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A hobby becomes a job when you worry if you are good at it.
I don’t think that’s universally true, I agree with some other posters here that a big part of enjoying a hobby is the learning process and getting better at it.
Yes, excessive comparison to others and worries about performance and the like are killers for enjoyment, but the pursuit of skill is a major part of a fulfilling hobby for me.
Video games? Bad at them. I play lowest difficulty and still die but I have fun. Baking? Pretty good! People like my baked goods and they are almost always eaten before they go bad (unless I make far too much)
Um, I beat Noita once. I beat FTL: Faster Than Light on Hard sometimes. I beat Pocket Rogue once. I also scored first-place in some hard-difficulty Moon Rider VR beatmaps, but I gotta get back into that.
Not very good, but that’s sort of the point for me; my favourite part of any hobby is the learning. I did a woodworking class the other day!
It’s taken a lot of work to get to the point where I can be comfortable with being mediocre at something and just doing it for the joy of it. I’m quite an intense person, with perfectionist tendencies, so it’s nice to be able to carve out some things that I can be more chill about.
As good as I care to be. Hobbies are supposed to be fun.
I’m a good enough cook that several friends have seriously suggested I apply for Masterchef, but I have no interest in the restaurant side of the competition.
Boardgames, around 75%
Badminton, around 55%
Mediocre at best, and I lack the mental fortitude to work at much of anything these days, so wherever I’m at, I’m not going to improve much.
Some people relish the feeling of swimming through molasses* for the next hit of progress dopamine, or they don’t get that feeling at all, but that’s what happens to me and it basically short-circuits something in my brain. It’s bad enough that I struggled to write the last part of that sentence, and it’s happening while I’m proofreading this as well.
* or treacle if the unintended concept of small mammal anatomy bothers you.
Ages ago, before i started to teach my techniques to the masses, i was considered the international specialist in that field. I have withdrawn since then, but I am still good.
I think it is a trap to think about it this way. My hobbies are meant to bring me joy and challenge, no matter what level i am on
Was consistently in the top 15 or 20 in my age group (obstacle course racing) and was gearing up to aim for a podium finish but got rear ended on the way home from work one day in November so in recovery for a back Injury. Hoping I can get back to it again by the end of the year to but gotta hurry up and wait.
Started growing my own veg a year or two ago so getting steadily better at that and enjoying the process. (this one kinda skirts the line between just being self sufficient and a hobby though so make of it what you will)
Similar to others, pretty adequate at plenty of other stuff, the two above just immediately come to mind
I have no idea honestly. I do mountain bike trail riding but I’ve never done it with anyone else so there’s no one to really compare myself to. I do ride on lot of trails that I rarely see other bike tracks on but I don’t know wether it’s because the trail is too technical or because it’s just not fun to ride.
Fighting games: I’m a solid upper-intermediate player in most of the games I play. I’ve got a few tournament wins under my belt for smaller local brackets. At majors, I usually go 2-2 or 3-2, consistently finishing in the top half. Best I’ve ever done in a large bracket was 9th in Them’s Fightin’ Herds at Combo Breaker 2022.
Riichi Mahjong: Master 1 on MajSoul, 7th Dan on Riichi City. Our local club runs a seasonal league where I took 2nd last season and am currently ranked 4th this season, though with IRL games the sample size is a bit small. I know I have a lot to improve on still, my deal-in rate is akin to repeatedly putting my hand on a hot stove.
Versus puzzle games: Retired out of spite for the sad state of the competitive scene today, but I used to be the top Puyo Puyo player in my state, peaked at a 2700 rating back then. That is a big fish in a small pond though, top Japanese players are so far ahead of us because barely anyone in the west ever took this game seriously. Which leads into the long rant about why I called it quits… I’ve dabbled in a lot of other games as well, but when it comes to competitive scenes everything else is even more nonexistent than Puyo. There are a lot of games I can call myself good at just by default.
Unless it’s programming or sysadmin, I’m mediocre at all my hobbies, but I enjoy them a lot. It’s great not feeling pressured to do them professionally like a paid job.
Nice to get that balance and leave the deadlines and stress back at the desk. Good on ya. I don’t even care what your hobbies are – you advertise the right attitude towards them. Keep it up.
I’d say I’m pretty decent at bouldering, and have noticed that some people at the gym have started to ask me how to do problems and stuff, so that’s cool.
Woodworking it really depends, sometimes I surprise myself and make something I actually quite like, other times Ill mess up the most simple things again… But i just started out with my first hardwood project and I’m excited to see how it will turn out.
Sewing I’m very much a beginner and ask my girlfriend for help every step…
I’m pretty decent at bouldering
