Some people say “hobby” like it’s a bad thing. In a race for more, it seems as though doing something you don’t get paid for, something that requires patience and skill–well, some people don’t get it. They’d rather troll around on social media or watch a rerun.
A generation or two ago, hobbies were things like paint by number or candlemaking, or perhaps a woodshop. That’s changing. Not simply because computers allow us to be far more professional, but because the very nature of the output is different.
This might be the golden age for a new kind of hobby, one that’s about community, leadership and producing public goods, not private ones.
Because it’s so much easier to connect and because ideas multiply, the generative hobby gives us a chance to make a contribution, even (especially) when we’re not at work. Sharing ideas, leading, connecting…
Wikipedia is the result of 5,000 people working together to produce a resource that’s used by a billion people. The people who have contributed the most don’t work there, they work on it.
Jeff Atwood is transforming a long-lost and influential book into a modern tool for a new generation. Github is a professional tool, but it’s also become a clearinghouse for projects that simply exist to make things better.
It’s magical when it works. I’ve spent the last three months working with a cadre of people on a community project, and it’s been a highlight of my career.
Perhaps “generative contribution” is a better name for it. But I’m all for reclaiming “hobby,” because the way we spend our time is the way we spend our lives.
January 3, 2022
That’s why it’s worth so much.
Sure, you can outsource. You can look for shortcuts. You can hire folks. You can use mailmerge. You can even send it to voice mail.
But all of these time shortcuts fail to express the thing we want the most.
Your time, my time, their time–we all get the same number of minutes per day.
If you spend them on someone, they can tell.
January 2, 2022
There’s a better cause right around the corner. It might not work. You’ll never be able to keep all the promises. It can’t last forever. We’re all going to die. It’s not perfect. Someone might steal your idea. There will be critics. You’re not ready. Someone else is going to do it. It’s not that important. It might not work.
On the other hand…
Now is better than later, and perfect is an illusion.
Act as if. Simply begin. Make things better by making better things. You can always improve it later.
January 1, 2022
If you’re feeling creative, do the errands tomorrow.
If you’re fit and healthy, take a day to go surfing.
When inspiration strikes, write it down.
The calendar belongs to everyone else. Their schedule isn’t your schedule unless it helps you get where you’re going.
December 31, 2021
So many missed opportunities. Decisions not made, errors in judgment, opportunities lost.
Perhaps you didn’t buy Google stock at $80, didn’t buy ETH at $5, didn’t buy that winning lottery ticket… You also didn’t take that course in college, or go out of your way to meet that person on campus or learn Spanish when you had the chance.
But most of the time, those aren’t the things we’re obsessed about. Instead of these huge opportunities not seen, we think about the near misses, the ones we had some sort of proximity to. As if the emotional proximity to a choice is the thing to feel badly about. So, instead of thinking of the $10,000 we didn’t make by buying a certain equity, we think about the $10 we affirmatively lost by leaving it on a counter. Instead of thinking about a breakthrough paper we didn’t write, we worry about a typo we made in a brief years ago.
One is thousands of times more expensive than the other, and the amount of effort in each is the same, but our minds focus on the one where we feel like we had more responsibility. Which causes us to focus even more on the wrong sort of decision in the future.
The roads not seen almost always matter more than the potholes we hit along the way.
December 30, 2021
“It’s simple.”
“It’s complicated.”
When you talk to someone about your new idea, they’re going to realize right away that it’s one or the other.
The trap is trying to pitch a complicated cultural shift, possibility or project as if it’s simple.
Darwin’s insight about how the world evolved is simple once you understand it, but it represents such a conceptual leap that bringing it to someone who’s looking for a simple and easy explanation is sure to fail. But if you invite someone along for a journey instead of a quick fix, you earn the right to take your time and tell your story.
Some non-profits are simple, “there’s an earthquake, and these people need food right now.” Some are complicated, “we can create a significant, permanent change in the culture by treating people with dignity so that they can live fuller, more complete lives.”
The simple/complex trap often confuses well-meaning people in politics, business and the arts. The solution isn’t to dumb down the complex. The solution is to invite the right people along on the journey.
December 29, 2021
You have more than a billion choices online. With just a few clicks, you could be just about anywhere. Thanks for reading this today.
What did you have for lunch yesterday? Of all the lunches in all your possible universes, was it your first choice? Best choice?
When someone tries to take our freedom of choice away, it’s a problem. And yet…
We have far more choices than we realize. In school, we’re bound by the course catalog, the schedule and the requirements of a degree, but even there, we had more freedom than we imagined. The organizations we could have started, the projects we could have launched, the people we could have connected…
It’s convenience that holds us back. And it comes in many forms.
Social convenience: it’s easier to sit through a boring cocktail party or a meeting than it is to tell someone you don’t want to come.
Physical convenience: things that are handy are much more likely to be chosen than ones that require us to move somewhere to go get them.
Intellectual convenience: change makes us uncomfortable. Sunk costs are hard to ignore. Possibility comes with agency, and agency comes with risk.
Financial convenience: if it’s cheaper in the short run, we’re more likely to choose it, even if it costs satisfaction, opportunity or cash in the long run.
Cultural convenience: A combination of all of these, because culture likes the status quo and reminds of this regularly.
If we ever saw precisely how much freedom of choice we have if we were willing to sacrifice convenience for it, we’d be paralyzed. But if the choices we’re making now aren’t helping us live the way we choose, it might be worth taking a hard look at why.
[PS Thanks for reading this on the slowest week of the year. If you’re up for an inconvenient choice, I’ve created a coupon for my Udemy lectures on learning so it only costs half the usual amount for the next few days. (If you were looking for the free code, alas, your fellow readers grabbed them… I set it at maximum Udemy allows, but they all went quickly.)
Thanks. Here’s to peace of mind and possibility.]
December 28, 2021
If we’re new to a situation, or feeling unsure, we pay careful attention. We’re closely examining how others feel, what the cultural norms are, and what impact we’re seeking to make.
On the other hand, sometimes we fail to be on our best behavior. That’s another way of describing impulsive selfishness.
The surprising thing isn’t that being on our best behavior makes things go more smoothly. No, for many of us, the surprise is that it actually makes the experience better for us, not just the other folks.
December 27, 2021
One sort of job requires people to follow a recipe.
Another, better sort of job requires people to understand the recipe.
If you understand it, that means you can change it. You have resilience and insight and the leverage to make it better.
December 26, 2021
Managers have to wait for permission, because management requires authority.
But in every area of our lives, if we choose to lead, we can lead. Simply by beginning.
It might be that few will choose to follow, but then we can learn to get better at leading.
First we begin.
December 25, 2021
