The hobbyist

Our society is obsessed with achievement but it falls down when it comes to fulfilment in the present. We are taught to think in terms of direction of travel, prioritising the invented (and sometimes useful) concept of progress over the reality of the here and now. We go to school to get qualifications, to get into university to get degrees, to get jobs to get promoted and acquire assets. Our CVs, especially when we are younger, explain we have a life outside of education and work and yet often describe the life in terms of achievement: sports prizes won, musical grades met, societies formed and led. All of this means something but, for too many of us, we have fooled ourselves into it meaning everything.

Enter this world of the extra curricular, and we find the achievement obsession everywhere. Why play poker with friends when you can become a world champion from your couch; why read the financial news when you can become a crypto currency trader yourself; why write down your thoughts when you can self publish and self-market your way to a movie deal? Again, all these pursuits are fine but, again, we have squeezed out enjoyment and self exploration for achievement.

Instead, I make the case for being a hobbyist, for going where your mind takes you. I am not arguing against enjoying improvement in your pursuits, but for prioritising enjoyment, interest and stimulation over achievement. I am also arguing for variety, on the basis that if you don’t focus too much on excellence you will have more time to explore.

Why is variety important?

Our obsession with achievement and, related to that, specialisation is a modern one. We have existed and evolved as a species for tens of thousands of years and, for the vast majority of that time, we lived in pre-industrial communities. Sometimes agricultural and sometimes not but, either way, often shifting our social forms. That means our minds and bodies evolved to be suited to the pre-industrial world and likely spent our time doing a bit of everything, at least compared to today's economy. We also likely spent a lot of time doing what we would regard today as nothing. Life would have entailed many fewer hours of the day than we spend today acquiring food, shelter and other resources, not least because, until very recently, ‘working’ in the dark would have been more or less impossible. In addition, because of there being less of a separation between ‘work’ and ‘life’, we would have all spent more time amongst people of all ages and interests.

Why create that today, when our societies have developed so much? Well, because our minds have not. Evolution is a gradual process and just because we have transformed the world around us does not mean that we have or can transform our inner worlds. Our inner worlds like variety and while we certainly enjoy doing well at something rather than being frustrated by it, not everything we do should be step towards accomplishment or along society’s tunnel of progress. Remember all the things you did as a child simply because they were enjoyable - art, music, sport - and consider that you could do them again now if you ignored the idea that, for adults, they are only for the accomplished.

So, how to get hobbying right? Ha! See what I did there? There’s no such thing at right. There is only what matters to you. But if there any rules they only exit to minimise the effect of all other rules, and I have three:

1. The objective should come from within and, as far as possible, should not be anyone else’s. If you want to paint a landscape, then that’s your objective. You may enjoy sharing it with others, to share something about yourself and partly, to encourage them to do the same or to support a community activity or festival, bur sharing it about that, sharing, not proving progress. If someone offers you tips on improvement, remember that is their version of improvement, not yours. They may have some useful, practical tips but try to strip these away from their, not your, sense of purpose.

2. Your interest may seem purely conceptual or more material, it could be abstract poetry or non-fiction. However, if it is close to something that feels like it’s in the sphere of progress and, for example, monetisable, that’s fine. It still doesn’t mean you should overly chase after the commercial or otherwise competitive dynamics of it, as opposed to enjoying it for its own sake.

3. Finally, if you are looking for inspiration, search in body, mind and soul, or dabble in all three, which I mean consider what you may like to try: physically - which could be anything from something physically tough like sport or tactile like music; mentally, such as crosswords to writing; and soulful or creative, like, well anything expressive, even if it’s only expressive to yourself.

A final thought: it is perhaps impossible to fully escape progress and its thought patterns. The society we have constructed is based on idea piled on idea, and almost all buy into progress. However, that does not mean you cannot temporarily or partially step outside of it. Any step away from it, however tiny, will help you find fulfilment in hobbying.