Feeling lost and with no direction, what skill should I learn?

Based on what you wrote, referencing burnout, I suspect that the issue isn't that you need a hobby, it's that you need to make time to do nothing at all.

Go for walks in nature, away from technology, walk alone or with friends, laugh, tell stories, share secrets and dreams.

The more you do, the more resilience builds up, the better you can cope with stress and work.

Only then might you find joy in a hobby. For me it was Amateur Radio, but it might be different for you.

I really enjoyed learning to homebrew, and my family and friends really enjoyed drinking the mead I've made. You can homebrew all sorts of stuff, too - beer and wine of course, but also kombucha and ginger ale (edit: and cider! Thanks /u/cyberpunk007). I'm looking at professional kit for my next batch which is going to be a few hundred dollars at least of steel, but my first fermentation tubs were something like $35.

My only up-front recommendation would be to get a conical fermenter as it minimises loss when racking/bottling.

It's really all going to depend on your tastes and lifestyle. Like I could recommend that you get a dog and start learning how to train dogs as a hobby, but that's just not going to work for everyone. What's important is that you explore things and maybe even try some hobbies that could potentially improve your well-being. Maybe you live somewhere near a good hiking spot and you could take up hiking to get outdoors and get more exercise. Maybe you could learn how to cook and explore how to make healthy meals that suit you better. Or maybe you just want to create something and you could take up woodworking or make model planes or something. The possibilities are endless, you just need to decide what you'd like to get out of it.

Personally, I spend most of my time for work indoors on a computer, so most of my hobbies involve using my hands and getting outdoors. I took up a lot of extra hobbies during covid for obvious reasons. So here goes my list of >!hobbies that will maybe give you some ideas:

• Cooking/baking/bread
• Candy making
• Jam making
• Gardening
• Canning (goes great with gardening!)
• Succulents
• Mixology
• Dog training
• Camping/hiking (this one is minimal only because I don't live somewhere with good hiking spots)
• Board games, video games, and movies during the winter when I can't go outside

Other things I've considered taking up but haven't for various reasons:

• 3D printing
• Bonsais
• Home brewing

I’m taking some welding classes later this year. Being able to fix or create things with a welder seems like a useful skill to have.

I suspect the intro classes are all the same regardless if you take welding into the art direction or the mechanical direction.

I have a small machine shop where I make little doodads out of metal. All of my equipment is manual. If I want to cut metal on my lathe or mill, I'm spinning handwheels and engaging power feed levers. I then have to sit there, watch the beautiful blue steel chips fly, listen to the sound of the cut, and wait for the cut to be finished so I can turn off the power feed. Then I turn off the machine, get out my micrometers, carefully measure my cut, and do it again until I'm done. Then, I take the work out of the vise or chuck, grab my file, debur all of the sharp edges (I love the sound of a good file knocking off metal burrs), and get to work on the next part.

It's intensely peaceful. Machining tools are relatively quiet and stately (power woodworking tools scream like evil demons). Small hobby tools are slow, so you always have plenty of time to enjoy yourself. It requires a lot of planning and thinking, and it helps you develop a much more attuned mechanical touch. You get to make really cool shit out of the best material (i.e. metal), and it's a genuinely useful skill. I do software development, and I spend way too much time sitting at my desk. Machining is my escape.

One downside is that it can be expensive. Good tools cost money and good metal costs money. I'd guess that I have $20K invested in my shop, but I've also been doing this for 7 years now. The initial investment isn't that high. You can save a lot of money by making your own tools, which I didn't always do. Used tools are also a really great option (except for measuring tools, sometimes you have to buy those new). To get metal for cheaper, go to nearby machine shops and ask nicely if you can buy scraps from their offcut sections. If you tell them that you're learning machining, they'll be very likely to oblige!

The other downside is that it requires you to be careful. Human flesh is soft compared to metal. Machining is only dangerous if you're incautious, but I feel like it's important that I bring up safety when I recommend machining as a potential hobby.

If you're interested, check out Blondihacks on YouTube. She has some great videos on how to get started with your own hobby machine shop. I also really like Clickspring and This Old Tony. Clickspring has some good project videos on his channel, and TOT is hilarious and educational.

Here's the thing I'm most proud of making. I adapted the design of a 3D printed yarn winder to manual machining and built it from scratch. All of the metal parts started out as raw stock (everything is 4340 steel, except for the base plate which is ductile iron). The base is black walnut. The little feet are brass, with sorbothane feet on the bottom.

Gymnastics. Seriously. You don't need to be all that athletic to do the core basics. You get fitter and have fun just throwing yourself onto big soft mats.

I recently got deep into making paper!

It's relatively simple, relaxing, and has a lot of repetitive tasks that take a while... So it's been fantastic for reading audiobooks! I also get to recycle old paper and cardboard instead of putting it into a bin and hoping that it's dealt with.

