I've heard this before, but haven't found it the case personally. I started work in manual jobs and messing around with computers was my evening hobby. Many years later, I now do IT as a job (partly from gaining skills from that hobby) but also have continued it as my primary thing to do when I'm not working. I was worried when I changed into this career that my hobby would become too much like work to be enjoyable, but I've not found that.
Is this the same for other people, or am I unusual in doing something in my off hours that's so close to my career? I'm genuinely curious to know if others have found the same or whether they found another hobby.
41 Comments
helix@feddit.org · 38 pts · 159d
DevOps here. I still really like programming and systems administration, but I'm so burnt out I can't do anything anymore after 8h+ of work. It has gotten to the point that I hate computers so much, I favor going out into nature over fixing my broken Linux install of my desktop for several months now. I'd love to write software again but my brain can't do it.
voxthefox@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 13 pts · 159d
I credit SRE with starting my hiking hobby. Never liked being in nature until I was forced to sit in front of a computer screen for 40-60 hours a week and some weekends.
Now I've been to a dozen national parks, about as much state parks and one of the few joys I get is planning the next outing.
digdilem@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 159d
Thanks for your experience. I've certainly felt like that at times, and some nights definitely don't want to do it - so then I turn to other hobbies that aren't related, but I keep coming back to it.
Borger@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 159d
This is 100% me as a SWE. I loved working on my own projects as a teen. Now I’m weary and my love for it has been displaced by rage and frustration lol. Last thing I’d think of doing after work.
Treczoks@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 160d
Not really. It means I have access to devices and tools I simply could not afford as a hobbyist. It means I can go to trade fairs and seminars paid for by my boss. It means I can get materials for my hobby at large customer discount prices.
StoneyPicton@lemmy.ca · 8 pts · 159d
moonshadow@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 159d
You only have to work within a system for success within that system. Alternatives are just waiting for your participation. A better world is possible.
StoneyPicton@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 158d
digdilem@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 159d
God, you must be even older than I am! We did Basic at school, and our teacher showed us punch cards, and tape, but we never actually used them - BBC B's being the tool of that time. Those were great times - genuinely pushing the boundaries of the possible, spending hours hand optimising code to save a few bytes or cycles, all with only printed manuals as reference. Understood about corporate structure, and for me also, some individuals can really affect the subject (I detest rudeness in particular)
StoneyPicton@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 158d
Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 7 pts · 158d
My husband is a chef.
My husband cooked two meals for me in our first year dating(I will never forget him making steak for me in his boxers at midnight, never, absolutely amazing). He's not cooked for me since. I am okay with this arrangement. Sometimes, he cant even be in the kitchen when Im doing prep lol I totally get it.
I do feel some sorrow, as I see it in him too, his loss of love for cooking.
digdilem@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 158d
That's sad to hear.
Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 157d
Can he not be in the kitchen due to work trauma or because you arent doing it like in the kitchen and he feels like it's a wrong workflow?
Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 157d
naw, he just has worked in kitchens for over 15 years. If he watches me prep, it just reminds him of work.
Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 157d
Understandable.
I just imagine the possible reasons for why
Does your prep annoy him so much because it could be done in X ways faster and with less work but he doesnt want to steal your joy in food prep
or
You remind him in how you work of his trainees and essentially stays quiet to keep the peace at home
Either way, the internet stranger wishes you a good week :)
Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 157d
not at all for either of those.
Im trained.. I was trained before I even met him. Im offended you think my knife skills are shit tbh. I don't work in a kitchen anymore, but I have so, idk. Dont assume? It's just like a car mechanic doesnt want to come home and work on cars. He don't wanna come home and cook. Maybe seeing my joy in the kitchen makes him sad. But, like, dont diss my skill, you dont know me.
Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 154d
Just so you know, this just came up in converstation with my husband, (losing hobbies because of work). So I read him out what you said, and what I said. He said, "you're better than 80% of the people I work with, that's just some online troll, Im serious you're better than most people I work with, don't listen to people like that".
