5 Things I Like About Having a Lot of Hobbies

It’s been almost a year since I left my previous job to join the Kind & Funny team, and one of the most significant impacts of rearranging my work schedule is that it has given me a lot more room for activities:

In any given week I’m doing some combination of playing the drums, reading, skateboarding, cooking, fly fishing, playing trivia, learning chess, listening to music, watching basketball, playing basketball, playing video games, going to band practice, going to museums, X-acto knifing things out of magazines, drawing, going to the movies, taking care of our plants, writing, or trying to learn something new like how to speak Spanish or go birding. It’s a lot over here, and I’m sure I’ve missed some.

I have always had a lot of different interests, which is a big reason I opted for Amherst’s Open Curriculum when it came time for college. I’ll let them describe it:

Amherst has no distribution requirements and no core curriculum. Instead, students choose the courses that matter most to them. Our open curriculum ensures that each classroom is filled with inquisitive, fully engaged students committed to the topic at hand … Our curriculum offers flexibility and independence. It rewards initiative. Students take full responsibility for their intellectual growth, in the same way they will take responsibility for important choices later in life … The result: well-rounded students who work extensively within their majors, while also exploring the many other courses that spark their curiosities.

This is the policy that I now apply to my life, and I have to tell you, I really enjoy it.

Here are 5 things I like about having a lot of hobbies:

1. They take me to different places

Do you find yourself going to the same places? I sure do, and I try and balance that consistency with curiosity.

My early attempts at birding allowed me to discover an amazing urban wildlife refuge fifteen minutes from my house. Reading necessitated multiple library cards which led me to Anythink, which has a unique program called “TryIts” where you can rent gear to try even more new things. I wanted to read The Dark Knight Returns comic book so I explored the warehouse of wonders that is Mile High Comics. And Kel and I just had one of the best museum experiences ever at Mass MoCA.

I think having all of these different hobbies is my way of changing the equation on the “depressing math” of life and time and opening up a lot more potential paths in the future.

2. They help me meet different people

One extremely noticeable thing for me during the pandemic was that I appreciate the value of what are known as “weak social ties,” which I think isn’t a great name because they are very important! In this NPR interview titled “Weak social ties are just as important as strong ones for greater life satisfaction,” one of the study’s authors Hanne Collins says:

There's a lot of research showing that humans are inherently social beings. And social connection is a key factor in our health. And then there's a lot of kind of evidence that close ties are important, but weak ties are also important. And so what we find is, essentially, it's about this mix. You know, it's about kind of connecting with people who are close to you, who are maybe less close to you, who connect you with other people, who provide different kinds of support. Essentially, the idea is that the more diverse your social portfolio, the happier you are and the higher your well-being.

One of the biggest losses of leaving my job was all of the social connections that diminished along with it. There really is something to seeing and connecting with a lot of people on a daily basis that brings me joy, and so finding a pickup basketball community or talking to another skateboarder or going to band practice take on even more significance.

3. They help me connect with other people and learn from them

According to research from some dumb school that doesn’t have an open curriculum and that put me on their waitlist, the best way to be liked in a conversation is to ask questions. To me, the best way to ask questions is to be genuinely interested in the person, not to try and trick them by letting them talk. Since I am interested in a lot of things, it means I’m more likely to be genuinely interested in something about another person, and likely can learn something from their expertise in whatever that thing is. Even if that’s not the case, I find that talking to people about what they love to do is a lot more fun than talking to them about what they have to do.

4. Learning new things is good for us

Have you heard the word neuroplasticity? I’m fascinated by this concept that as we learn new things our brain creates new neural pathways and reorganizes its architecture. Since learning about it, I’ve tried to keep learning new things as a high priority on my list. It’s also one of the best parts about the Kind & Funny work, because we’re getting to think about challenges in different industries all the time. I like to think of it as cross-training instead of specializing, which has always been more my style anyway.

5. They are fun!

So many of the hobbies I have can be described as “play,” and I think that’s true because according to the National Institute for Play, play is good for us and has proven benefits for mental and physical health.

This is in their footer, and I think it’s a powerfully simple way to express their mission:

The Institute wants the world to know:
A) Having fun -playing- is the healthiest way to spend your time (after feeding and housing yourself).
B) The activities that evoke fun feelings are unique to each of us.

I’m grateful that this business provides activities that evoke fun feelings while I work to feed and house myself and allows me the time to pursue a whole bunch of other activities as well.

What’s a hobby you have? What’s a hobby you want to have? Want to do one of my hobbies together? jed@kindandfunny.com.