What is something like a hobby or skill that you belive almost anybody should give a try, and what makes your suggestion so good compared to other things?

i feel like this is a descent question i guess.

  • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Biking.

    Moving under your own power has so many benefits:

    • It’s fun
    • It’s cheap (or can be, to be fair)
    • It’s good for your health
    • It’s good for the planet
      • withersailor@aussie.zone
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        1 year ago

        I cringe watching someone struggling to turn the pedals when they are riding a multi geared bike.

        Cycling is good for the knees, if you’re not staining to turn the pedals. That’s why gearing exists.

        Use the gears to make the pedaling easier.

    • beunice@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I started cycling to commute about a year ago and it’s been such a wonderful thing for my mental and physical health, not to mention my bank account. Beware that you may get sucked down the Not Just Bikes rabbit hole if you’re not careful and end up becoming a walkable/bikable cities advocate as I have.

    • shice@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I tried sign language on a whim in college and ended up loving it! It’s really unique and fun to use. It ended up being my secondary focus on my degree. Also, Deaf people are always super happy whenever there is someone to speak with, even if you stumble through it they are always patient and try to help

        • shice@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I studied it for about 4 years doing a mix of learning and being a teaching assistant for the intro classes, but realistically I was conversational after 2 classes or about a year.

          Some tips if you want to learn. I learned American Sign so your mileage may vary for others:

          -Find out what sign language is primarily used in your country ASL (American Sign Language) in the US, BSL (British Sign Language) in England, I think some parts of Canada use FSL (French Sign Language) but I cant remember. Universal Sign exists, but is never used so dont learn that.

          -Use your dominant hand for all single handed signs

          -Learn the alphabet, there are not signs for every word that exists. Often times words are spelled out (fingerspelled) instead of having signs. So by learning your alphabet you can always default to spelling things out if you dont know the sign.

          -Facial expressions are super important. They feel really weird at first and often times are what beginners struggle with the most, but they are used to show tone in the conversation and without them you are missing a large building block of the language.

          -I found the best way to practice was to sign to myself instead of talking to myself. It helped me remember the main signs that I would use in conversation and helped me practice my finger spelling.

          If anyone has any questions, feel free to reach out. Im still very passionate about the language and culture.

          • Padjakkels@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Thank you for all the tips and everything!! South Africa use their own sign language - went on their website and they offer a course! I enrolled for it.

            Interesting what you say about facial expressions - it makes sense!

            Can’t wait to start with it.

  • balance_sheet@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    For me it’s selfhosting/programming. I don’t even work in IT. It’s just such a great hobby that actually makes your life more productive.

    • ShySpark@lemmy.fmhy.mlOP
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      1 year ago

      ive been wanting to get into game dev but it seems like alot of work and i suck at everything, also im limted with software and im not even sure what game engine or thing to use, if that makes sense. do you hav eany advice or something you want to share?

      • thegiddystitcher@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I’m a hobbyist game dev also. Main advice would be that yes it is a lot of work and you may suck at everything, but the only way to get any better is to get started.

        Pick an engine, it really doesn’t matter which for the most part (I used to use Unity and recently switched to Godot, the way people evangelise the latter can be a bit offputting but as an objective user of both I can say they’ve got pros and cons like anything else). The exception being if you want to make a very specific kind of game like visual novels for example, then you’d be best served learning Ren’Py since that’s what the engine is for.

        Other than that, get something installed and hunt down some tutorials for it. Doesn’t matter if they’re irrelevant to what you hope you’ll one day make, you’re just trying to learn the basics here. Take what you learn in tutorials, and modify it in some way, that helps things sink in better and gives you more understanding about what your code (or your blender animation, or whatever) is actually doing and how it works.

        TLDR: Just get stuck in!

        p.s. there’s a few general “gamedev” communities on here so far but I think the most active one is !gamedev@lemmy.blahaj.zone (direct link). Check out the pinned post in there with links to neighbours like engine-specific communities etc. Someone is also organising a Fediverse game jam for next month so that could be a good way to join a team and get started doing small tasks on a game that you wouldn’t be able to make yourself yet.

  • thegiddystitcher@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Crochet

    Pros

    • Documented mental health benefits
    • Cheap to start, can learn from online tutorials
    • Easier than knitting
    • Make cool toys, clothes, home accessories, whatever you want
    • Get to smush yarn into your face on a regular basis

    Cons

    • Fibre crafts gateway drug
      • thegiddystitcher@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Sounds like you have the most important part of the hobby down already, at least!

        (see my reply to the other comment for various maybe-helpful links)

      • thegiddystitcher@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Well, I don’t want to be That Person but technically I made a (long) video for total crochet beginners that I know quite a few people have used to great success. It’s frontloaded with theory though and more for people like me who learn by understanding the “why” of what they’re doing.

        If you prefer to do it in shorter chunks or without all the tedious theory, which let’s face it most people do, I’ve heard really good things about this Bella Coco series which has, um, slightly more views than mine 😅

        There’s a fairly new (aren’t they all) crochet community over at !crochet@lemmy.ca (direct link) that seems very nice so far, I’m sure they’d love to help with your first attempts too!

    • Badabinski@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I like crochet, even though I’m really bad at it. It’s very peaceful (unless I’m counting stitches, then it’s a constant fight against my ADHD), and I have a bunch of cool scarves now.

