On Hobbies

We have both invested thousands of hours into activities with no obvious utility. Music, sport, photography, travel, poetry, writing an entire unpublished novel… starting a podcast. Is this all just a hubristic waste of time, a shallow self-indulgence, or is there some value to these activities that goes beyond the fact that we enjoy them?

There is satisfaction in mastering a skill, there is value in expanding your comfort zone, and there’s a human drive towards capturing and communicating a subjective experience. But the ancients suggest that there is more going on here, that our hobbies could be essential to being able to live a good life.

Aristotle tells us that virtue lies between two vices - recklessness on one side, and cowardice on the other. To be virtuous is to conquer both of these, and to hold this middle course when dealin ...