Many of the examples you used as hobbies you hate are not really hobbies, they are mindless consumption (doomscrolling, Marvel). And many things you say people should be taking up instead (writing a book, going outside in myriad ways) are, arguably, hobbies. And "hanging out" is how philosophy happens.
I hated every single word of this essay, good work 👍
I simply don't have time to do the dishes mother, my spicy takes must be tweeted post haste! My special opinions are a project of "civilizational scope!"
didn't read: "Some of you see hypocrisy, having read my 8,000 word essay re-writing Star Wars. How does a nerd like me have the right to attack the hobbies of other nerds?"
didn't read: "Some of you see hypocrisy, having read my 8,000 word essay re-writing Star Wars. How does a nerd like me have the right to attack the hobbies of other nerds?"
The hobbits are so obviously the ideal and the best mortal inhabitants of Middle Earth and who Tolkien loves best and thinks everyone should be like, if only they weren't so goddamn power and money hungry. If not for the hobbits and the Shire, there would literally be no point in bothering to fight against Sauron or the orcs or Smaug. The only purpose of doing those things at all is to allow the Shire and goodness to exist.
Cats and dogs are social hunting predators like us, which is exactly why we get along so well and understand each other. People who keep non-mammal, non-predator pets are indeed weirdos who are doing something they shouldn't.
Half the things on your list of what people should do are hobbies (singing, climbing, building, inventing, and sailing).
Is what you're really saying is that the only things people should do are eat, sleep, reproduce, work, and make money? Of course, probably a third of jobs in this country are assisting people with their hobbies (selling them equipment, taking them on tours, teaching the skills). Or is the simple solution here that you simply declare your hobby to be a calling and passion for which you are convinced you will become a worldwide master, and then it's okay?
I love everything about your comment apart from the aspersions on me and my fish (if you don't see the appeal of something, is it necessarily morally wrong?) but yes, the Shire! That was the whole point, in LoTR as well!
I have had fish before and always end up wondering why I'd done it, and waiting for them to die. Why keep something in a tank just to look at it? Dogs and cats are part of your family...fish are more like...art to look at or something? I mean maybe if you have a really cool set up for them...but it just seems like they'd be happier free (could be wrong, who knows what's in the mind of a fish, maybe they like being safe from predators?). Whereas I am staying right now in an AirBnB cabin in the mountains, and last night a lost dog was absolutely BEGGING AND PLEADING to be let in with us...dogs and cats want to live with us. They ask to be adopted all the time. 😊
This guy writes an article "Against Hobbies" in which he endorses hobbies and denigrates things that are not hobbies because he doesn't actually know what a hobby is.
No matter how good the point he was trying to make is, it is completely and utterly soiled by how stupid he looks right now.
There is much to object to here, but in the main I like it. There is a clear problem of definition. Lirpa Strike gets us going solidly that some activities are mindless but some fun activities that take up a lot of time also contribute to the sum of knowledge. I recently wrote that autists may be as common among collectors as those with OCD.
I am the father of five sons, and now advocate that my labor-intensive parenting when the first two were young had a lot of redundancy. Children don't need that much attention. Perhaps it would be better to say that they need it intermittently, not constantly. We do things with our children because we like to help things grow, but also because it is just pleasurable. Is that, then, a hobby? If writing books is productive, is reading? Is a hobby of pleasure reading valuable, or just sitcoms and cop shows for smart people? Is going to get a PhD in a suspect field that produces trivial information productive or just a hobby of going to school and hanging out with school people? I am not just being a smartass about this. I just got back from 50th reunion at an elite school. I came away unimpressed where all this talent and effort had gone.
I like that you said the unsayable about pets. I have finally prevailed upon my wife to have no animals, not even dachshunds. They are not companions, we project human qualities on them and script them. A Love of Nature is often the same thing, worshiping aspects of ourselves in a mirror. It would be more efficient to just daydream, wasting fewer resources.
I honestly love articles like this because they remind me to put my phone down, take a deep breath, and go outside as opposed to reading shit like this
I think I get what you're saying here. You don't want to hobby your life away, you need a mission, a greater purpose. In short, you need a "religion" which should structure your life in sole way. That doesn't mean every tiny little activity needs to be directly connected to that mission but it should always be there lingering in the background, the undercurrent to your life.