Every single piece of equipment can be made by hand for cheap though honestly I highly recommend a blender and a tub. Both of which could be replaced with hand made things but like... Why would you want to spend hours beating recycled paper to a pulp which you could put it into a blender for a little bit while doing something else.

It's also great for my debilitating RSD because even though it requires a specific touch to be gained... Every step except for literally the very last one can be repeated at any point with no downside.

If the pulp isn't blended right... Blend it more... If the deckle is unevenly covered... Just put it back in the water... Etc etc

I really think more people should do recycling stuff in general but this has been fantastic.

Are you looking for a new career as well? Or just a hobby? I sit in front of a computer all day and always thought being an electrician would be kind of neat. Decent money, get to work with your hands, and still some problem solving involved.

Edit: If you're looking for more of a hobby, volunteer conservation work may also be something to look into. Something like trail work. I did a few stints in my younger years, and they were transformative experiences for me. The folks who do this type of work are super interesting and passionate in my experience, and it can rub off on you.

Have you deepened into jazz harmony theory? What about permaculture?

Learning buddhist meditation is also a great asset IMHO

Going thru similar shit right now myself I found an anchor in working out. I started from total zero - zero push ups, zero pull ups, zero sqats, zero crunches. I can do most of these now, with pullups to go still. But I also got into better mindset and learning discipline too. Good stuff that I've neglected for 20+ years.

A few years ago, mid pandemic, I started collecting ancient coins. I was really passionate about it even thinking about finding ways to make it a small after-hours job or such, but I've since run into a few walls and have subsequently lost my drive. For example, I wanted to take very high resolution pictures of the coins and then compose a catalog of sorts, but while I have all the gear that I need (camera with a macro lens) my shots keep coming out wrong and I've since kind of given up on the idea altogether.

My entire life is one long succession of passionately started projects that got abandoned either midway or after heavy setbacks. If I ever find one that brings me lasting happiness, I'll gladly share it, but for now I'm just as much on the lookout as you are.

Woodworking. I love it. Wood is such a warm medium to work with, and it's a really easy hobby to get into, too. You don't have to buy expensive power tools, nor do you need to set a target of making fine furniture.

For me, I started out with scrap wood, trying to make as perfect as dovetail joint as possible, using just hand tools - a cross-cut saw and a good, sharp chisel.

That took me down a path of trying to learn different joinery techniques, which was a whole lot of fun. I bought a couple of joinery books from the big A and scrounged scraps from my local hardware to practice on. And, I know you said you wanted to get away from the computer, but there's some incredibly good woodworking channels on YT. I tend to avoid the ones that talk too much about what they're doing - I prefer to just watch masters at work. I find Japanese woodworking videos incredibly satisfying and enjoyable.

I don't get to indulge the hobby as much as I want - family life keeps me pretty busy nowadays - but, when I have the occasional afternoon to myself, I love spending it in my little workshop, mucking around with wood. I always come away from a bout of woodworking feeling relaxed.

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Skill #1: You're fine just the way you are. You aren't lost, you're still deciding where to go.

My advice is to take an SDS test (career interest) to get your Holland code and learn about all the jobs that would excite you.

Maybe woodworking? It can get dusty and you need some room but you can also make smaller things that don't need big power tools or a lot of room. Like miniature things.

Or computer programming. Create an app. Or do something fun like follow one of the coding challenges from the YouTube channel The Coding Train

There are some great suggestions here already. In addition to creative stuff, I personally think it's super important to do something physical as well. I can't list all of the positive effects weightlifting has had on my life since I picked it up. I feel physically and mentally so much better in pretty much every way possible. If it interests you at all let me know I can give you some reading suggestions

My mate started terrarium building.

For very little cost, you can look for second hand fish tanks and go for walks to collect moss, rocks, twigs etc. Weirdly it built more meaning to the more 'I need to move my body so I'll go for a walk'.

Now he likes hiking, and collecting moss along the way.

The actual terrariums are gorgeous too.

One of the former guitarists of thrash metal band Anthrax became a watch repairman. I think maybe he work(s/ed) on antique watches, but I might be making that part up. If you like working with your hands and challenging your mind, this could be great. I listened to a podcast miniseries about a guy who, among other things, repaired clocks. There was a lot of commentary about how reverse-engineering the original design was a big part of the job. (The show was S-Town / Shit-Town).

Navigation?

cooking is an awesome hobbyyy

Metal working, (although kinda expensive to get into) sheet metal bending, machining, welding. I really enjoy learning and making real world useful parts out of metal.

Wood working/whittling Its cheap to learn and can be very rewarding. Id suggest to look at local stores for discarded pallets for free wood. To make a few things out of, aim for hardwood, but lots of them end up being pine.

