Ask HN: Skills that give you joy/flow

19 points by viginti_tres 3 years ago | 16 comments
I have some skills/hobbies like music and boxing, and these things give me joy/flow. What are the skills that give you joy/flow? (flow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology))
  • smk_ 3 years ago
    I love this question. First and foremost, meditation. It definitely helps me be more present. Another skill that gives me joy is reading. I can concentratedly read for 2 hours, but after 2 hours I need to take a break. I can't think of any other activity that I can concentrate so long on. Ideally, I would become a scholar but I'm going into software engineering for now:)
  • drakonka 3 years ago
    Reading, writing, coding (usually debugging, once I have a consistent and smooth repro process), lifting.
    • 3 years ago
      • dokem 3 years ago
        I've been painting some walls in my house recently. After getting over the short learning curve of making a mess everywhere I find it pretty therapeutic and meditative.
        • starwind 3 years ago
          Listening to music. Flying an airplane. Doing a hard workout. Building a Lego set. Fixing something with my hands. Cooking (trying not to cut off any more finger tips).
          • amerkhalid 3 years ago
            Coding, video games, listening to music, painting.

            And long time ago when I used to run, running.

            • floppy-disk 3 years ago
              Refactoring legacy code.
              • tekichan 3 years ago
                Coding, solving math problems on paper (equations and stuff)
                • billconan 3 years ago
                  drawing.

                  Thank you for sharing the wiki link, I learned something. I like drawing, it let me forget about other things for hours. I use it as a therapy for anxiety.

                  • amerkhalid 3 years ago
                    Same here, drawing and painting is such relaxing activity for me. Much easier to do than meditation, at least, for me.
                  • AnimalMuppet 3 years ago
                    Ultimate frisbee is a "flow" kind of game.
                    • ambivalents 3 years ago
                      Bouldering, meditating, ping pong
                      • mikewarot 3 years ago
                        Machining, making gears.
                        • dominotw 3 years ago
                          coding, skiing.
                          • navyad 3 years ago
                            running
                            • viginti_tres 3 years ago
                              runner's high is a real thing and it's such an ecstasy (I've never done real ecstasies)