Ask Lemmy

Jack of all trades; master of none.

Well I turned one of my major hobbies into a job so I'm pretty good at it. But now that I do it for work I don't do it for fun anymore.

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!

Hobbies are about enjoyment, not skill. You should never measure your accomplishments with hobbies based on how good you are at them.

That said... when I was younger, I only indulged in hobbies that I had any skill in. If I sucked at something, I typically gave it up quickly and looked for something else to do.

Video games were an exception. I enjoyed the gameplay so much, it didn't matter that I was awful at them. I'd grind the same levels over and over, hoping to finally beat it this time.

Interestingly enough, I'm actually really good at video games now. Not professionally so, but I have a lot more skill than most of my friends. I'm usually appointed team leader in any co-op games I play with my friends because I'm really good at tracking the mission objective and keeping everyone together. And now that I'm retired young, I spend a lot of time gaming throughout the days, which only makes me better.

I don't play games for the challenge or skill, though. I mostly play to enjoy an interactive story. So I usually turn the difficulty down to the easiest option so I don't get stuck from progression at any point. I can handle really difficult games, but I just don't want to. Unless my friends want a challenge, then I'll crank it up and then be constantly bailing them out from the nightmare they chose to play.

Not good at all, but I'm just happy to be there.

I feel bullied by this question

• 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.

In a few of my creative hobbies, I've been complimented by others in a way that I would consider sincere to the work.

I'm shit at video games.

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

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)

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Boardgames, around 75%

Badminton, around 55%

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

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.

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.

One of my hobbies turned professional :)

Was consistently in the top 15 or 20 in my age group (obstacle course racing) and was gearing up to aim for a podium finish but got rear ended on the way home from work one day in November so in recovery for a back Injury. Hoping I can get back to it again by the end of the year to but gotta hurry up and wait.

Started growing my own veg a year or two ago so getting steadily better at that and enjoying the process. (this one kinda skirts the line between just being self sufficient and a hobby though so make of it what you will)

Similar to others, pretty adequate at plenty of other stuff, the two above just immediately come to mind

I have no idea honestly. I do mountain bike trail riding but I've never done it with anyone else so there's no one to really compare myself to. I do ride on lot of trails that I rarely see other bike tracks on but I don't know wether it's because the trail is too technical or because it's just not fun to ride.

I'm pretty good at super smash bros.

Everything else is complicated. I want to improve but I also don't. I also don't want to stagnate or get worse. And I don't want to abandon them either but I hate doing them.

Fighting games: I'm a solid upper-intermediate player in most of the games I play. I've got a few tournament wins under my belt for smaller local brackets. At majors, I usually go 2-2 or 3-2, consistently finishing in the top half. Best I've ever done in a large bracket was 9th in Them's Fightin' Herds at Combo Breaker 2022.

Riichi Mahjong: Master 1 on MajSoul, 7th Dan on Riichi City. Our local club runs a seasonal league where I took 2nd last season and am currently ranked 4th this season, though with IRL games the sample size is a bit small. I know I have a lot to improve on still, my deal-in rate is akin to repeatedly putting my hand on a hot stove.

Versus puzzle games: Retired out of spite for the sad state of the competitive scene today, but I used to be the top Puyo Puyo player in my state, peaked at a 2700 rating back then. That is a big fish in a small pond though, top Japanese players are so far ahead of us because barely anyone in the west ever took this game seriously. Which leads into the long rant about why I called it quits... I've dabbled in a lot of other games as well, but when it comes to competitive scenes everything else is even more nonexistent than Puyo. There are a lot of games I can call myself good at just by default.

I'd say I'm pretty decent at bouldering, and have noticed that some people at the gym have started to ask me how to do problems and stuff, so that's cool.

Woodworking it really depends, sometimes I surprise myself and make something I actually quite like, other times Ill mess up the most simple things again.. But i just started out with my first hardwood project and I'm excited to see how it will turn out.

Sewing I'm very much a beginner and ask my girlfriend for help every step...

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.

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 😅

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.

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.

I'm fine in poetry, and terrible in skeleton reconstruction or things like taxidermy because I'm terrible with my hands, but I'll keep trying

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.