If it had a reason it wouldn't be a hobby.
Re:Awesome but Useless
by cookiecaper on Tuesday January 03, 2012 @11:17AM
(#3420105)
That makes no sense to me. Is there some obligation that all hobbies be useless? One of my hobbies is contributing to open-source software. That's useful, right?
As my fiance is so fond of telling me when I say "I'm off to do some work!" when going to work on my programming side projects (which includes open source development with plans for future closed source commercial projects as well), she replies "Until it makes us any money, it's just a hobby. Have fun."
Ah, good times.
Re:Awesome but Useless
by jodrellblank on Tuesday January 03, 2012 @01:08PM
(#3420596)
Ask her if she thinks that way about your marriage.
Re:Awesome but Useless
by georgemcbay on Tuesday January 03, 2012 @01:41PM
(#3420735)
Marriage makes you money (via economies of scale and tax breaks).
She worked and paid our rent and grocery bills while I finished up my CS degree. She can call it whatever she wants. :-)
A => B /= ~B => ~A
Sorry, maybe I'm misreading your notation, but are you saying that modus tollens isn't a valid argument?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modus_tollens
Re:Awesome but Useless
by pilgrim689 on Tuesday January 03, 2012 @01:43PM
(#3420742)
I think he's using a logical implication notation "|=".
as in:
A => B
logically implies that:
~B => ~A
He just decided to use "/=" rather than "|="...so it looks weird...
Ah, I'd read that as "does not equal", rather than "implies". Thanks pilgrim689.
Re:Awesome but Useless
by groovy2shoes on Tuesday January 03, 2012 @01:42PM
(#3420739)
Actually, if the positive is true, then the contrapositive is also true: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrapositive
Ah, I screwed it up :(. I meant to say A => B /= ~A => ~B to convey the fact that if someone says that all useless things are hobbies, then it doesn't follow that things that aren't useless cannot be hobbies, i.e.: that all hobbies must be useless. But as groovy2shoes and MattyDub pointed out, I did it wrongly. Thanks for the kind interpretation pilgrim689 (and indeed, I could have stated that to make the same point), but I was just wrong.
Re:Awesome but Useless
by bballbackus on Tuesday January 03, 2012 @02:03PM
(#3420828)
Who says we're here to learn?
Re:Awesome but Useless
by dextorious on Tuesday January 03, 2012 @11:48AM
(#3420245)
a) """Learning is of course awesome. It's the entire point of life. We are all here to learn."""
b) """But, doing a lot of things solely for the sake of "learning" is actually doing a disservice to yourself."""
Your two statements contradict each other.
learning != "learning"
Learning is of course awesome. It's the entire point of life. We are all here to learn.
But, excessively doing things solely for the sake of "learning" is actually doing a disservice to yourself. You should do things with tangible applications to real people besides yourself, too.
There are a lot of preliminary or experimental avenues to explore, but once you find a handful with promise, my advice would be to try to follow those more deeply and apply the principles you learned to something with direct applicability.
What you'll find is that by turning an experiment into a product, you've actually learned a lot more than you ever thought that little idea could yield up. You'll gain not only depth but also breadth as you explore the implications of that product in various fields, gauge peers' reactions to the product and marketing, and attempt to develop your idea into a repeatable, profitable boon.
Tinkering is really important for a lot of reasons, but endless, exclusive tinkering results in a very superficial knowledgebase. I recommend that everyone follow several of their promises tinkers down the rabbit hole and see what comes out of it. I recognize that this takes effort and commitment, but I think you'll often be surprised at the results.