When someone asked me recently what I’m into I didn’t have answers. Existential crisis aside, what are some good hobbies/interests for someone in their mid thirties to pick up?
Every year I try to pick up a skill or a hobby, so I’m just gonna list a few I’ve kept over the years and you pick two:
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keyboard and playing shitty moody electronic music. Just learning any instrument is frustrating and fun.
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photography and videography including drone photography and videography. Learning video editing and making silly videos.
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amateur radio.
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fishing, walking around the woods, foraging and identifying mushrooms and not dying painfully and horribly after cooking and eating some every once in a while. See the discussion below before you eat any mushroom you find, it’s actually serious and you can legitimately die or hurt yourself and it will be very painful.
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some kind of fitness thing, weightlifting, hiking, cycling, indoor rock climbing.
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keeping aquariums, some fun plants, a few cute shrimp and messing it all up and getting disgusting worms and nuking the whole thing.
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knitting.
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riding a motorcycle and learning how to do maintenance and repairs on a motorcycle.
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cooking, baking, pickling, dehydrating, curing.
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fpv drones, flying them, crashing them, fixing them and building them. Soldering in general is pretty fun and sometimes handy.
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vidya games, playing them, modding them, making them poorly.
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reading.
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water color painting and charcoal drawing.
Can answer questions if any of these sound interesting.
Great list. I do have to pop in and say though, amateur mushroom foraging is a ludicrously deadly hobby. I’d advise against that for most people. A mushroom that’s tasty and a mushroom that kills you dead in minutes sometimes look extremely very much the same.
Now granted most people aren’t likely to stumble across a ring of Death Caps in their local innawoods, but still, fungi are to be respected and generally not fucked with. Some of those Gi’s are not as Fun as they’d like you to think, and trained and true mycologists have been killed by misidentification.
I 100% agree.
With that said going mushroom hunting even if you’re not gonna eat them is fun because there is a lot of fucked up and cool looking fungus out there, they’re a cool life form and they’re everywhere! And to be fair, there are some fairly, generally safe to eat, fairly easy to identify mushrooms out there without many truly dangerous lookalikes (chicken of the woods, a lot of boletes aren’t likely to kill you even if they are nasty, chanterelles, lobsters, morels, etc) And I still wouldn’t recommend eating any white mushrooms in NA at all, even if there’s an edible, delicious look alike.
It’s absolutely not a thing to be taken likely, but if you take it seriously and carefully and take the time to learn things and maybe have an experienced person show you some basics, it’s fun and very rewarding. Yeah eating a death angel will shut down your organs painfully and you will need a liver transplant and will likely die, but also people have been eating wild mushrooms for a long, long time. Teach your kids to never eat any mushrooms they find outside, but also you’ll probably be entirely OK if you chew on just about any mushroom and spit it out entirely, even the really bad ones. That’s one of the many reasons this hobby is so fascinating.
If anybody’s interested in mushroom hunting, start by not eating any of them, know that you can’t really die from just touching even the most poisonous ones and get a good mushroom field guide, like a Mass Audubon region specific field guide if you’re in the US.
Here are some fun little mushrooms I’ve encountered here in Massachusetts (I’m not a real mycologist, so please correct me if I’m wrong) :
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Cinnabar-red chanterelles (Cantharellus cinnabarinus)- tiny little orange to red mushrooms. I think these have lookalikes, but the real thing are pretty edible with some garlic and butter, but the gills catch dirt and you need a lot of them because they’re teeny. Luckily they grow in groups.
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No idea what this wild shiny blue little guy is. Left it alone, but there are fairly common around here.
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Cauliflower or noodle mushroom (some kind of Sparassis). This one I think was old, but edible after you washed it and got all the bugs out. Has the texture of an egg noodle. A little too slippery in soup, but tastes great with garlic and butter, like every other mushroom. Very alien looking mushroom and apparently grows back in the same spot eventually.
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These look like young turkey tails (Trametes versicolor?), but I’m not 100% sure. Very pretty, maybe have some medicinal properties. Pretty common around here, maybe not even a turkey tail.
