Joy in a hobby
Over the last four years I've found a new hobby: basketball. And funnily enough, I don't even playExcept.
It's important to have something we care about that isn't motivated by a financial return.
Me? I like getting lost; spending time diving into things, trying to learn, adding on information and extracting ideas—all while feeling completely unsure how it fits together—it's fun. It adds a bit to the mystery of life.
For much of my career, I've turned things I enjoy into work, with varying results and emotions tied in.
As a child I loved art, illustration, drawing, and painting.
Then I got a computer.
I dove in headfirst. Tweaking settings, changing wallpapers, updating icons, messing with .dll files. I broke things, got viruses, and learned. Then I realized I could combine my love of art into graphic design. And that was the start of a career.
Over the last decade, I've increasingly realized the importance of having something in my life—anything, really—that I could tinker with purely for the sake of learning and having fun.
This came after a period where I maximized everything in my life, devoted all my waking energy to income generation, and burned out.
Since then, hobbies have shifted for me. They morph over time, and change with my interest, and right now it's basketball.
As teens, my brother and I were huge fans of the Sacramento Kings. This was during their infamous 2002-2004 runInfamous. It was a good time to follow the royalty—and we, of course despised the Lakers with every ounce of our being; even when we begrudgingly had to admit how good Shaq and Kobe were.
Chris Webber, Mike Bibby, two skinny teens in California could dream. Then I moved to the Midwest and stopped paying attention to the sport. I knew about LeBron, of course, and was vaguely aware of someone named KD and Steph, but that was about it.
Then 2022 rolled around. The Kings made the playoffs again. Sabonis and Fox were on a run. My brother and I got back into it, started paying attention, and I tried to figure out who was playing and what the sport looked like two decades later.
I turned it into a hobby, and four years later I'm still having fun.
Between listening to basketball podcasts (shoutout G.O.A.T), starting a fantasy league, watching rounds of the playoffs, and following r/nba, I've enjoyed the time getting back into the sport—and I feel I haven't scratched the surface of what there is to learn.
I've also started watching games with my kidsWatching. My daughter also wants to start watching WNBA games, and it's a great time to get into that. We might even be able to attend a game or two in the coming years.
Now, as I listen to basketball podcasts, I know most of the top 100 players, kind of understand how teams are composed and the main rivalries, and am starting to understand the tactics and strategies that players and coaches use on the court.
All of this is purely for fun. To state the obvious, there's no monetary gain to be had, no revenue to earn. I'm doing it just because I enjoy following this amazing sport, tracking the athletes as they grow and improve (and try their best to push back against Father Time).
If you haven't been following basketball at all, well, there's so much to enjoy and pay attention to. Several amazing athletes are aging out (KD, Steph, LeBron) while still putting up insane numbers. Others are in their prime but constantly wrestling with their teams turning into mediocrity after ascending to the pinnacle of championships (Giannis, Jokic), and then we have a villain: OKC and SGA. Still there's regional rivalries, players on the ascent, a fantastic rookie class. So much to love and follow and enjoy.
And these things, however silly they may be, matter. It's good to care, good to have something we pay attention to and follow. My life is so active and busy, and I'm constantly pushing to learn and grow in ways tied to economic value—and sometimes it's nice to step back and have fun learning about a topic just because.
So here's your permission to pick up a hobby, preferably one that aligns with your pocketbook.
- Except — Except for that one time two friends and I played against a bunch of middle schoolers; we felt like centers! Yes, they had the energy and the skills and actually knew what they were doing, but I was bigger. Did I end up wearing myself out after 15 minutes? Sure, but it was worth it.
- Infamous — That 2002 game where the Kings kept getting fouled out? Yeah, that was a full-on conspiracy, and I still feel that it was never fully addressed.
- Watching — Although I must say, the landscape to try and view games is a nightmare. It's hard to figure out what or when or how a given game is on, and I don't know if that's ever going to get easier.