("Nine crafts, tenth is misery" soul searching topic for the night

So I want to know how some of you keep your skulls' from exploding, from too many hobbies/skills. Our society tends to put emphasis on learning how to do one job well, and then spend your whole life dedicated to it. I have come to the conclusion that I can't stick to that path. That once I have learned how to do something as well/or better than those around me, I have to move on to learning something else or I get depressed/bored. To make things more complicated all of my hobbies are growing, becoming overwhelming even. I am finding it is harder to achieve my goals than in years gone by.

For example this other thread bikes how do you guys do both without going overboard. Expensive bike, cars, work, family, and then everything else in life, all that stuff has to take it's toll somewhere right?

My example of some of the pastimes that almost always lead to something else, to learn/spend money/time on. My car, started out I wanted to have more fun on the way to work, turns out car stuff costs money. So my DIY ethic takes over, there is the usual stuff from maintenance to performance upgrades (turbos suspension, areo, lightening...), and has started going completely separate ways. Like I have been learning welding, which leads to sheet metal fab, which leads to wood working, which leads to upholstery and painting (to keep it short). I changed my profession so I could walk to work so the car could get some work done. I've been fixing another car just for groceries, and errands.

Now I rarely drive the cars I own! To top it off I am thinking about building a better car from the ground up. Is anyone else this nuts, or am I just crazy?

I've learned that I really like to say I've done something, and to know I have the confidence to do it again. If I ever needed to rewire, adjust the valves, time, set the points, or generally repair any older motorcycle, I could. That may come in handy some day. Same goes with cars. Cars are expensive to have someone else fix. If I can determine if paying someone else to fix it is a wise investment or not, that's a good thing.

I've also learned that I don't have enough money to pursue EVERY hobby as a strictly "FUN" hobby. I really limit that only to bicycles (MTB specifically), because they are fun to get exercise on and I hate being without them.

I treat purchases likes a hobby. I need a new wireless router. Half the fun is researching the hell out of the current crop of routers to determine which is best. Found it. Ok, next purchase.

Lastly, I've determined that my hobbies need to be an investment in myself. My hobbies are little personal classes in learning. I'm horrible with doing art for my own enjoyment. If I like art, and the price is right, I'd rather reward someone else for their creativity. Some day they may need me to fix their motorcycle.

I went back to school at 30 to get a computer science degree after finally learning that A) I am capable of being competent and people will take make seriously if I give them the chance, B) I lacked any kind of self confidence at the time, so I needed a piece of paper to tell them they should hire me (the process did have other benefits) and C) I've always known all my interests are expensive. Cars have been with me since I was three, I just didn't have the funds to pursue it much.

Bicycles have returned to prominence after something of a lapse due to a combination of reading A Dog In A Hat and recognizing that as a 40-ish software developer I was either going to need a fitness hobby or to spend time and effort on fitness without the hobby part. Since I've always loved bicycles, it was a no-brainer.

Metalworking and woodworking are also interests either intertwined with my love of cars, or ingrained in my love of making stuff. I need the former to build the cars I want to build, and enjoy the latter on its own merits, while harboring dreams of being able to use both to at some point make up a living more interesting that software.

These are not my only interests (music, cooking, others make a short list of additional contenders), but the ones that are fighting for a front burner at this point. Working on the house currently largely means building out the garage which will allow me to better pursue the automotive and metalworking aspects. The basement is also in mid-construction to add a woodshop (my girlfriend also pursues woodworking).

I don't think I have the drive to be the sort of renaissance man who does all of these things to some spectacular standard, but I'm hoping to find some level of these things where I am satisfied with the balance. In the short term, I have a couple of automotive projects I've been researching and gathering parts for, a shop that's getting close to done, I'm getting ever-faster (in relative terms) on the bike in hopes of eventually getting thrown out of Masters C in cyclocross...

I don't think you can ever get all these things as far along as you'd like, so I hope there's satisfaction to be found in balancing the progress along the miscellaneous journeys.

jere wrote: So I want to know how some of you keep your skulls' from exploding, from too many hobbies/skills. Our society tends to put emphasis on learning how to do one job well, and then spend your whole life dedicated to it. I have come to the conclusion that I can't stick to that path. That once I have learned how to do something as well/or better than those around me, I have to move on to learning something else or I get depressed/bored. To make things more complicated all of my hobbies are growing, becoming overwhelming even. I am finding it is harder to achieve my goals than in years gone by.

I have two checkpoints: time and money

I barely have time to do stuff, so that's the major checkpoint, but even if I do, I limit myself to spending less on my hobbies than in money saved for retirement. That usually keeps my spending in check. Sure, it has turned my datsun build into a six year process, but I can live with that.