      • thegiddystitcher@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I think that’s part of why I suggested it over knitting, you can do the complex projects with the counting and the actual effort OR you can just mindlessly crochet a long scarf or a bunch of cotton washclothes and end up with something practical.

        Knitting is a lot slower and also less suitable for some of those small projects like washcloths so unless it’s basic garter stitch you pretty much know you’re gonna have to concentrate at least a little bit.

        • Badabinski@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          My girlfriend does both, and it’s definitely amazing how much faster crochet is! Like, “oh, here’s a giant amigurumi dragon I whipped up in a week,” or “here’s a poncho made over the weekend for our vacation,” with crochet, versus “I have to frog 4 weeks of work because I slipped a stitch and didn’t notice.” Granted, she’s much better at crochet (by her admission), but knitting seems tough. Love the stuff you can make with it though.

          • thegiddystitcher@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Haha, yep that sounds about right! I do love being able to do both, some things you can do with knitting you just can’t do in crochet especially if you need to create a nice drapey fabric. Being bistitchual is the best of both worlds!

  • sjh@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Baking - fresh warm bread is so good!

    Sewing - it’s nice to add pockets to things 😁

  • Hovenko@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    3D printing. Suddenly you are able to fix small plastic shit in your house which would otherwise mean throwing out the whole goddamn thing. Best feeling ever to repair and save stuff.

    • Ratboy@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      It’s extremely difficult for me to cook regularly anymore, I just don’t have the energy. When I do choose to, though, I make it a fun event and it’s so satisfying. Put on some music, drink some beers and go to town.

      I made Chinese noodles from scratch a while back and while they were SOOOOO GOOD, it was so labor intensive that I would only do it for fun and not to satiate myself lol. They were nice and bouncy noodles, cut a little smaller than chow fun.

  • freebrick@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Running. Fairly cheap. Can set your own schedule. Improves physical and mental health, increases self confidence, can help with sleep and weight loss.

  • Badabinski@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Some form of metal working, and specifically machining. I really enjoy machining, and I’ve been able to make some genuinely useful things. The tools are actually really quiet and stateful, unlike woodworking power tools which SCREAM at you like horrible demons. Seeing people look at their first top, or pen, or miniature cannon is great. Plus, things made in metal are at least slightly shiny.

    For example, you could make dumbbell handles and plates like this: a photo of dumbbell handles and weight plates

    Or a metal yarn winder like this: a photo of an all-metal yarn winder

    The major downside is that it’s not cheap (not as expensive as boats, possibly more expensive than photography), and it requires at least a bit of space that you wouldn’t mind getting dirty. Luckily, I feel like makerspaces are starting to have more and more metalworking equipment.

  • kani@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    Learning a new language. You learn a bit about how languages work, understand other cultures a bit better, usually learn new vocabulary for your native language, understand the relationship between different languages, learn the roots of loan words and generally helps your brain stay healthy, even by only studying the basics.

      • The_Empty_Tuple@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Not OP, but I’ve asked myself this as well. I think it depends on where you live and what you want out of your language learning experience. If your goal is to learn something more useful in everyday life and you live in the southern US, Spanish is a great option. If you’re from Canada, French is probably the most useful. German and Mandarin are useful in the business world, but the latter is significantly harder to learn. If you’re not worried about maximizing the utility of what you learn, Norwegian is considered one of the easiest languages for English speakers, and let’s be real, Norway is awesome.

        It’s more important that you stick with whatever you choose though. That’s the part I’ve struggled with.

      • thegiddystitcher@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Bit of an off-the-wall suggestion but I was having real trouble learning other languages mostly due to all the cases (and sometimes genders). So I started learning Esperanto, which admittedly is not the most practical language to know BUT it really helped me understand languages more in general. It’s very simple to learn and easy for an English-speaker to pronounce, as well as having lots of recognisable words (the Esperanto for “yes” is “jes”, which is pronounced “yes” lol)

        Now that I’ve gone back to learning German I’m feeling much more confident about learning in general just because I got some of the grammar concepts from a much easier language. Might be worth a look if you’ve struggled before.

  • jrubal1462@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    At work, I have a reputation for being the guy who never shuts up about trying to get new people into scuba diving. If there are 2 or more divers at the lunch table I honestly feel a little bad for everybody else. The cost of getting trained and renting or buying all your gear can scare people away, but I would at least strongly recommend that anybody on an island vacation or cruise at least try a “discover Scuba” class. You’ll learn everything you need to know to not die by watching a quick video, and working in a pool, then you get to go have an amazing dive in the ocean with an instructor.

  • CynAq@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Juggling!

    • It can be done dirt cheap

    • It’s really therapeutic

    • You can practice it almost anywhere but especially alone in your room

    • If you git gud at it, you have a cool skill to show off

  • MiddleWeigh@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    An instrument. It’s soul food and extremely therapeutic. Even if you suck, just learn to let it go. I find it’s really good for my mental health. I dunno, it’s music ya know? Lol

  • Spinellicat@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    Hiking, there are a wide range of hike trails depending on fitness or time levels, it gets you moving and seeing nature and it can help build stamina and endurance which can be helpful in so many other day to day things. Also to start out on smaller hikes there are very few start-up costs its also lots of fun and can be alone or meet new people also hiking i find a lot of kindness and friendliness in a lot of the hiking community.