Hobbies
Digital hobbies
Hobbies that live mostly on a screen, and are none the worse for it.
Subhashish Panigrahi / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
3D printing
Making physical objects layer by layer from a digital model — a manufacturing process that became a domestic hobby, with all the calibration that implies.
£100–£300 to start · indoors · sedentary
Tim Walker / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Music production
Recording, arranging and mixing music on a computer — a craft with a very low entry cost and a famously steep middle.
£300–£1,000 to start · indoors · sedentary
TreyDanger / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Microcontroller projects
Building small devices around Arduino, Pico and similar boards — the cheapest way to make something physical respond to the world.
Under £25 to start · indoors · sedentary
Indoor cycling
SportStructured training and virtual racing on a smart trainer — a season of its own rather than a wet-weather substitute.
£300–£1,000 to startIndoorsVery demanding
Home automation
HobbyMaking a house respond to sensors, schedules and each other — a systems hobby whose hard part is deciding what should happen, not making it happen.
£100–£300 to startIndoorsSedentary
Game development
CraftMaking games as a hobby — where the difficulty is not the engine but finishing something small enough to finish.
Free or near-free to startIndoorsSedentary
Also in this category
Classified but not yet written up.
53 activities in the catalogue, 6 written up so far.
Amateur cartography
HobbyCraftMaking maps — surveyed, drawn or digital — of real or imagined places.
£25–£100 to startIndoors or outdoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Archive transcription
HobbyTranscribing handwritten records for archives and research projects, from home, at your own pace.
Free or near-free to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Audio drama production
HobbyCraftWriting, recording and editing dramatic audio, where sound design carries what a picture would.
£100–£300 to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
CAD modelling
HobbyDesigning parts in three dimensions for printing, machining or simply for the pleasure of it.
Free or near-free to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Capture the flag security puzzles
HobbySolving deliberately vulnerable systems as timed puzzles, on platforms built for the purpose.
Free or near-free to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Chiptune
HobbyCraftComposing music with the sound chips of vintage computers and consoles.
£25–£100 to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Community radio
HobbyProducing and presenting on a licensed local station, run almost entirely by volunteers.
Free or near-free to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Competitive programming
HobbySolving algorithmic problems against a clock, individually or in teams, on judged platforms.
Free or near-free to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Demoscene
HobbyWriting audiovisual programs under severe size limits, judged at parties — a computer art form.
Free or near-free to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Digital art
HobbyCraftDrawing and painting on a tablet or computer with pressure-sensitive tools.
£300–£1,000 to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Digital mapping
HobbyContributing to open map data by surveying and editing the places you already know.
Under £25 to startIndoors or outdoorsGentle
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Digital preservation
HobbyRescuing data from obsolete media and formats, and keeping it readable — floppies, tapes, dead formats.
£100–£300 to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
DJing
HobbySelecting and mixing records or files for a room, on decks or controller.
£300–£1,000 to startIndoorsGentle
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Electronics repair
HobbyCraftFixing consumer electronics rather than replacing them, starting with a soldering iron.
£100–£300 to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Esports
HobbySportCompetitive video gaming in teams and leagues, trained for like a sport.
£300–£1,000 to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Family photo archiving
HobbyScanning, dating and cataloguing inherited photographs so they survive and stay identifiable.
£100–£300 to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Film scoring
HobbyWriting music to picture against timecode, where the cut rather than the phrase sets the structure.
£100–£300 to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Flight simulation
HobbyFlying realistically simulated aircraft, with real procedures and charts.
£300–£1,000 to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Foley and sound design
HobbyCraftMaking sound effects physically, for film, games and radio drama.
£300–£1,000 to startIndoorsGentle
In the catalogue, not written up yet
FPGA projects
HobbyDescribing digital hardware in code and running it on a reconfigurable chip, rather than programming a processor.
£100–£300 to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Generative art
CraftHobbyMaking images from code and rules rather than by hand, with plotters and screens as output.
Under £25 to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Generative music
HobbyBuilding systems that compose rather than composing directly, in patchers, code or hardware.
Free or near-free to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Home server
HobbyRunning your own services on hardware you own, for storage, media and privacy.
£300–£1,000 to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Interactive fiction
HobbyWriting and playing parser and choice-based text games, with an annual competition culture.
Free or near-free to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Live streaming
HobbyBroadcasting yourself playing, making or talking, live to an audience.
£300–£1,000 to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Mechanical keyboards
HobbyCraftBuilding and modifying keyboards — switches, keycaps, dampening and sometimes hand-wired firmware.
£100–£300 to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
OpenStreetMap surveying
HobbySurveying and editing the open map of the world, from a phone or from a GPS trace.
Free or near-free to startIndoors or outdoorsModerate effort
In the catalogue, not written up yet
PC building
HobbySpecifying, assembling and tuning your own computer.
Over £1,000 to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Photogrammetry
HobbyBuilding three-dimensional models from overlapping photographs, used for heritage and printing.
£100–£300 to startIndoors or outdoorsGentle
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Pixel art
HobbyCraftDrawing at deliberately low resolution, where every pixel is a decision.
Free or near-free to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Play-by-post gaming
HobbyRoleplaying or wargaming asynchronously in writing, over months, with no scheduled session.
Free or near-free to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Podcasting
HobbyCraftPlanning, recording, editing and publishing an audio show.
£100–£300 to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Programming
HobbyWriting code for its own sake — tools, puzzles, side projects.
Free or near-free to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Radio contesting
HobbyCompetitive amateur radio, making as many contacts as possible in a defined window.
£300–£1,000 to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Retro computing
HobbyRestoring, using and programming computers from the 1980s and 90s.
£300–£1,000 to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Retro console modding
HobbyCraftRepairing and modifying old games consoles — recapping, video output mods, region freeing.
£100–£300 to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Sim racing
HobbySportRacing in simulators on a wheel and pedals, competitively or for practice.
£300–£1,000 to startIndoorsGentle
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Single-board computer projects
HobbyBuilding small always-on machines — media servers, sensors, retro consoles — on a credit-card computer.
£25–£100 to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Software-defined radio
HobbyListening across the radio spectrum with a cheap USB receiver and software rather than tuned hardware.
£25–£100 to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Speedrunning
HobbyCompleting games as fast as possible, to a verified ruleset and leaderboard.
£100–£300 to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Turntablism
HobbyUsing turntables as instruments — scratching, beat juggling and cutting — judged in battles.
£300–£1,000 to startIndoorsGentle
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Type design
CraftHobbyDrawing typefaces, which is drawing, systems thinking and an unusually long feedback loop.
£100–£300 to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Video game collecting
HobbyCollecting games and hardware by console, region and completeness.
£100–£300 to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Video gaming
HobbyPlaying games seriously — as a hobby with its own depth and community.
£300–£1,000 to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Videography
HobbyCraftShooting and editing video, from documentary to short film.
£300–£1,000 to startIndoors or outdoorsGentle
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Voice acting
HobbyPerforming with the voice alone for audio drama, animation and games, usually recorded at home.
£100–£300 to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet
Wikipedia editing
HobbyWriting and sourcing encyclopaedia articles, to a strict citation standard.
Free or near-free to startIndoorsSedentary
In the catalogue, not written up yet