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Defining the idea of a “hobby” is surprisingly hard For example you might think low risk is part of it but many hobbies are high risk, like sailing. More so than dangerous professions. Or low impact. Many of the biggest inventions came from hobbyist tinkering.
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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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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
People get a lot of social status from success in hobbies. Particularly from within hobby-group status, but also it also applies to external status hierarchies. If you meet someone at a party who just ran a marathon, they expect to get some social status from that achievement.