His loss of love for cooking has nothing to with me. It's three days later bruh and like, don't assume man. Diss my skill, a skill I pride myself in. humphhhh.
Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 153d
You took this way too literal.
Look. I'm sorry if I offended you, okay?
Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 152d
I took this too literally? lmao
Im not mad, have a good day :)
hyacin@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 158d
Always, yes, but thankfully I have a very wide scope.
entropiclyclaude@lemmy.wtf · 5 pts · 158d
I’ve done martial arts for 30 years.
I’ve taught for 20. Owned for 11 of those.
Honestly, it was all great until Covid. I love teaching, I’ve been lucky enough to have some great athletes and competitors.
But parents suck. 90 minutes of karate and kickboxing a week are not going to fix your little twat waffle. Stop being a friend and discipline your children.
Alvaro@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 158d
I love IT and cybersecurity and I've worked in it for years and it has not diminished my love for the hobby. It did make me realize that I hate working in it because it does not actually contain a lot of the things I enjoy and it mostly has corporate BS.
Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 158d
Same with IT, also been a fan of technology and computers and its nice when I get to use those skills/passions at work.
Just wish I didn't hate the company I worked for and didn't have to go into an office to do it. (Considering I did the same job WFH for 4 years until they forced us back)
digdilem@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 158d
I feel you. I'm much more productive working from home with fewer distractions, but I'm a little luckier in that I get to split that time.
volvoxvsmarla@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 159d
Absolutely yes.
I've dreamt of making movies and theater plays. I got into internships after finishing school and it was going good, I just started hating it. I hated movies, I couldn't see them without thinking of all the misery behind the scenes. I hated TV. I hated theater.
I stopped after a year and went to university. It ruined something else for me, but at least, after a while, I was able to enjoy movies again.
digdilem@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 159d
That's really interesting, and sad to lose an interest for a while. Do you remember what triggered the shift to hating it? Movies themselves, or the internship and environment of that, so closely associated with the subject?
TheOctonaut@piefed.zip · 4 pts · 158d
Programmer turned photographer turned back to programmer.
I was really enjoying the online photography scene the 2000s and early 2010s. I used to do street photography, ask interesting people to take their portrait, blag a press pass and take photos of up and coming bands ("sure why not" is a crazy answer to "can I inexpertly point my flash directly at Florence Welch as she performs her last tiny gig before stardom").
I started doing work for wannabe models (ModelMayhem mostly) and from that got requests to do paid personal events, eg weddings and engagements. Especially when I moved abroad to places where I was basically self employed, this was a nice little occasional gig. But it was work. Regardless of why they chose me, they wanted their photos to look the current fashionable way, they wanted them by a certain date, they wanted specific moments and they wanted them perfect even if they weren't perfect in real life. It sucked all the fun and creativity from it.
Coupled with the overloading of the internet with (elitist snob coming) mundane and repetitive photography content and the death of discussion and appreciation of thoughtful photography, it eroded my love for it on both ends.
I'm old and have kids now, I'm trying to get back into it. It's hard to build back up that courage to take out a camera and snap a photo. Before it marked you as unusual, but at least as potentially an expert or artist. There was a percentage of people willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. It seems these days that like many "democratised" things, putting extra effort into something seems to be heavily discouraged and denigrated as elitist. And I think just in general a 40-something with a camera does not get the benefit of the doubt that a 20-something used to. I'm hoping it swings around again as I hit proper old age, just a harmless old weirdo with a DSLR.
digdilem@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 157d
Interesting, thanks for sharing.
My father was also an amateur photographer who went professional - doing lots of weddings and events. He got quite frustrated with that too, even though this was back in the 70s. Even then, the customer usually had a strong view about what they wanted, which gave him little leeway to be creative - much as you describe. He also found getting paid at the end of the job really difficult, so much so the combination forced him to give it up, and that pretty much killed his love too. Sold most of his cameras and lenses and all his darkroom equipment.
