell Bicep Curl 30kgs. Squat 140kgs.
Deadlift just got moved to 180kgs this week. Lol.
When not studying, I try to do things as far from work as possible. I read a lot of 19th and early 20th century American literature (been going through a lot of Faulkner recently). Also, my girlfriend and I have been really getting into day or half day long hikes, really helps me clear my mind and feel at ease...or maybe I've just been reading too much Thoreau and Emerson.
Speaking as one of those students. the markets are truly fascinating to me. I've gotten more joy from reading finance books than fiction in many cases. I do love to read in general though. But most of my free-time I willingly spend looking at different companies. In fact, I got in trouble at my job (dead-end min wage retail) for going to the sec website to look at HHGregg's 10-k when it got posted recently since it's not an 'approved site.'
My wife and I do set up regular weekly board game nights with our friends and we enjoy going out antiquing together (just picked up a Reagan/Bush '84 pin for put on my MAGA hat, wife was super embarrassed the whole time). I also read a lot of political books and news relating to politics. Relating to that I also study history, largely relating to Prussia and the German Empire as well as the Gilded Age. Bringing this back to antiquing I actually have a standing order at the same store I bought the pin that if an authentic Prussian or GE flag if one ever finds it's way into their inventory.
I also play pool at an amateur level and am playing in the ACUI College 9-Ball Finals this coming weekend (wish me luck!). Rarely watch TV or sporting events with the exception of golf and if I had more time (read: money) I'd actually play more than once a year as well.
I assume once I'm fully immersed in the markets after I'm done with school I'll grow more and more sick of it but for now it's still my #1 hobby and general interest.
TL;DR 1) Markets and equities 2T) Board game nights with friends and wife 2T) Antiquing 2T) Reading 3) Studying politics and history 4) Pool 5) Golf 6) Photography
You sound like biggest loser of all time. I hope you're kidding.
I fail to see anything wrong with board game nights and antiquing.
You are the type of schmoe nobody wants to hang around the office with after 10 pm. Go do some pushups you pussy...
Why do push-ups when I already have a solid bench? Sorry I don't like going to shitty bars for overpriced drinks to watch shitty sports, I guess.
I think part of the problem is - and please correct me if I'm wrong - many MBA students who are going into HF or IM are coming from an IB background and feel like they have to be overcompensating 24/7.
Truth be told, when I was in IB / PE I had zero hobbies. Watching Netflix 30 mins a night or reading 10 pages of fiction felt like salvation to me. After ditching the big bucks and bright lights, suddenly I have time to shine my own shoes, do my own laundry, cook my own food, wash and wax my cars after driving them through lovely rural mountain roads, read about staining old furniture, gather supplies to refinish the cabinets in my house, read a fiction book a week, go to wineries whenever the hell I want.........the list goes on and on. Refinishing your cabinets may not sound like a fun hobby, but don't knock doing something with your hands until you try it - incredibly fun and satisfying, at least IMHO.
Also, these are the lamest hobbies. Reading and watching Netflix aren't hobbies. Have you people ever done anything fun? Rode a dirtbike? Gone snowboarding/skiing? Caught a striper? Played pickup sports?
I understand it's difficult when you live in a city (what 's there to do in a city besides eat/drink anyway?) and work nonstop, but come on.
Reading is absolutely a hobby. There's nothing else I'd rather do with my free time then sit out in the sun / on the beach with a fascinating non-fiction book.
I've dirtbiked and snowboarded and both bored me to tears / struck me as pointless.
What hobbies eat up your check? (Originally Posted: 11/14/2015)
Golf and trying new places to eat crush me monthly. What about you?
Well for me I have a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time
NYC rent payments..
Females
Booze
Skiing gets expensive during the winter
What about skiing in the summer?
K, but you should be able to afford it the summer.
Booze and eating out after work, which is also mostly booze
cigars, workout gear, student loans..
Hockey.
I've cut down from 3 teams to 1, it was just getting to be too much
Booze - Doesn't help that the liquor store right next to where I live has a rewards program...
Also trapshooting. Need to buy my own shotgun.