Would a helpful division be between not the category of hobby but how it is done - whether “dissipative” or “generative” in nature?
18th century European upper class playing as botanists, geologists, and anthropologists could easily be categorized as hobbyists today, but made meaningful contributions to understanding of the world and practical innovations.
I would argue that the conclusion should be pursue the activities you engage in in your life “mission” with thoughtfulness, purpose, and excellence to the extent that future generations elevate it to an aspirational art form or past time
I would point out that, outside of a few benighted countries such as the USA and Australia, cats are allowed to go outside and engage in their natural activities, i.e. keeping down vermin.
The argument I hear most often regarding keeping cats indoors is to save the songbird population or something.
I keep mine inside because I live on a busy road and he's kinda dumb sometimes and I don't want to have to peel him off the road someday. Although I do take him out to explore the backyard on a harness
...goddamnit, I'm exactly who DL is talking about wrt to pets
Many of the examples you used as hobbies you hate are not really hobbies, they are mindless consumption (doomscrolling, Marvel). And many things you say people should be taking up instead (writing a book, going outside in myriad ways) are, arguably, hobbies. And "hanging out" is how philosophy happens.
I hated every single word of this essay, good work 👍
Virtually everything he describes as an alternative to "hobbies" *is* a hobby for someone - or else it's hurting people ("invade...pillage").
oh boo hoo
Yup. My main hobby is climbing. What does this essay suggest as an alternative to hobbies? Climbing.
Try climbing without a safety harness
writing a book isn't a hobby
Yes it is. Writing is certainly a hobby. Especially if you are not being paid to do it
no, you do not understand intention or intensity
No one writes a book without first having a writing hobby.
I never had a writing hobby. I always had a secret dream. Very different intention. One is therapy, the other is supremacy.
Interesting distinction. I remain unconvinced of your overall arguments but I can see what you mean here I suppose
Singing is addressed in the essay which you didn't read.
childless blogger with an unbelievable amount of time on their hands says people should do hard things and make babies
No you see, *my* hobby doesn't count. Because reasins
do you want to live free or die?
Life free of course, that's why I persue hobbies
i have less time than you
I simply don't have time to do the dishes mother, my spicy takes must be tweeted post haste! My special opinions are a project of "civilizational scope!"
didn't read: "Some of you see hypocrisy, having read my 8,000 word essay re-writing Star Wars. How does a nerd like me have the right to attack the hobbies of other nerds?"
At least when Mark twight says whiny shit like this he lives by his words
i die by my words
seriously read mark twight lol. if there was anyone willing to die by his words for no reason at all...
seems like a cool guy. your comments are not
Bro, you have an obsessive hobby, and it’s writing posts on Substack. Glass houses.
didn't read: "Some of you see hypocrisy, having read my 8,000 word essay re-writing Star Wars. How does a nerd like me have the right to attack the hobbies of other nerds?"
I'll just write a counter essay.
The hobbits are so obviously the ideal and the best mortal inhabitants of Middle Earth and who Tolkien loves best and thinks everyone should be like, if only they weren't so goddamn power and money hungry. If not for the hobbits and the Shire, there would literally be no point in bothering to fight against Sauron or the orcs or Smaug. The only purpose of doing those things at all is to allow the Shire and goodness to exist.
Cats and dogs are social hunting predators like us, which is exactly why we get along so well and understand each other. People who keep non-mammal, non-predator pets are indeed weirdos who are doing something they shouldn't.
Half the things on your list of what people should do are hobbies (singing, climbing, building, inventing, and sailing).
Is what you're really saying is that the only things people should do are eat, sleep, reproduce, work, and make money? Of course, probably a third of jobs in this country are assisting people with their hobbies (selling them equipment, taking them on tours, teaching the skills). Or is the simple solution here that you simply declare your hobby to be a calling and passion for which you are convinced you will become a worldwide master, and then it's okay?
People should be passionately great. Those who aren't deserve no glory.
I love everything about your comment apart from the aspersions on me and my fish (if you don't see the appeal of something, is it necessarily morally wrong?) but yes, the Shire! That was the whole point, in LoTR as well!
