Ask Lemmy

Undisputed UK champion of pyro cricket.

I let you be the judge of that.

I love vidyagames but have unexceptional skill in them. I did once finish the Ice Cold Beer arcade machine by Taito, I LOVE that game. And It only took me 2500 tries ✨

😅🤣

I think it is a trap to think about it this way. My hobbies are meant to bring me joy and challenge, no matter what level i am on

Unless it’s programming or sysadmin, I’m mediocre at all my hobbies, but I enjoy them a lot. It’s great not feeling pressured to do them professionally like a paid job.

I feel bullied by this question

One of my hobbies turned professional :)

I am an aggressively mediocre singer but the 2 hour rehearsal on Monday is the highlight of my week. It's so fucking fun man!

Depends on the hobby. I tend to collect hobbies and then grow bored of them, then return to them a while later.

I'll become absolutely obsessed with learning about "hobby x", and spend two months basically getting as close to an expert on it as I can with self-teaching. (Video Editing, filmmaking, screenwriting, 3D modelling for flight simulators, Graphic Design, etc...)

Then I'll grow bored and move onto a new obsession from the above list, focus on that long enough that at least 25% of my knowledge of the previous obsession vanishes and I have to relearn a bunch the next time that obsession rolls around.

I've been told that's possibly ADHD, but since I suffer from depression I'll take my bursts of obsessiveness over lack of any motivation any day.

Best part of having hobbies is that you don't need to be good!

Jack of all trades; master of none.

I used to be really good at video games, but now I just don't have the time. I remember being able to jump in any CS lobby and jump to the top of the server. I got kicked for supposedly cheating all the time. That was always a good feeling. Knowing that I'm kicking so much ass that people assume I must be cheating.

My crowning achievement is beating Super Ghouls and Ghosts - both times through (second time with the farie bracelet). This was using an original SNES, no save states or anything. Dedicated an entire summer of my teenage life to it. Game is hard, man.

Computers used to be a hobby but I turned that into a career. I'm a principal systems engineer and I like to think I'm good at what I do.

I got really into cooking, and it was maybe a hobby at some point, but now with a family it's more of a necessity. A lot of the things I learned while cooking as a hobby turned into skills though. I'm not sure how to explain it, but like having cooking intuition. Knowing when to add more or less of something just by knowing. Also just being able to freestyle meals out of what is laying around or knowing what can be substituted with what or how to make ingredients out of other ingredients.

Why do you have to bring up my shortcomings like that?

Mediocre at best, and I lack the mental fortitude to work at much of anything these days, so wherever I'm at, I'm not going to improve much.

Some people relish the feeling of swimming through molasses* for the next hit of progress dopamine, or they don't get that feeling at all, but that's what happens to me and it basically short-circuits something in my brain. It's bad enough that I struggled to write the last part of that sentence, and it's happening while I'm proofreading this as well.

* or treacle if the unintended concept of small mammal anatomy bothers you.

I played Clash Royale and was top 5 in Chile for some seasons, I play Risk Global Domination and ranked Grandmaster, I play chess in Lichess with ratings just under 2000(I once luckily defeated a National Master at a simul), I do Windsurf and I'm terrible at it, I have played Football all my life and I'm average, I like painting and I'm worst than terrible at it. That's about it.

As good as I care to be. Hobbies are supposed to be fun.

I really just play video games, and the game I was best at was Rocket League. When I played, I was in the top rank and would regularly end up in matches with actual pros. I wanted to try going to RLCS, but I could never find teammates to sign up with.

But I also have 100% achievements in all 3 dark souls and elden ring, while currently going for Bloodborne's. Sekiro I haven't even beaten yet... Gonna have to cheese Owl.

A hobby becomes a job when you worry if you are good at it.

I am an IT guy and a hobby photographer, judge for yourself:

@stoy@metapixl.com

https://metapixl.com/Stoy

• Creating games: Good enough that my IT teacher was impressed enough that he recommended that I go into the game industry

• Drawing: Good enough that I've got hundreds of followers and a lot of people like my art

• Games: I can beat the original Pikmin in 7 in-game days and I also beat Mushihimesama Futari's final boss on Ultra Mode.

I'm terrible at them. Baked a flat pancake that was supposed to be bread. Fumbling on the guitar. Haven't drawn anything in the past 3 years. Electrical projects on hold.

I think I have to focus a little bit more 😅

I'm a good enough cook that several friends have seriously suggested I apply for Masterchef, but I have no interest in the restaurant side of the competition.

Um, I beat Noita once. I beat FTL: Faster Than Light on Hard sometimes. I beat Pocket Rogue once. I also scored first-place in some hard-difficulty Moon Rider VR beatmaps, but I gotta get back into that.

Video games? Bad at them. I play lowest difficulty and still die but I have fun. Baking? Pretty good! People like my baked goods and they are almost always eaten before they go bad (unless I make far too much)

Fucking terrible, I took up hockey last year as an adult.

I'm the best I've ever been, but I'm skating with guys my same age that have three decades more practice.

Ages ago, before i started to teach my techniques to the masses, i was considered the international specialist in that field. I have withdrawn since then, but I am still good.

Boardgames, around 75%

Badminton, around 55%

Not very good, but that's sort of the point for me; my favourite part of any hobby is the learning. I did a woodworking class the other day!

It's taken a lot of work to get to the point where I can be comfortable with being mediocre at something and just doing it for the joy of it. I'm quite an intense person, with perfectionist tendencies, so it's nice to be able to carve out some things that I can be more chill about.

I barely start them and then I jump to something else. I have a big problem

My hobby has a leaderboard, so for better or for worse, I know exactly how good I am at it. Currently sitting around the top 0.01% of Power Shift players in The Finals, down from top 0.001% last season. Part of me hates knowing this, because I tend to obsess over it. But another part of me loves it because I never get to gloat about anything in life, so it's fun to brag once in a while.

Decent at some and a beginner at others. Tbh, I have more hobbies than time to practice and really get good at all of them. So progress is slow, but I enjoy each one of them and don't want to give up any just yet. Guess I'm taking the scenic route to mastery, maybe by the time I retire I'll be really cooking. And if not, I still would consider it time well spent.

Type 2 fun and overthinking. I am good at enjoying both.

Bouldering: I enjoy it, even though I’m not great at it. My short wingspan doesn’t help, and neither does my fear of heights. Every climb is a mix of determination and second-guessing my life choices and I'm excellent at the latest.

Gardening: It sounds relaxing, but in reality, it’s a cycle of overthinking. First, I stress about planting. Then I wait. And once/if it grows, there’s a whole lineup of threats: slugs, cats, deer, boars, hail… basically, everything conspiring against success. Not sure what I enjoy about it but I'd say I am moderately successful and can eat a self planted potato every year

One hobby turned into a career (software engineering), which hopefully means I'm decent at it. I also play the bass guitar, which I okay at, but eagerly trying to reach a high level. I have a million other hobbies that I do fine at. But grading yourself is only useful as a way to keep from stagnating and to create healthy goals. The internet is really dangerous in this regard, because you'll always find someone who's way better than you. At the end of the day I just want to keep my brain stimulated and have fun with the time I have.