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Replying to
The best I have so far is: an activity pursued with surplus time and resources, inoculated from considerations of practical returns.
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A lot of hobbyists spend ruinous amounts on hobbies, to the detriment of arguably more important things like say health or marriage or kids’ needs. So I don’t know if ex-ante low-stakes is correct. 🤔
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Replying to @vgr
ex-ante low stakes, reward wise.
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You also do other things in your leisure time, such as spend time with friends/family, watch movies, work on startups, take vacations... so leisure is necessary but not sufficient.
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Replying to @vgr
I always thought the distinction was just that it’s something you do in your leisure time.
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Hmm. This is an intriguing line of thought and I think on to something. Though hobbyist communities can have status contests too, they are easily avoided. You generally don’t need a community to pursue most hobbies.
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Replying to @vgr
First snap thought is hobbies don't seem to affect your social status. They aren't risky in a way that success/failure isn't tied to others perception of you.
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Ok yeah, skill or knowledge seems necessary. So take 2: activity pursued with surplus time and resources, without regard to material reward or social status, and involving developing a skill or gaining knowledge.
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Replying to @joeld and @vgr
There must also be a skill- or knowledge- (or asset- in the case of collectors, maybe) gaining component
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There’s also an element of contentment andcrelaxation. The opposite of existential angst or neurotic striving.
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Hmm. Some truth to this though I think historically they were unironically called hobbies. This is a zizekian definition a la cynicism as a form of ideology. It’s only a hobby if pursued with some ironic distance from the unironic base concept.
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Replying to @vgr
This is because nobody ever goes into a "hobby" labeling it as such, it's a label applied purely from an outsider perspective. For the practitioner himself its usually more like an vortex that just pulled you in.
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Some shit shouldn’t be considered hobbies: reading, listening to music, traveling, video games, cooking, playing most sports. Consumption isn’t a hobby. They’re non-hobby leisure pastimes. Once it’s too common it’s no longer a hobby.
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Replying to
There's an interesting argument that a lot of what we now see as hobbies were invented to divert and shape masculine passions as an antidote to a perceived crisis of masculinity (compare feminized cooking as domestic labor and masculinized hobby cooking)
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