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Indian ghost pipes (Monotropa uniflora). Not actually a mushroom, but a very interesting parasitic plant that doesn’t do the whole photosynthesis thing. Beautiful, haunting, translucent and morose looking. There are some supposed health benefits and native people maybe used them for medicine, but who knows?
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Never too old to learn a musical instrument. You can pick up an acoustic guitar for cheap at a pawn shop.
Learning how to code is a good one that can be done either free or very cheaply and doesn’t require a lot of computing power when starting out. All you need is a text editor and Google.
I picked up bass a few months ago (26/27 here)!
Play an instrument.
I had zero musical talent, I’m not coordinated, and I don’t even listen to music much to be honest. Yet one day I decided to try playing guitar and totally fell in love, it’s like a new part of my brain came online.
I’ll never be playing Wembley stadium or whatever but just practicing is so rewarding. It’s not about getting good, it’s about getting better.
Mid 30s here and just started guitar a couple months ago. So many great resources online and you can practice pretty much anytime anywhere. Have had a blast and even got my 2 year old son into it. Been a lot of fun learning parts of some of my favorite songs.
I got a tiny FX processor (boss pocket mini) and it can hook up to any set of speakers or headphones. The ability to move from rock to blues to metal to funk has made practice even more fun.
Plus it’s opened up the world of playing along to YouTube tracks, which has been an absolute blast!
Man I really want to learn the piano but the community sometimes feels so gatekeepy. So many people will tell you if you don’t start off with a dedicated piano teacher, you won’t have the right foundational principles and you’ll be forever shit. I just dont have the time to commit to a schedule and regular piano lessons.
Love your comment bout getting better, not good. Maybe I shold just dive in and see where it takes me.
Just do it!
I did a ton of research and got a cheap bit quality monoprice starter electric guitar.
There’s definitely a ton of snobbery, same with any hobby. YouTube is a fantastic way to dip your toe in the water and you can always start lessons if you’re enjoying it!
Same with the piano but when looking around for starter keyboards all they can tell you is everything is shit unless to throw out $500.
I don’t even know if this is going to click with me. I can’t spend that much on something that may end up gathering dust.
You can start with a midi controller keyboard for less than $200. It doesn’t have its own sound and you’ll need a laptop or ipad and software to actually play, but at least you won’t blow hundreds of dollars just to pick up a hobby. A full weighted keyboard will be a little more expensive though and can hit $300+.
I feel you man. It has to be 88 weighted keys otherwise it’s shit. 500 for the piano and $100 per lesson is what you’re supposed to spend. Put me off it, I bought a Ukulele instead haha.
If it helps, I never learned “formally” and play by ear pretty much all the time; and I’ve been playing in bands since college and have my music on streaming platforms. Obviously I’ll never be able to perform classical pieces or work as a sessionist because I can’t read sheet music, but I do make my own music. Go for it!
So many people will tell you if you don’t start off with a dedicated piano teacher, you won’t have the right foundational principles and you’ll be forever shit.
Are you one of those people though?
I don’t think so, but when you’re told that it’s a little intimidating to start.
Dude learning music is so fulfilling. I picked up the viola at 30. Am I good, no, not at all. However, it’s been super gratifying being able to hear gradual progress. I have improved enough that playing with other people is no longer a pipe dream. Learning music has given me so much happiness. I felt so anxious and stalled in my paid work because of the vagueness and lack of direction, so small achievable goals like learning a new piece has been really grounding. It’s also really peaceful to have something so completely selfish. My viola skills are not for anyone but me, so I always smile a little whenever I pick it up. I sincerely hope that the guitar brings you the same joy.
I actually did this but with the ukulele! I picked it up partially because it’s small and really easy to pick up and put down when I’m bored at work, but also because it’s relatively easy.
Disc golf. Most cities of moderate size have a course somewhere around and most are free to use. Can get started with 1 disc, about 10 to 12 dollars for a putter, all you’d need to start, or get a starter set of 3 discs for about 30 to 40 bucks at most sporting goods stores.
I’ve been addicted to disc golf for a decade, and while I’m still not very good, I still enjoy every single round so much.
