[bromuro]

To me an hobby should be something I enjoy to do when I have nothing to do, so hopefully I will never have to look for one. Instead of splitting my life in what I enjoy and what not, my personal rule is to enjoy whatever I am doing.

[cweagans]

IMO, having a hobby that's completely unrelated to your profession is critical, especially for people who do any kind of "knowledge work" for a living. Doing something entirely different gives your brain the time and space to process things. It's sort of like how people say they have their best ideas in the shower/when out for a walk/etc. It's not about splitting time between what you enjoy and what you don't - it's more that just doing one thing all the time isn't particularly healthy and can be an active hindrance to doing your best work.

[jasonkester]

Wouldn’t that leave you with a rather slim set of things to choose from to enjoy?

Most of the things I like doing would make miserable, low paying, jobs. And even though my job of programming computers is the most fun thing anybody could ever pay a guy 3X what he deserved to do it, there are a lot of other things I’d rather be doing much of the time.

So my personal plan is to minimize the time doing Work and maximize the time spent doing Play. Or, put another way, “I like climbing, surfing, and traveling. So I write software for a living.”