I’m a bit of a jack of all trades. When I work on a project I use anything from woodworking and sewing to chemistry and physics to human physiology and psychology. I also like reading up then chatting about random science and history and art stuff. I like working with computers occasionally, and I’ll just randomly throw some basic geometry or algebra into a project, but I was also an art student so I’m not half bad at making things visually appealing either.

I have a job where I often get a chance to use my various areas of semi-expertise when I pick up a side project, but that’s led me into getting waaay overinvolved in my work and neglecting my outside relationships. What hobbies or other non-professional things could I get involved in that would give me that same opportunity to flex my creativity when solving a problem?

  • @[email protected]English
    11•1 month ago

    Museums need a lot of interesting one-off exhibits and interactive stuff. There used to be a few small, local museums for local nature and history in my area that used volunteers to create really cool and informative stuff. Libraries might do some of that too or know about fairs and stuff where preservation groups and the like tend to show off stuff they’re preserving or whatever.

    If there’s a community radio or public broadcast group they’ll need quality volunteers. A HAM license opens up a lot of volunteer opportunities especially preparing for and in emergency situations.

    • @ApyteleOP
      4•1 month ago

      This is a little more what I was looking for, yeah. I’m wondering if I can email around and find some take-home projects to work on while the sun’s down (being my normal waking hours).

      • @[email protected]English
        2•1 month ago

        My father put together a couple of collections of stuff from my grandfathers’ WWII service for the library and they put it on display for a while. If you have an idea yourself they’d probably love to let you run with it if you speak with them about it- that’d probably be the surest way to get started.

        EDIT: also if you’re lucky enough to have a makerspace in your area that’s the candy store- they’ll know about lots of projects that need various expertise and talents.