2 posts tagged “choosing a hobby”

I checked out a list of hobbies on from Wikipedia. The 5 top one I chose based on my passion are:

1. Internet-based hobbies
2. Literature
3. Photography
4. Performing arts
5. Film-making

 The different hobbies classified under Internet Based Hobbies (with a few additions from my end) are :

1. Blogging
2. Web design and development
3. Knowledge Transfer: Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers
4. Random surfing: StumbleUpon, Digg 
5. Forums: Newsgroups, Trolling
6. Social Networking: Beboing,  Facebooking, MySpacing, Friendstering, Mindsaying, Orkutting
7. Chatting: IRC, MSN, Yahoo, AOL
8. Passing on: BookCrossing, PostCrossing, Currency bill tracking
9. Novel: Geocaching, Google whacking, GPS drawing
10. Gaming: MUD

 The different hobbies classified under Literature are :

1. Reading and bibliophilia
2. Writing
3. Learning foreign languages
4. Penpal
5. Zines
6. Constructed languages (conlanging)
7. Geofiction, including model nations

Photography is in itself an art, and anything starting from people to objects in the sky unseen to naked eye could be photographed. Film Making is another similar art - it could be a personal blog to a full fledged documentary about anything.

Some of the Performing Arts are: Singing, Dancing, Magic tricks, Poetry reading, Amateur theater and Juggling. But there could be more.

Out of the above 5 types of hobbies what seems to inspire me is Blogging - it involves writing, photography and film-making. I could even get a good traffic to my blog by spicing up what I write and it would turn into a "performing art" too; if you could call it that.

Let me look into the other requirements that I want my hobby to have:

a) Is blogging scalable? I could start with a personal blog and turn into a technical, cultural, creative or political one. The sky is the limit to the various possibilities.

b) Is blogging repeatable? Blogging can be done at any time, any day - thanks to email blogging and mobile blogging and pen and paper.

c) Is blogging challenging? Getting a good traffic is in itself a challenge. Then maintaining the traffic becomes the next challenge.

d) Can blogging be done solitarily and socially? I would thing so. Mostly blogging is done solitarily. Once the comments starts pouring in, it becomes a more social activity.

e) Can I earn from blogging? That depends on the traffic again. I could earn from ads if I felt a need to.

f) Is blogging affordable? I would need a laptop - which I already have and a good internet connection. Internet connection would cost £15+ in UK and Rs.500+ back in India. Not very expensive if I can own the laptop and if I am employed.

g) Is blogging a portable hobby? The blogs are maintained online, and a backup can be taken on the laptop. Both are portable. An additional reporter's notebook should make it a complete portable hobby.

h) Is blogging Physically, Artistically and Intellectually challenging? Blogging is definitely not physically challenging for a normally healthy person like me. I could make in physically challenging by doing a bit of outdoor blogging. It is both artistic and intellectual.

i) Is blogging capable of bringing some sort of recognition? Another thing tht depends solely on traffic. If the content is interesting and useful to the readers recognition will follow.

I have been trying to choose new hobbies for this year or re-enforce the old ones. As I resorted to my Google-Genie to help me make the choice, here are a few tips I got.

1. I should be interested in it and passionate about it.
2. It should be scalable, which means it should have room to grow more advanced as years pass.
3. It should be repeatable - irrespective of seasons or time.
4. It should be challenging. If it is too easy, then there wouldn't be any excitement to it.
5. I should be able to choose to pursue my hobby both solitarily and socially.
6. I should be able to earn out of it.
7. It should be affordable.
8. It should be portable - as I am bit of a nomad.
9. It should have various sides to it - Physical, Artistic and Intellectually challenging.
10. It should help me attain some sort of recognition at some level.

That's not a small list. Let me see if I can get anywhere with it.