Potentally electronics? (Although you said you didnt want a hobby that doesnt use computers)

Photography could be rewarding Going outside to parks and just taking pictures really helps feeling grounded an in the now. And you can show others your photos!

Thought of a few more.

I should mention metal scraping, surface lapping and lens/mirror figuring (like for a telescope) too, since the other forms of metalworking have been brought up. For woodworking, there's all kinds of old techniques if you're looking for something a bit different. Cooper isn't just a last name.

Stone knapping, like to make arrowheads or similar. It's tricky I hear, but you can do it with any reasonably thick piece of glass to start, and move up to actual rocks eventually.

Weaving, spinning and of course knitting and sewing. Textile hobbies are associated with women, though, and Lemmy is mostly men, so you might get the occasional weird look.

Someone else mentioned canning, and I've done that one - I'm pretty good at it, too, although it's hard work. Taking normal food and making it last literally forever is neat, you just need to pay attention to all the details.

Trades are great careers to be in now. Maybe cabinet making and volunteer at habitat for humanity? Learn something new that might help down the line, and do some good at the same time. Wiring, welding, or fixing an old car is another route to learn a useful and potentially employable skill.

I really want to get into casting, because it's crazy how much stuff you can make. Machining too, but that requires a lot of equipment. If you want to use metal casting to make machining tools, David Gingery's works are a classic.

How about taking a trade?

I recently got into video game development, and I’ve had so much fun, and it’s given me some much-needed meaning. I’ve solved problems unique to my game using programming skills as well as game design skills, and it feels meaningful because i can send it to my friends and they can enjoy it without needing to appreciate any of the technical aspects. I get to be creative about how people I care about can have more fun. It could also involve your music composition hobby, since every good game needs some music and sound design! I’m a programmer for my day job so most things I do there are only meaningful to other programmers, and the problems I solve there are incredibly boring ones.

Edit: I saw your comment about being burnt out on programming, and I totally understand that. That happens to me frequently. I enjoy programming as a hobby when I’m not burnt out so we’re kinda in different boats there. There are lots of skills involved in making games and the variety has really refreshed me, though I’ve still gotten sick of sitting at a computer while working on it.

Drawing. It's seen as a skill reserved for an elite few, but in reality anyone can develop it. I learned it at school from lessons very similar to how Peter Gray teaches it (see this book for example on the Internet Archive).

All you need is a pad of paper, a few pencils and an eraser. And then sketch away, plants, people, landscapes, characters, whatever you want to explore.

Does art interest you? I personally really love drawing!

Sales. If you want to starting make really good money without a masters or PhD. Learn sales. Get a bdr type role. Even part time and get some experience. After that you can start making 6 figs within a few years.

I learned how to flintknap a little, and it was super fun. I heard buying rocks can be expensive if you don't live near where they're plentiful, but what hobby doesn't get expensive? I went to the class with my brother in law and he got absolutely lost in the sauce working on his flint, and didn't talk to anyone else there

It can be tiring but it's definitely fun seeing what you've made (even if you're not very good at it like me) and besides, you get to say you're hitting rock/buying rock so there's even more fun to be had!

You're on Lemmy, why not try your hand at contributing to an open source project that catches your interest?

Do you live in an area where you can go sailing?

If you become a plumber or electrician it will satisfy your desire to create with your hands while challenging your brain. It pays decently good and keeps you in shape too.

As an electrician you’ll start off paid low for a year or two as a laborer, but in four or five years I think you’ll be a trade professional making good money and doing useful work.

Feeling lost and with no direction, what skill should I learn?

You could go into teaching?

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I've (more or less) got those two hobbies as well! :D

I work on cars for fun, but that might not be the most budget friendly thing to do outside of basic car maintenance. Of course, this is assuming that you or a friend has a car to work on.

What if you get an Arduino starter kit? That involves putting things together with your hands and writing code to make the hardware do cool things.

For music production, you could check out a website like Looperman or a subscription service like Splice. Then, download a few audio samples and use them as a starting point for a song. This helped me get back into music production after a five month period of minimal inspiration.

Photography (even with a cellphone) could be nice too. You could even use it as a reason to do physical activities like hiking.

EDIT: Have you been hanging out with friends regularly? If not, I think that it should be

Programming. Challenging and creative in a way that is different than art & music but still somehow similar. I find it almost relaxing sometimes. Python is a great first language and you can go from no knowledge whatsoever to a working program that does something genuinely useful in an hour, like scraping a website and showing you some data from it. Mastery takes years.

If you genuinely enjoy programming, you can legitimately change the world with your knowledge. There are tons of open source projects out there which benefit humanity yet don't have enough development talent. It's one thing to volunteer your time and see a good outcome from it, it's another to volunteer your time to build a system which guarantees good outcomes for many people over long time periods and get to see that system grow and get used by people.