I have had fish before and always end up wondering why I'd done it, and waiting for them to die. Why keep something in a tank just to look at it? Dogs and cats are part of your family...fish are more like...art to look at or something? I mean maybe if you have a really cool set up for them...but it just seems like they'd be happier free (could be wrong, who knows what's in the mind of a fish, maybe they like being safe from predators?). Whereas I am staying right now in an AirBnB cabin in the mountains, and last night a lost dog was absolutely BEGGING AND PLEADING to be let in with us...dogs and cats want to live with us. They ask to be adopted all the time. 😊
You just gloss over the working line of dogs and their deep connection to humans over millennia.
Nearly all the aristocrats of every region bred dogs for companionship and work!
And no, pets are not a hobby. They are a companion.
Don’t have time to refute the rest of this nonsense but suffice to say, it’s an anti-human screed that is earning you an unfollow from me.
Also, it’s characteristically way too long. Your hobby of Substack venting should be reined in and you should go touch fur.
Dogs were bred for work, not for floofing.
Touch fur! Animals make us human.
i am an animal
The abject illiteracy of this generation...
This guy writes an article "Against Hobbies" in which he endorses hobbies and denigrates things that are not hobbies because he doesn't actually know what a hobby is.
No matter how good the point he was trying to make is, it is completely and utterly soiled by how stupid he looks right now.
There is much to object to here, but in the main I like it. There is a clear problem of definition. Lirpa Strike gets us going solidly that some activities are mindless but some fun activities that take up a lot of time also contribute to the sum of knowledge. I recently wrote that autists may be as common among collectors as those with OCD.
I am the father of five sons, and now advocate that my labor-intensive parenting when the first two were young had a lot of redundancy. Children don't need that much attention. Perhaps it would be better to say that they need it intermittently, not constantly. We do things with our children because we like to help things grow, but also because it is just pleasurable. Is that, then, a hobby? If writing books is productive, is reading? Is a hobby of pleasure reading valuable, or just sitcoms and cop shows for smart people? Is going to get a PhD in a suspect field that produces trivial information productive or just a hobby of going to school and hanging out with school people? I am not just being a smartass about this. I just got back from 50th reunion at an elite school. I came away unimpressed where all this talent and effort had gone.
I like that you said the unsayable about pets. I have finally prevailed upon my wife to have no animals, not even dachshunds. They are not companions, we project human qualities on them and script them. A Love of Nature is often the same thing, worshiping aspects of ourselves in a mirror. It would be more efficient to just daydream, wasting fewer resources.
You need an editor (or a hobby!). This was way too long.
How do I stop this trash from being recommended to me?
Fuck you you caused a Deep existential crisis in me. Now I shall ponder what to do with my life….
I honestly love articles like this because they remind me to put my phone down, take a deep breath, and go outside as opposed to reading shit like this
sexy
I think I get what you're saying here. You don't want to hobby your life away, you need a mission, a greater purpose. In short, you need a "religion" which should structure your life in sole way. That doesn't mean every tiny little activity needs to be directly connected to that mission but it should always be there lingering in the background, the undercurrent to your life.
Would a helpful division be between not the category of hobby but how it is done - whether “dissipative” or “generative” in nature?
18th century European upper class playing as botanists, geologists, and anthropologists could easily be categorized as hobbyists today, but made meaningful contributions to understanding of the world and practical innovations.
I would argue that the conclusion should be pursue the activities you engage in in your life “mission” with thoughtfulness, purpose, and excellence to the extent that future generations elevate it to an aspirational art form or past time
the upper class in the 18th century was degenerate. I support George Washington.
Have you read Josef Pieper on leisure? I think you’d find it fascinating
Powerful and agreed!
I would point out that, outside of a few benighted countries such as the USA and Australia, cats are allowed to go outside and engage in their natural activities, i.e. keeping down vermin.
The argument I hear most often regarding keeping cats indoors is to save the songbird population or something.
I keep mine inside because I live on a busy road and he's kinda dumb sometimes and I don't want to have to peel him off the road someday. Although I do take him out to explore the backyard on a harness
...goddamnit, I'm exactly who DL is talking about wrt to pets