Seriously though I see people going out to get coffee regularly. I've cut that out from my daily schedule and if you think about it that shit adds up. Conservatively $3/day * 5 days/week * 52 weeks = >$750/yr
I was addicted to Monster energy drinks as well and would down 2 a day. I was getting a $3 coffee on the way to work and 2 $2 Monsters throughout the day...now that adds up...and it's so hard to quit.
Buying expensive clothing. At this point, it is pretty much a hobby/therapy
Running and going to Jam band shows (Phish/Panic). It gets expensive with tshirts, posters... Marathons are hella pricey too.
Flying. But at least I'm not into space travel.
How come ?
Golf can quickly ruin your budget as rounds add up especially if you play at decent courses and once/twice a week. That's when memberships suddenly don't seem as expensive. I'd also save an incredible amount of money if I didn't go out on weekends and stayed local rather than visit friends.. but that wouldn't be nearly as much fun.
15 replies and only one person has mentioned females and no one has mentioned drugs or hookers. What happened WSO?!
I thought those were implied... come on, Sil , we are talking discretionary expenses here, not mandatory ones..
Do you really think that 23 year old students and Jr. analysts, which represent the overwhelming majority of users here, have any money for hookers and/ or drugs (other than Adderall) ?
racing cars.
Trying to make my girlfriend not hate me.
Protein
Gambling.
Learn how to play poker bro
Scotches, preferably in sherry oak.
Golf, mostly from losing golf balls on the course.
Golf lessons, to avoid losing golf balls on the course.
:-D
Alcohol, women, buying clothes, and coffee (I spend way more than I should on this), and random trips. I wish I had enough time to be committed to a hobby twice a week or something
Two double espressos per day amounts to ~$800 a year. I started using the company's machine for the lunchtime espresso.
Watches and booze
Gun club and bars- fuck non happy hour pricing.
Hunting
Designer clothing. Looking at getting a Burberry Trench right now.
Nothing saves money like being antisocial
Trips to Foxwoods, concerts, and Thursday-Saturday nights
When you start hosting, especially dinner parties, 2-4 times per week it can get expensive, but I generally get invited out as much as I host if not more so it works out. Keep in mind, that's the majority of my entertainment budget and it covers food too. If you ever want to feel like you're shelling out too much... start inviting people to your vacation home abroad.
My wife and kids. And real estate taxes. And food and booze. I also usually have a project car going in the garage and while I'm not building GTO Judge's parts and labor for things I can't do start to add up. And motorcycles but outside of customs or Harley CVO's they're not too pricey.
midlife crisis much? :P I kid, I kid.
Used to be golf until the green fees instantly went from 5 dollars as a junior player to 40-60 bucks when I turned 18. Now it is more gaming but I would like to pick up poker and boxing. I'm already built like mike tyson is now lol too heavy.
Sports betting, food ( Whole foods is the devil.)
Speaking of sports betting. This guy put $20k on Holy Holms fight against Ronda Rousey and made $240k last night.
Life is not fair.
Amateur motorsport and superbike track days, 1 weekend of each per month and you cry.
bucking broncos are killing my wallet right now
Gambling on cockfights and model railroads
Homebrewing, concert tickets, new music, books, dates, and good food.
Music production equipment and coffee
-Motorcycles (R6) -Scuba Diving (Wrecks in Lake Michigan + Lake Superior) -Hang Gliding (saving up for a trike- a motorized hang glider with wheels that can launch from any field. Lack of mountains is the one place where I'll admit the Midwest sucks)
Serious question: is your honda for sale?
Books, guns and ammo. Shooting on a weekly basis hurts... yet I keep going back.
Racing motorcycles and playing golf. Shiet.
Golf, and now they have video slot machines everywhere... offsets the cheap bar specials around here for me.. Golf is cheap though at least!
Rent and travel
Fly fishing and fly tying, decent bamboo rods are not cheap, nor is fly tying material. Travel, wine and spirits.
I think every guy at one point or another gets hooked on golf for a bit. I went through my phase last year, so much gear and gadgets, and then on top of that all the trips (I got hooked on playing great courses so have racked up stuff like Whistling Straits, Old Course, Kingsbarns etc etc), i never got the courage what the bill for the last 3 years actually was (but it does include an ex girlfriend haha).
Either way, wouldnt go back and change it even though im less into it now, was a blast.
Books.
Skydiving. $75-$95 per jump until I get my license. Traveling. Plane tickets and hotels ain't cheap.
