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The Four Hobbies, and Apparent Expertise - Marc's Blog

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Around the end of high school, I started to get really into photography. My friend (let’s call him T) was also into it, which should have been great fun. But it wasn’t. Going shooting with him was never great, for a reason I didn’t figure out till much later. I wanted to take photos. T mostly enjoyed tinkering with cameras. As I’ve spent more time on different hobbies, it’s become clear that this is a common pattern. Every hobby, pastime1, or sport, is really four hobbies. The first axis is doing versus talking, and the second is the hobby versus the kit. In nearly every case I’ve seen, people roughly sort themselves into one of these categories. There’s some crossover between each of these categories, of course, but most communities and people primarily self-select into one of them. Outsiders unaware of this selection may come from the wrong quadrant, and chafe against the community before adapting or leaving. But does it matter? It matters because the hobbies are more enjoyable, and

Around the end of high school, I started to get really into photography. My friend (let’s call him T) was also into it, which should have been great fun. But it wasn’t. Going shooting with him was never great, for a reason I didn’t figure out till much later. I wanted to take photos. T mostly enjoyed tinkering with cameras. As I’ve spent more time on different hobbies, it’s become clear that this is a common pattern. Every hobby, pastime1, or sport, is really four hobbies. The first axis is doing versus talking, and the second is the hobby versus the kit. In nearly every case I’ve seen,…

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