[jasonkester]

Indeed, but you can say this about pretty much any hobby.

What does playing Guitar get you beyond getting better at playing guitar? Snowboarding? Rock Climbing? Traveling the world? Building perfectly accurate models of 19th century warships?

There are a million things that people can take up a a hobby, and even dedicate their entire life to. All of them have your same points in common that, unless you manage to become one of the top 100 people in the world at it, it's not really going to ever benefit you beyond your own personal satisfaction.

And yet, I defy you to find a single person who doesn't have at least one of these time wasting hobbies. It's part of what makes us human.

My advice is to not sweat it so much and go play Chess if it makes you happy.

[vetler]

Snowboarding and rock climbing improves your health, so it's absolutely not wasted time. You get the benefit of doing something fun, while also making you a healthier person.

You're still right, though. Play chess if it makes you happy.

[jasonkester]

True, though there are better ways to improve your health if that's your goal.

If you want to be truly good at either one of those things (to the level that the grandparent talks about where he's a "walking database"), you're going to do all sorts of things that are not particularly beneficial to your health.

Next time you meet a really dedicated snowboarder, have him do a couple deep knee bends and take a listen. If you ever meet me, have me show you my knuckles, which I can no longer straighten nor bend completely after 15 years of dedicated finger training for Rock Climbing. Watch me do a one-arm pullup, then laugh as I fail to run a mile because I'm not actually, in any normal sense of the word, in shape.

Pretty much all the hobies I mention above, and most you could think of, require you to specialize in ways that make them unsuitable training for the general case area in which they improve you. Just like Chess sorta makes you smarter and piano sorta makes you more dextrous, training for a sport just sorta makes you healthy. But mostly it makes you a better snowboarder, climber, etc.

[kamaal]

Uncharted territories make interesting things to me. Once I figure out the secret sauce behind things, they stop being fun to me.

Some sports are enjoyable for sheer thrill and excitement. They go outside the bounds of a hobby, they are more of experiences.