I completed my 21st jump last weekend.
Scuba diving trips.
Unplanned travel and booze are up there for sure. Also having a love for motorcycle and the track doesn't help one bit.
I wouldn't change a thing.
Building a vacation home...
Pokemon Cards.
Books and boxing.
I manage the cost of the former by buying second hand online. Cheaper and anyone looking at the pre-cracked my bookshelf thinks I've read more than I have got around to so far.
Photography. Good camera gear is NOT cheap.
Hobbies Outside of Work (Originally Posted: 02/08/2018)
What do you do outside of the office?
I am a level 55 Knight Warrior on World of Warcraft with the following:
Magical sword 15 potions 106 bars of gold Bow with 15 platinum arrows The Horn of Gundar where I can summon the blue winged horse
Anyone else?
Squash - 2 times a week in the evening, a few yoga exercises - daily, landscape photography - during my vacation, reading neuroscience books - when I have free 20-30 minutes in the evening.
my man you are the worst troll on this website and take that from the second worst troll on this website
agre with you)
wonder what his objective was. could have been an ok thread too also my hobby is banging your mom
Outside the office: not much.
Inside the office: I read shit posts like this, laugh at the comments for a second, and then feel sad for an extended period of time.
Working on the private pilots cert (very slowly), culturing various types of jellyfish (I studied molecular biology and this is a skill leftover from my research days), equestrian (hunter jumper and a bit of dressage) and traveling (including having lived in a country in LATAM) for a bit... and the usual exercising (running, yoga, occasional pickup games here and there) and reading (books of different topics outside technology and finance/business).
Man Week: Find a Hobby (Originally Posted: 04/14/2011)
Decompression is a lost art. Come to think of it, it is highly disputable that humans have ever found a way to relieve stress on a consistent basis. For men in the modern world, stress is the silent killer. In the long run more men wind up dying or (in a more realistic and dreary scenario) living miserably due to overriding amounts of stress. Our modern emasculating society has been telling you from day one to seek help. To look for problems within yourself and to try to solve them via therapy, medication and other forms of self-alteration.
You have been told to go to therapy. Perhaps to medicate yourself. To anally look for tidbits you may have done wrong here or there and to vigorously attack them with mantras and self-improvement theories. This last one is probably closest to the road most guys choose to take. We choose to dwell on minutiae and drive ourselves nuts trying to correct that one fatal flaw. It is no surprise that we live shorter lives than women and that by middle age, so many of us have a permanent scowl on our face and the hunched over trudge of a broken man.
Having lived the sort of life where I have experienced both penthouse and outhouse, I will tell you something you may not like hearing...The successful, upwardly mobile career man is consistently trounced by his poorer, less successful and (in more than a few cases) less law abiding brother in the enjoyment of life category. This is perhaps to be expected. As stature increases expectations created by ourselves, our parents, our peers and society at large, tend to weigh more heavily on men. I can understand this view but I see it as a mere rationalization and do not accept it.
What I have experienced is that men without strong ties to careers, goals and achievement explore something which the successful achiever does not for the most part, even think about. The idea that success and goal oriented behavior should consume all senses is patently false and many guys who don't make that much, or frankly for that matter, do that much prove it every day.
So what separates these happy faced clowns from you and I? What is it that allows a dude making very little scratch and with next to zero social standing to live a better life than you, the penultimate success?
It is a simple theorem which becomes difficult in practice...in practice. These men all have a hobby. Dare I wax poetic and call it a passion. Something active which they enjoy and which is not tied to rewards of any external sort. They all do things for themselves that they like and are not tied to their career in any way. This may seem like one of those no shit sherlock sort of deals and I can imagine that more than a few of you are rolling your eyes. But that is precisely the point, life is not complicated or difficult. We make it so. We tangle ourselves up in webs of mystery and intrigue, we chain ourselves with the boundaries of goals and ambitions. We create our own stress, our own fear and our own anxiety.
The way we do this is by living externally. That is to say, we make our focus in life someone else's hopes and dreams. Many of you guys live this pathetic loser lifestyle on a daily basis without even knowing it. You rationalize that you need money, success, acceptance, etc...but really don't care about and don't like the things that you do. Now, I understand the need for all that I have mentioned in passing. Nobody is telling you to quit your BB FO gig and head to Tahiti to play Tetherball. All I am saying is that you need to spend more time thinking about what you truly, genuinely enjoy doing.
