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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
I got into computing early on (high school Fortran programming on punch cards, lol) and really loved it, more so when we switched to BASIC the second year. I decided to pursue that as my career as well and really enjoyed it until retirement. What I think took some fun out of it was my dealings with corporate structure. I think the thing to remember is the seperation between that thing you love and the system that you have to work within to achieve success.
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)
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.
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.
I’d love to try working at a radio station or a record store, just to do something related to music
I think the difference is that it was already your passion rather than a hobby.
Yes, definitely - and perhaps I should have including that as I think I was also asking, “Can work kill that passion”?
I’d say no. As they say, find your passion, and if you make money using that passion, you’re good for life.
Mmm, but they also say to keep your work and personal life separate.
Yes, and no.
Some jobs were hell and some were amazing, but I was always happiest cooking for the family (kids are grown and gone, so now it’s mostly the two of us).
I like the diversity of what I can prep at home, sometimes (when we’re flat out at the restaurant) seeing what i can week out that’s good with no ingredients.
Basically it’s the different challenges at home vs. the daily grind that make the difference for me. Some days I like the consistency that work brings, and sometimes it’s just something to check off a list so I can get home and do ‘some real food’.
So your job is cooking?
Basically it’s the different challenges at home vs. the daily grind that make the difference for me.
That makes a lot of sense. A lot of the ‘stress’ of my job comes from people - asking permission, considering stakeholders, working around their needs - that it’s quite freeing to “JFDI” something, knowing that it’s only me that cares or is affected.
The venn diagram between “work” and “play” for me has a lot of intersecting area, but the distinctions are mostly clear. Guessing it’s the same for you - especially with the extra depth that cooking for family involves.
Absolutely, it’s amazing how much each spect of the career has different disciplines - for example when you can set up an event from soup to nuts, so to speak: Make a menu, get a budget, get the product, gat the cooks to produce it, execute the event, and then reconcile the costs, feedback from the guests (and your boss/business owner) and have everything go as planned has each its own sense of satisfaction and heartburn.
This year marks 40 years, everything from McDonald’s to 4* 5 Diamond restaurants, several countries and 3 continents, which finally led to us opening a humble little BBQ joint ran by just us 2 (and a couple neighbor kids during high season) and it took all that experience (and, luck!) to survive the opening 4 months before COVID, lol.
Cooking at home is more simplified, and more satisfying.
Oof, that must have been brutal. I understand the satisfaction and still try to recognise and store up the good days, but something like Covid is a blindsider that took so many businesses out.
Hospitality here in the UK suffered hugely, even to the extent that the government created an ill-founded system called “eat out to help out” and paid people to eat at restaurants. (And did cause more spreading of the virus). I’m lucky to live close to several good food pubs, but they’re still struggling and gradually closing as costs rise.