Hazzard@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 158d
Definitely somewhat, but not so much "diminished my enjoyment" as "prevents me from doing as a hobby".
Programmer here, and I find that working on these types of problems just wears out that "part" of my brain. It becomes not fun to force myself to focus on those things as a hobby anymore, despite that being how I got into programming. I don't resent it though, I actually really enjoy doing it as my job. And shake it up a little, and I'll hugely enjoy something like programming systems in Factorio, but any ambitions I have of say, making a game, aren't happening until I retire or change careers.
digdilem@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 158d
I can understand that. I've always coded for fun (Basic, Turbo C, lots of psuedo languages, then perl, sql, php, python and so on) - learning that stuff is hard for me but very rewarding when I do. I actually find it harder to learn stuff at work, but it's great to do at work too. I transfer skills between the two schools - and each has enough variation that whilst there's technical and skill crossover, the headspace is very different - at least for me. But yes, if I've been doing that all day, I'll do something else in the evening. I restored a car as a distraction from work once, but that was when I was in a job that I really hated.
High five for factorio mention. Incredible game, although I'm playing more Captain of Industry lately. Different but similar brain scratching.
Admetus@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 160d
I think the difference is that it was already your passion rather than a hobby.
digdilem@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 159d
Yes, definitely - and perhaps I should have including that as I think I was also asking, "Can work kill that passion"?
Admetus@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 159d
I'd say no. As they say, find your passion, and if you make money using that passion, you're good for life.
digdilem@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 159d
Mmm, but they also say to keep your work and personal life separate.
Admetus@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 158d
I reckon that applies when you're working for a company but freelance (or own company) you may inevitably start to overlap public and private life.
digdilem@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 158d
Yes, it can definitely do that. You have to be extremely firm with yourself about boundary creep but even then, the temptation to check in on the business side when you're supposed to be off is big.
christian@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 158d
I was really passionate about math for years, and I spent most of my free time on it. When I got to grad school and I had to do it to survive my passion dried up. I think it became harder to have fun when I knew I wouldn't be free to put a project down if I wanted to, and when math stopped being fun I stopped being good at it.
I passed all my coursework and exams but I burned out before finishing my dissertation and dropped out seven years into my phd program. It's six years later and I still barely touch it. I passed qualifying exams in algebraic topology and today if you asked me to compute a homology group I'd be clueless.
I'm not going to discount that monetizing your passions works for some people, but the experience of finding out you're not one of those people is soul-crushing.
digdilem@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 158d
Oh, that sounds brutal. Sorry.
HubertManne@piefed.social · 3 pts · 159d
How long have you been doing it? I went from science to IT and for 10 or 15 years it was still fun as a hobby but I have been doing it for 25 years and in the last 10 I generally want to have things that work without to much fuss for my personal time.
digdilem@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 159d
That could be a valid point and I certainly appreciate the value in a clear separation. It's been my hobby since 1981 when I got my first computer, and aside from a poor six months working in a support job in the 90s, it's only been my main career for 7 or 8 years. My colleagues are a mixture of those who like to selfhost and fiddle in their spare time too, and those who actively avoid technology.
HubertManne@piefed.social · 2 pts · 158d
Im curious if the ones who avoid have been doing it a long time vs the ones who self host. I don't feel I avoid technology but I do avoid a lot of enshitified stuff like I don't like smart phones and I prefer to spend my free time in nature and away from technology. I mean I do use a linux laptop now and most all programs I use are open source but like because I like stuff to just work I use an out of the box distro although I may change to bazzite but more for the image base than gaming per se.
Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 157d
Depends on the task.
Yes and no.
FireWire400@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 159d
I'd love to try working at a radio station or a record store, just to do something related to music
mistermodal@lemmy.ml · -2 pts · 158d
Not really actually I was pretty compulsive about my hobbies and they feel all integrated and more fulfilling now I guess