For the Love of Hobbies

As American side hustles became a cultural norm in recent years, hobbies were increasingly viewed as potential income streams. Knitting shops filled with entrepreneurs testing product lines. Home kitchens doubled as microbakeries. Even someone with a weekend watercolor habit wondered: “Could this be worth something more?”

Such a question is now losing some of its shine. Many people are returning to activities that exist for one reason only—the pleasure of doing them. Pottery studios report full classes with no talk of selling pieces. Birding groups are expanding, filled with people content to stand still and watch nature take flight. Gardeners enjoy the time spent cultivating as much as what it can yield. These choices share a common theme: They are for pure enjoyment, not auditions for a second career.

Part of the appeal is control. A hobby that remains personal, not monetized, has clear boundaries. It begins and ends on one’s own terms, freed from customer expectations, algorithmic pressure, and any sense of obligation. There is freedom in being an amateur again—free to be inconsistent, to improve slowly, and to lose interest and return without consequence.

When you have this mindset, you also tend to reflect on what matters to you. As you’ve probably experienced, time spent on something “unproductive” usually requires justification. (Time is money, after all.)

However, this notably changed for many people because of COVID, when they were forced to rediscover the simple pleasure of just doing. Today, you can gleefully spend an hour shaping clay or walking a wooded path with binoculars, knowing that you’ll get a distinct kind of return on investment: one where your mood is steadied and your mind occupied in a way that exhilarates rather than exhausts. Research has long suggested that restorative leisure improves well-being, and more and more, our lived experiences are validating that it does.

Perhaps the most telling changes are conversational. Whereas people once wondered what a hobby might become or be worth someday, they now prioritize how it feels to participate. The experience is often simple: absorbing and calming (and occasionally frustrating) but well worth the time.