Hacker News Reader

Comment by ritchiea | Hacker News Reader

Studying chess isn't leisure in the same way that watching TV or reading a book or playing a sport are leisure. If you are studying chess with the intention of actually improving your game it requires a lot of mental energy. For a lot of people, it not most people, it would be closer to more work than leisure time.

I also play chess but I don't think of chess as time to unwind. It's definitely fun, but requires a lot of focus and I have to stop playing a few hours before bed so I can actually unwind.

View on HN

Anything you put "work" in to (like serious hobbies, sports etc.) can still be considered a hobby / leisure. Lots of competitive low end golfers, tennis players, basketball players etc.

I've found it one of the best outlets from work quite frankly, to have another committed side interest that requires dedication and commitment. You should try it :-)

When I studied I worked at a grocery store part time, and found it a very good fit as it was mostly mechanical work requiring very little mental capacity.

After I graduated and got a programming job, I found that my hobbies took a big hit, as they all mostly required similar mental focus as work. So these days I generally do a lot less mentally taxing things. Sure I'll have bursts of creativity, but most days my brain is spent when I'm done at work and I'll go for a bike ride or watch a movie.

Yea I don't think the response above you actually understood my comment. I do play chess somewhat seriously and it's similar mental labor as programming. And I can only do so much more serious mental work after a day at work coding. And I definitely could not commit to two hours of serious chess study every day. Maybe 30-60 minutes of games & puzzles.

Playing a sport is completely different from playing chess, the physicality of a sport is at least different type of challenge.

My experience with such outlets is that I then put less effort into work and people around. And my observation of people who have super intellectually involved hobbies is that they do too. I can use prime mental effort for work and thinking about world around me. Or into difficult hobby (chess, electronics was for me a little). But if I do spend time with difficult hobby I am tired for work which requires focus. If I fully focus on work so I do my maximum, then I am too tired for chess. If I was not, I could be coding faster.

So for me, intellectual hobbies correlate with when project in work are boring or unmotivating (there are such periods).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com