This is not as easy as it might seem. When I look at most guys I know between the ages of 18 and 45, the hobby/interests category is startlingly similar. We all like to go out, grab a drink with the boys, some smoke cigars, some are foodies, a surprisingly large chunk can't do without video games or television, about 1 out of every 50 actually reads books, but that is about where the similarities stop.
As a gender, we are very limited in our approach to having fun. I fear that this is just another low key example of today's gender role reversal and how modern men are beginning to resemble medieval women. Though it may not seem obvious at first, many of the activities I have listed above can be in some way compared to women of yesteryear who could not see life beyond their spindles and stove pots... and didn't want to.
I find this puzzling. As a boy, I was literally taught to crave action and excitement. I am always up for trying new things no matter how ridiculous they may seem. As I have aged, the ranks of willing compatriots for these adventures have dwindled by the year. Lately, seemingly by the month...if not the day. Every other day somebody's starting a new job, getting married, having a kid, accepting more responsibility, under more stress, needs to sleep more, needs to relax more, need to kick their feet up, needs to have a drink...alone...at home...in the dark.
If I haven't been clear with who I think the culprit is by now...allow me to specify:
Gentlemen, we are at fault. You, me...all of us. None are exempt.
We are those who have made our own lives so pathetically boring that we seek shelter and counsel in anonymous chat rooms. We are the ones who have erected walls of misery on our paths to happiness. We are the ones who listen to what society tells us to think and do. We are the damsels in distress. Captives of fears, anxieties and voices which most often do not exist outside of our own heads.
So instead of criticizing further, I will offer a self made cure for every man willing to try his hand at low level wizardry. This is not a call to arms or a revolution, but a call to calmness and cool. A call to a conversation with yourself, devoid of smart phones, chat groups or societal judgments. This is a suggestion that smart men who are suffering will take as an order.
Look into yourselves and find what it is that you yourself enjoy. It will not come over night. You will not close your eyes, open them and then proceed to carve wooden boats by hand. It is not that simple. Understanding what you enjoy means confronting your delusions about success and fitting in. Many of you guys (though highly capable of intellectual thought) are regurgitating robots without an original thought in your head. Spitting out test scores and hash marks of success. In order to get you moving in the right direction I will shoot you a list of answers which some of my friends listed as their hobbies.
I will argue that none of these activities are actual hobbies as they are all tied in some way to fulfillment of desires expressed upon us by society. Take a look and see how many of your favorite activities are present and whether you are beginning to understand why you're stressed out so very often and increasingly so.
Favorite Hobbies That Aren't
1) Investing in Stocks
Making money is not a hobby, it is an existential pursuit no matter how much you do or don't need it. I don't care how much you enjoy absolute returns or what story you've concocted in your head to rationalize about love of problem solving and analytics. If that's the case... Sudoku, motherfucker. Anything where wealth gain or loss is dominant, you do not have a hobby.
2) Entrepreneurship
Sorry, guys. Working for yourself might be cool, but it sure as hell ain't no hobby. I have worked for myself for most of my adult life. It kicks ass. It's also a giant shit ball of stress and tension. Exhilarating stress and tension. But stress and tension, nonetheless. Not everything that feels good is a hobby. Remember that.
Leading us into...
3) Sex, Chasing Girls, etc
It's always easy to get guys unnerved when women are brought up and I've seen that in many of your comments this week. No harm, no foul. We have been killing each other over women since before we had organized society, no reason it shouldn't verbally translate into the digital age. Just remember...unless you are a certified pimp, a rock/movie star or a mad genius hypnotist who makes panties drop at the snap of a finger: absolutely nothing related to women can be considered a hobby or even...FUN. Women have been our greatest test as men, since the beginning of time. Most of the time, we fail...even when we succeed. So very much of what men do is directly or indirectly aimed at pleasing, winning over and impressing women that it is borderline suicide to confuse the pleasure of intercourse, with the wholesale headache that is dealing with broads.
4) Hobbies Du Jour
I've got nothing against part time MMA fighters, Halo 3 overlords and social media mavens. You can enjoy all of this stuff. Some of it is pretty damn cool, but most of it is so commercialized and forced down your throat, that it can never be timeless.
