My Hobby Is Learning

7 October 2026  |  3 min read

I've had lots of hobbies over the years. To name a few off the top of my head, there's been fish keeping, guitar, harmonica, fountain pens, watches, motorbikes, this blog, web development, 3D printing, tattoos, digital minimalism, table tennis, and many more.

Some of my hobbies have stuck, but I've never gotten so enthralled into a hobby that I become obsessed. Instead, there's generally 4 steps in the process:

1. I decide I want to take up a hobby.
2. I read, watch videos, and obsessively learn about the topic.
3. Invest lots of time and/or money into the hobby.
4. Decide I've learned enough and move on.

I don't always get to step 4. For some hobbies, like watch collecting and motorbikes, I continue to invest some time and money into them, and they continue to bring me joy. But I'm not obsessed. I see someone wearing an interesting watch; it piques my interest and we can have a conversation about it. But I'm not the type of person who can tell a watch brand from across a room (unless it's a Casio).

Similarly, I love riding and working on my motorbikes - both bring me genuine joy. But I'm not the kind of biker who has to get out on their bike as much as possible, where driving the car is some kind of punishment. I enjoy driving too.

While walking the dogs this morning I was idly thinking about all the random possessions I have scattered around the house that are the culmination of many abandoned hobbies. I started to think about why that is, and it dawned on me…

It's not guitars, or harmonicas, or fish, or motorbikes, or watches, or anything else. It's learning about those thing that I find so enjoyable. It's the nitrogen cycle of an aquarium. It's learning to place your fingers at the right part of the fretboard on a guitar. It's learning to ride a motorbike safely and smoothly through some technical twisty roads, or learning how a clutch works and how to strip it down.

It's learning. Learning is my hobby.

And once I've decided I've learned enough about a topic, I'm good. I don't want to be the next Eric Clapton, Valentino Rossi, King of DIY, or Teddy Baldassarre. I want to be good enough at those hobbies, then move on to the next thing I can learn about.

I think that's why computers have always interested me, because there's always something new to learn with them.

So in future, instead of going neck deep and spending money on the next frivolous hobby, maybe I'll just spend some time learning about the thing to see if that satisfies my learning hobby. It probably won't though, as I'm something of a magpie when it comes to shiny things.

But hey, at least I'm having fun and I'm not hurting anyone, right?

Opinion

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