I still have my scuba gear, but haven't been diving in years. My barefooting wetsuits have hung in a closet, unused for several years. I don't kayak as often as I used to (now once every couple months, as opposed to the previous schedule of several times a week) I hold onto this stuff because it is something I can go back to if I wish.

Budget. Give yourself a hobby budget that is realistic for you and don't feel bad about spending that money. If you need more then you have to sell stuff. If I want a new violin, I either need to put off some car stuff or sell a car. I could fund a race tire purchase by selling a bike.

My skull has a good capacity, but it does hurt sometimes.

GameboyRMH wrote: My skull has a good capacity, but it does hurt sometimes.

Amen to that. My daughter got a microscope for her birthday this week and my eyes are sooooooo sore from the hours we've spent looking at stuff.

mazdeuce wrote:

GameboyRMH wrote: My skull has a good capacity, but it does hurt sometimes.

Amen to that. My daughter got a microscope for her birthday this week and my eyes are sooooooo sore from the hours we've spent looking at stuff.

This is one of the most awesome gifts ever

That and a telescope.

I just limit by budget. I have three small boys that constantly need stuff, a retirement in 25 years or so to try to plan for, college to pay for (right now, mine as well as theirs...), etc. Hobbies that cost more than a few bucks here and there just kind of naturally fall by the wayside.

I have had to forcibly adapt myself to the idea recently that I just CANNOT take on new stuff right now. I love to make things, build stuff, mess with old cars, etc., but right now there's a crunch on both my time and my money, so I just have to kind of sit tight.

Sitting in the LR with them right now watching cartoons and futzing on the laptop. I'd rather be doing this than almost anything else anyway- maybe my hobby is my kids.

To the OP, you sound pretty normal to be hanging out with this crowd.

My limiting factors are much like everyone here. Time and Money. If I was a rich man, I'd have a 100K sq ft shop full of stuff.

A lot of you guys have Auto ADD, I have project ADD to go along with it.

I get bored with things quickly. In the last 30 years I've done everything from build furniture to build a gas turbine engine. What I have to show for it is a shop full of tools and projects in various stages of completion. I can walk out to the shop and build just about anything. My true hobby is probably collecting tools, I literally have tons of them. What I build with the tools is fleeting at best and usually pretty cheap.

Cars have always been a constant. I don't get into them the way some of you guys do, but I enjoy tinkering with them. It started as necessity, I just couldn't afford to pay someone to fix them. Now I work on them when I feel like it. The Abomination spent a fair amount of time sitting in the last two years because I went off on a tangent. Namely the gas turbine and a house renovation. The gas turbine is in a box, the house is done, and the Abomination is back in the shop getting the TLC. That's why I don't usually sell things. Just because I don't want to play with it today doesn't mean I won't want to tomorrow. I might walk out to the shop tomorrow and drag something completely different off the shelf and work on it. Or I might turn the lights back off and do nothing. Who knows.

Most of the fun for me is in the learning different projects bring with them. I picked up a heat pump condenser unit a couple of months ago for $20 and sitting on a shelf are a couple of plate heat exchangers I got off Ebay for cheap. Percolating in the back of my mind is a heat pump water heater. Not sure why, but it sounds like fun to me. I still need a couple of things for that project and as I come across the parts for cheap I'll buy them. When I have all of them, I'll build it. I enjoy the research as much as I enjoy the construction and I'm not in a big hurry to finish any of it.

As far as not having the brain explode, I can't help. I always have a dozen projects in my head. Some of them are in the research/planning stages. Some in the parts gathering stage and some under construction. For the last week it's been learning everything I can about a 460 Ford. Today, it's getting a car ready to sell and waxing the truck I just bought. Tonight it's probably going to be replacing the tail rotor on my RC helicopter. Tomorrow? We'll have to see.

I wouldn't sweat it. Be patience and don't be in a hurry to finish stuff. The journey should be as fun as the destination.

I have to have 3 or 4 big projects going at all times. Right now it's the house, the Jensenator, the GT6 I'm working on for a bud and gathering bits for the Berzerkeley. My projects are never 'finished'; 'better' is the enemy of 'done'. Like Toyman, if I was rich I'd have a huge shop full of machine tools and stuff, I'd be building crap constantly.

i think the more important realisation here is more about finding out about yourself as you do these things. thats far more useful information.

Man, I'm not sure what to tell you. When I look at what some people on here can do, or some of the really nice cars at an autocross I wonder how they get done. Just doing my FSP Celica has taken a ton of time and money. Even with a lot of motivation (I really want that car to go fast) it's been only sheer force of will that's gotten it this far. How people do projects that are a lot more ambitious than that, I have no idea. And I pretty much put everything else on hold to get where I am with it. The force of will is going to turn to my '72 Capri at least some this year. I really want to be driving that.

I force myself to have a small number of hobbies. It's easier that way.