Yes, timeless...in case you haven't figured it out yet, that is the keyword. Something that you will be able to enjoy a week, a month, a year and a decade from now. Sorry, but if you think you're playing GTA and going cage fighting on the weekends for more than the short haul, you are wrong. If you figure out a way to do it over the long stretch, however, I am more than willing to eat my words and follow your lead.
5) Sports
A sport be a hobby, but usually is not. It is a bonding activity in most instances. A function of the human animal's need to conform to group activity and social interaction. It is almost like a job. Sports are a function of our need to share time with others and to be active. I can already hear the comments about jogging, weight lifting and other individual activities and yes, these can be hobbies, if they are all about you. If you are lifting or jogging to get toned up for the beach season, however, you should be aware that in spite of the serotonin dump, you are still stressing yourself.
The purpose of this last example is not to disqualify sporting or physical activities from the hobby realm, it is to suggest that this popular choice is way too easy and that you should challenge yourself to find something outside of the mainstream. Not to be trendy or different. But to invest in the procedure of finding something special to you, which will always give you joy. Something that will be yours and only yours.
There's about twenty other non-hobby hobbies that come to mind which I won't get into. Now as I said, many of you will not agree with my assessments and that is fine. What's good for the goose is not always good for the gander. Be your own man. If you say that buying a 1,000 shares of GOOG is a hobby, well then may the Lord Bless your wayward ass. Your pacemaker merchant will thank you kindly down the line.
For those who are interested in further exploration, however, take the following brief guidelines about hobbies to heart. They should be something you can do alone. Nothing wrong with sharing them with others, but a good hobby should be there for you when nobody else is. They should relieve your tension and not raise your heart rate. They should be readily accessible. They should not require any sort of significant financial outlay, as that pushes them into acquisition territory and thereby achievement mode.
The key definition of your hobby should be that it is your thing and your thing only. Find one and you will find a graceful outlet for stress and something that you can truly call your own. In time, you guys will realize that this feeling has more value than any sort of equity stake.
For the record, since I know many of you are curious...my hobby is finger painting. I love it. Now go ape shit with that one and share your own if you'd like.
extreme sports ftw
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Midas, is fucking your friends girl in front of him and then beating the shit out of him for no reason considered a hobby?
If coveting someone you are scared to touch equals makes them "yours"...then sure, why not?
Not sure it fits the timeless parameter.
I play the drums. There's nothing more liberating than smashing a series of pots and pans with sticks. You can actually go ape shit with that one.
http://www.youtube.com/embed/_wGbjyrclbs
SCUBA Diving, Magic, and Table Tennis.
Over the last 2 years, I've improved my life immensely with the following steps:
1- Threw out my TV. I occasionally pull The Office up on Hulu. TV is a suckhole. That includes live sports (and I played D1 athletics!). Be honest, what do you really remember about even the Super Bowl?
2- Bought a stack of books on Amazon.com. I read when I eat breakfast, on the bike at the gym, on the subway/train, before I go to bed. Nothing written in the last 50 years. Fiction and non-fiction. Also subscribed to a stack of well-written magazines/journals: no crappy Newsweek or People.
3- Exercise EVERYDAY for at least 30 minutes. I still hit the weights, but some days I just want to go for a jog, or ride a bike or do yoga or walk Central Park. or hit the sauna. Do these things with a friend.
4- Learned to cook. Do it with or for friends.
5- Visit a museum once a month
6- See a documentary or independent film once a month (no American Pie Part 14)
7- See live theater or a concert once a month (no cheesy musicals or pop concerts, only serious artists in command of their skills)
Excellent list. SB, good sir.
Agreed on your first point, but I personally wouldn't go so far as throw out the television altogether (but your points for doing so are valid). I still appreciate watching 24 hour news, local news, educational programming, Le Mans, and Formula One.
I think it comes down to how you utilize television -- I try to keep up on current affairs around the world and am involved (trying to be) in my local community so watching the news helps keep me in check. I also enjoy educational programming on various subjects in science and humanities, which I feel can only benefit the viewer and enhance their knowledge. And then I follow sports car and grand prix racing, which in all honesty has been an outlet of mine for years, but it coincides with my real life passion of motor racing and automobiles.