There’s so much benefit to squeeze out of the sport:
- hiking
- humility
- healthy competitive spirit
- self control
- decision making
- sight seeing
Disc golf changed my life, and I hope others find their way to it too
I learned a bit of woodworking recently. You can go totally stupid on it like I did and drop a thousand dollars on tools you’ll only sometimes use, or you can grab a hammer and a saw and start making stuff the long way around. It’s kind of a trade-off of convenience versus expense in that way, but I enjoy making stuff.
Came in handy this spring when my front stairs collapsed. I probably saved ten grand at least for being able to DIY that.
I second woodworking. You can absolutely spend a shitton of money on tools, but you really don’t have to. Start with a cordless drill and a circular saw. Then a plunge router. Then a table saw. If you’re looking to build furniture, get a planer, then a jointer eventually. Bandsaws are nice, but a jigsaw is a better beginner purchase for curves.
Get stuff used off FB marketplace, craigslist, OfferUp, or auctions. Estate sales are fantastic for used tools, I got a shaper with about $2k worth of tooling for $40. Most of my tools are from marketplace or auctions. New, they’d easily be over 10 grand, but I’ve spent maybe $2.5k total over five years of slowly accumulating stuff.
Resist the pressure to build stuff to sell. Everyone around you will push you to monetize your hobby, but you don’t have to. It’s ok to spend money to help you do something you enjoy. (If you want to sell things, great, but don’t do it just because people say you should. It really sucks the fun out of it)
For the shaper, did you get that at auction? Are these like eBay auctions you’re taking about?
Yes, got it at an auction. Not ebay auctions (although I guess you can, but then you’re on the hook for shipping), search for auctions or estate sales in your area. Typically, my area has a couple a month across a few sites.
I’m also a mid-30s dude and I can honestly say cooking and baking has probably been the best skill I have. I bake stuff for my coworkers every now and then and it’s always a good time. And cooking a nice meal from scratch for a girl always impresses.
Weight lifting. As your body ages retaining muscle mass gets harder, and more important. Develop the habit now so you’re not trying to pick up weight lifting in your 60s when the doctors tell you to start.
This one so much. I started lifting 3-4 years ago. It made the single largest improvement to my overall life quality of anything else I’ve ever done. The benefits are massive, impossible to overstate them.
It’s a good time to pick up a martial art or yoga. The strength and flexibility training will help stave off age very effectively, and they’re good at helping deal with stress too.
I agree with many here about finding some sort of exercise, it’s especially beneficial as we age. Cooking is another great one that was mentioned, and it goes hand in hand with staying healthy along with exercising.
One I didn’t see mentioned was Lego. Fair warning, it can get very expensive, but I found it very relaxing to build something with my hands. Plus, you can just turn off your brain for a bit and it feels great to admire a build after you’ve completed it.
I started building sets for things I was interested in, like Star Wars, and would watch the movies while building or put on an audiobook.
There are great lego alternatives which have much more reasonable pricing like bluebrixx and CaDa.
Indeed, I own several of these sets, and it still gets expensive haha.
Gardening is always a safe “goto”
Do you prefer indoor or outdoor activities?
Both, but I live in a state where the summers are hot and the winters are cold and snowy. Finding something to do outdoors consistently had been difficult.
Rock climbing. Hit up a gym or hire a guide if outdoor climbing sounds interesting
Probably some of these mentioned already:
- Cooking more instead of buying pre-made
- Learning some basic home maintenance like plumbing, keeping appliances cleaned, simple electrical stuff, etc
- Growing some small veggies
- Prepping for disaster - different time frames and scenarios like: fire, no power, poor air quality, floods, data loss, having to leave in a hurry
- Simple exercise and stretching routine
Go rock climbing! It’s a great workout and the people around are the most chill people ever!
I second this, it even got a little addictive for me at one point.
If you’re looking for a physical activity, consider indoor rowing. I picked it up at 35. It was getting harder to find regular exercise that didn’t kill my joints. This one fits the bill. Gives me a great workout without leaving aches and pains.
