February 2025 with The Hobbyist + Some Housekeeping

We did a lot of cool stuff. Here’s a recap of it.

February 2025 marked the first full month of The Hobbyist. It included four new editions and four Halftime Snacks*. Not bad for a free publication I put together in my spare time (thanks almost entirely to my amazing guests and the wondrous Thomas Euyang). I thought it’d be fun to highlight one important thing I take away from each interview I publish every month. Musings about life, advice on hobbies, funny non sequiturs…It could be anything. I’m underscoring the moments that, among a myriad of other reasons, make me love this undertaking.

Also, some housekeeping. I’m retiring the Halftime Snacks for the time being (*crowd gasps and then boos*). I’m not sure how I want to make them better but I want to make them better, so I will be putting ‘em on ice until that time. Plus, hearing from me once a week is more than enough. Secondly, the pub will now arrive in your inbox on Thursdays! Dats right, no more Fridays. Fridays are for chumps. Everyone is already heading to their beach house. Who wants to read a Substack when you can just look at the ocean instead? Hopefully you will all be so exhausted from work by Thursday morning that The Hobbyist is the perfect lil’ jolt to distract you from the doldrums of late capitalism and properly launch you into a most excellent weekend.

Without further ado (don’t you dare skip that footnote just below these words, though), some choice quotes from February with The Hobbyist.

*One of said snacks was a full interview, which I won’t be doing again. The interviews deserve their own editions, and I’ll figure out a better way to highlight multiple members of a single entity in the future. For the sake of this recap, though, I’m treating my interview with Grey Mcmurray as a full edition.

Sami Reiss, The Hobbyist Edition #2

“…there is something edifying in having things of your own that are not for money, that are effectively existing in a money free space. Money doesn’t matter in a library, money shouldn’t really matter to your hobby. It does because you need time and most of these things need equipment, but it’s always a continuum.”

I agree with this wholeheartedly. Time and dedication matter more than money. Yeah, golf is a lot more fun if you have a ton of money to spend on clubs and fancy courses, but golf is not fun at all if you suck with those expensive clubs at those fancy courses.

Celia Hollander, The Hobbyist Edition #3

“I fight to also make my own music…it’s a protected thing. It’s like a national park. It’s not there by chance. There’s tons of legislation and people fighting for it and it’s cordoned off — protected. It’s like that.”

Very few people on this Earth earn a profit from their art. Even fewer can survive off that income. Those that not only thrive but are wealthy are nearly extinct. So, most of us have to do other things to earn income. Most of the day is tied up with things that don’t interest us. As Aesop Rock says on “9-5ers Anthem”:

“Now we the American working population hate the fact that eight hours a day is wasted on chasing the dream of someone that isn’t us. And we may not hate our jobs but we hate jobs in general, that don’t have to do with fighting our own causes. We the American working population hate the nine-to-five day-in day-out, when we’d rather be supporting ourselves by being paid to perfect the pastimes that we have harbored based solely on the fact that it makes us smile if it sounds dope.”

So, we heed Celia Hollander’s advice. Fight, protect, and bring a patient energy to every minute you get to do what you actually like doing.

Sasha Frere-Jones, The Hobbyist Edition #4

“We get a lot of good sayings in the sober community, but a counselor told me early on that the opposite of addiction isn’t sobriety. The opposite of addiction is connection. Addiction is so much about isolation. The thing about being sober is that you have to start dealing with other people and realize that nothing is really their fault and everybody’s human.”

There’s this idea that not drinking is the goal. It’s one goal, I guess. It was for me, certainly. But once you’re sober the real work begins in that you face things a lot more clearly. That work is hard and everlasting and relentless. Sobriety doesn’t solve your problems but elucidates them, makes them more vivid and concrete. Roadblocks shine in neon and the lights don’t switch off until they’re dealt with. The first time I realized this I woke up in a cold sweat like I was dreaming I was late for the SATs. It’s an anxiety bred from excitement and possibility, a feeling of hope.

Grey Mcmurray, The Hobbyist Afternoon Snack

“We’re talking about something that is at least approaching something fundamental. There’s a certain ease. I can let go of whatever I have to deal with. The information that’s being given to me is actually about a process event or the way something is. It’s comforting. I think hobbies are things that are comforting.”

I loved this bit from Mcmurray. There are things in this world that I can’t begin to comprehend that are unequivocally true; inarguable facts related to the way the universe works gives some footing to the mysterious and terrifying behemoth of reality, our galaxy, being alive, etc. Some truths are so powerful in nature that they deem most other things irrelevant. It’s calming indeed.

Liz Breed, The Hobbyist Edition #5

“Sometimes you really do need somebody to say, ‘Stop doing that, you fucking idiot.’”

I couldn’t agree more! Tough love gets a bad rep because of the word “tough” but it should get a good rep because of the word “love.” It’s hard to be honest if you don’t care. Liz cares!