The problem with television is the mindless reality entertainment programming which provides its viewer little or no value to the mind and ultimately wastes time overall. Television time used wisely can be fairly beneficial.
I also like your part on books. Finance related books are fine in their own right but kids please, pick up a Dickens, Fitzgerald or Asimov and take your mind on a journey of sorts.
Awesome list. +1 SB
Trap & Skeet shooting on a Saturday morning.
MMM, more thoughtful post than the beat down one. Thanks.
I think the camraderie of sports can be uplifting though. I'm not super-competitive anymore but I am still semi-competitive and enjoy pickup and organized basketball leagues. It's a good way to exercise and accomplish something as a team with other people. Have some brewskies after and have some laughs with people not from work.
I also enjoy playing live poker. I agree with you that if you are doing it for the money then it is not a hobby and more of a job. But if you consider it entertainment (buy in to a tournament for the same amount you would spend on a nice dinner) and can easily let go of a loss then it is pretty fun.
When you have kids, watching them pursue their interests can become your greatest joy in life.
My longest-running, stress-busting hobby has definitely been heavy metal music. I love the stuff. I can listen to it for hours on end and not get tired because it's so rich and diverse. 95% of my other friends don't get it, but in my mind, they're the ones missing out, not me. In fact, that idea is what makes it so appealing, in a way--we metalheads really do believe we have the greatest music on the face of the earth, and nobody else knows about it.
Honestly, I've got a broad range of hobbies--like you, Midas, I love trying out new things. Heck, I'm not even above putting my life in danger--I've done that whitewater rafting, spelunking, and climbing mountains. The only things I will not do involve drugs, unhealthily huge amounts of alcohol, or anything that would get me in trouble with my church--no seances, ouija boards, or any of that crap.
Everything else is fair game.
Guitar.
Amen.
Well, I'm a cinefile, so I do need the TV, but I try to watch classics, indies and foreign films somewhat regulalrly. I'm a die hard hockey fan, and have found that it is a hobby as much as it is a passion. The same holds true for college football. I love reading and am quite happy I have a Kindle as a result. I can't tell you enough how picking up reading as a hobby is a great way to relax.
Beer - but not in the traditional sense. When I say beer, I'm talking about the brewing of it, not the drinking of it. In college I took up home brewing. Now that's a labor intensive passion of love. If you stick with it, you will find yourself enjoying it. When I finally have the space, I plan to pick it up again, as I miss the experience of doing it.
Building furniture - Again, it is a space intensive hobby, but when I was younger, I found myself in my dad's shop building furniture him and even creating a few pieces of furniture for myself. When I finally have the space and capital, I plan to pick this up again, as nothing says pride more than putting your hands to work and creating something that shows both beauty and function.
Still, there are a number of things I want to learn, like how to fly fish, cooking and cinemetography just to enjoy my own passions even more or find new ones to expand my horizons.
(1) Play in a band; few things are more therapeutic than plugging in a Les Paul into a Marshall stack and just cranking it. (2) Cars or bikes -- learn to fix cars, race them, mod them, etc (3) The gun range, clay shooting, hunting (if any of that floats your boat) (4) Shop craft (woodworking, metal) - as someone mentioned, building furniture, building musical instruments, etc (5) Beer or wine making (6) Team sports in a community league - I'm sure running is fun, but playing team sports allows you to feel like a kid again doing something fun with the guys. Could be ice hockey, baseball, basketball, curling, rugby, MMA, boxing, whatever.
Or just about anything that is physical - that involves making stuff or doing stuff with your hands. In my view, finding active activities where you're involved as a player or doer and not just as a spectator.
This is especially important for guys who work in office jobs where you're not really engaged in much physical activity. And having something outside of work where you're making/doing stuff with your hands that produces something very tangible is an essential counterpoint to the sedentary aspect of working full-time in an office. Otherwise, it's real easy to get up in your head, and end up a neurotic curmudgeon.
Finger painting...lol...cool.
Sometimes I think about becoming a kindergarten teacher so I can have a good excuse to do finger painting again.
wtf, how are sports not hobbies or something that relieves stress? The theme of this post is good but you can't really try and be an authority on what is a hobby and what isnt. How can you say entrepreneurship isnt a hobby for some people? People are different, and therefore the list of things that YOU dont think are hobbies should be labeled as such, instead of some prophetic existential statement.
Midas, you seem to have a huge resentment for anything that may have a connection to society. Its all nice and pretty to think what life would be like as someone who is careless, but I would argue that most people on this board get utility from success and achieving goals, regardless of whether you think this is society driven or not.
My hobbies align with whatever will get me the Aston Martin lease for $3000/month.
Do what you truly enjoy. A hobby that gives you a good excuse to get out of the god-forsaken city is usually a good hobby- but make sure you can afford it first.
Some pal you are. I make a post secretly hoping you'll come in here and discuss your cool hobby in detail...meanwhile, you're all up in my Geodon stash running through them like they are Skittles.
EDIT: then he removes "voices in head" nullifying my humorous response...ouch!
So many people list the same "hobbies that aren't" because they're all safe-plays from the standpoint of fear of ridicule or rejection from some cookie-cutter group. That's why we have the derisive term "guilty pleasures" for those things we secretly enjoy, but feel we must self-deprecatingly label in order to dismiss them and not appear different or dorky or, god forbid, unmanly.
Or maybe because those are things people do enjoy. Ever think that popular things arent just popular because they are safe options in terms of how society views them, but because their popularity stems from those activities actually being enjoyable.
Shhh, I am trying to keep the dragon-slaying that went down at 40th and West Side Highway secret- the archangel Julia told me to. But WisconsinEngineer just felt the need to come out and post it in all caps using my account. I thought I'd deleted it in time. I'M NOT A MUGGLE!!! I HEAR THE VOICES!!!
Translation: Midas caught me trolling again before I had a chance to delete my post.
As for my favorite hobbies? Let's see...
-trolling WSO with weak attempts at humor that I later delete. -Hang Gliding (up in the Catskills) -Dungeons and Dragons -wreck diving (generally on the Jeanne)
What happened to parasailing? Thought you were huge on that? You actually got me interested enough to do some research. Will definately get into that one day.
Either way, my hobby is collecting coins. Sort of fell into it in college by accident one day after searching for the world's most expensive coin and the rest is history. I went to the mall a couple weeks ago and as I was walking by the food court I saw 3 seniors just sitting there without saying anything and checking out each other's coin collections. It was 10 a.m. on a Saturday. I wanted to join them but I was running late somewhere.
1) Road Trips 2) Programming 3) Jogging/ Cycling 4) Cooking 5) Films/ Theater 6) Side Ventures
I can understand not counting some sport-related activities, but I think golf has all you could want in a hobby. Now it certainly would depend on your motives- if you go out every Saturday morning just to deep throat the boss/clients that's one thing. If you really enjoy the game (basically meaning you're willing to go out there by yourself, put time into practice), there aren't too many other ways I'd like to spend four hours. You can enjoy the outdoors, play a game you will never master, spend time reflecting, and relieve a lot of stress. Of course it can cause it's own stress, but it's a good kind of stress. It's also something that you can be passionate about your whole life. Walk, rather than ride, whenever possible- I feel like those walks alone up the fairway are some of times when my thinking is most clear. It's not quite the same if you spend half the time with your buddies in the cart trying to throw down some beer. That's when it's not a hobby, and also when I want to hit into you.
Polo does it pretty well for me!
I feel bad for the guy who bought 1,000 shares of google as a hobby.
Fishing.
Shooting guns.
Golf (or just going to the driving range).
Traveling, bowling, golf, and reading are my favorite hobbies. Hang gliding and surfing are two hobbies I have always wanted try but I have not had the chance to do extensively.
I think it's important to do something creative, and something physical.
Pick up an instrument or two, and stay in shape/play a sport recreationally.
I love to watch NBA games! Who loves LeBron?))
What's your hobby? (Originally Posted: 02/20/2012)
This is dope! You should invite your MD to Utah and do that with him. Then watch him scream like a girl
Do you do anything special that can set you apart in a business meeting, and interview, or anything else? No dope answer please.
There's one more game left of love for many fans before he loses in the finals, yet again.
Probably yes. I wonder if he would leave Cleveland after defeat
Does parkour count?
Holy shit
That's crazy. I found this one too.
http://www.youtube.com/embed/ShFAeNdiEiA
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