Asklemmy

Skill #1: You're fine just the way you are. You aren't lost, you're still deciding where to go.

My advice is to take an SDS test (career interest) to get your Holland code and learn about all the jobs that would excite you.

Navigation?

If you become a plumber or electrician it will satisfy your desire to create with your hands while challenging your brain. It pays decently good and keeps you in shape too.

As an electrician you’ll start off paid low for a year or two as a laborer, but in four or five years I think you’ll be a trade professional making good money and doing useful work.

I learned how to flintknap a little, and it was super fun. I heard buying rocks can be expensive if you don't live near where they're plentiful, but what hobby doesn't get expensive? I went to the class with my brother in law and he got absolutely lost in the sauce working on his flint, and didn't talk to anyone else there

It can be tiring but it's definitely fun seeing what you've made (even if you're not very good at it like me) and besides, you get to say you're hitting rock/buying rock so there's even more fun to be had!

Trades are great careers to be in now. Maybe cabinet making and volunteer at habitat for humanity? Learn something new that might help down the line, and do some good at the same time. Wiring, welding, or fixing an old car is another route to learn a useful and potentially employable skill.

My mate started terrarium building.

For very little cost, you can look for second hand fish tanks and go for walks to collect moss, rocks, twigs etc. Weirdly it built more meaning to the more 'I need to move my body so I'll go for a walk'.

Now he likes hiking, and collecting moss along the way.

The actual terrariums are gorgeous too.

Are you looking for a new career as well? Or just a hobby? I sit in front of a computer all day and always thought being an electrician would be kind of neat. Decent money, get to work with your hands, and still some problem solving involved.

Edit: If you're looking for more of a hobby, volunteer conservation work may also be something to look into. Something like trail work. I did a few stints in my younger years, and they were transformative experiences for me. The folks who do this type of work are super interesting and passionate in my experience, and it can rub off on you.

Programming. Challenging and creative in a way that is different than art & music but still somehow similar. I find it almost relaxing sometimes. Python is a great first language and you can go from no knowledge whatsoever to a working program that does something genuinely useful in an hour, like scraping a website and showing you some data from it. Mastery takes years.

If you genuinely enjoy programming, you can legitimately change the world with your knowledge. There are tons of open source projects out there which benefit humanity yet don't have enough development talent. It's one thing to volunteer your time and see a good outcome from it, it's another to volunteer your time to build a system which guarantees good outcomes for many people over long time periods and get to see that system grow and get used by people.

cooking is an awesome hobbyyy

Thought of a few more.

I should mention metal scraping, surface lapping and lens/mirror figuring (like for a telescope) too, since the other forms of metalworking have been brought up. For woodworking, there's all kinds of old techniques if you're looking for something a bit different. Cooper isn't just a last name.

Stone knapping, like to make arrowheads or similar. It's tricky I hear, but you can do it with any reasonably thick piece of glass to start, and move up to actual rocks eventually.

Weaving, spinning and of course knitting and sewing. Textile hobbies are associated with women, though, and Lemmy is mostly men, so you might get the occasional weird look.

Someone else mentioned canning, and I've done that one - I'm pretty good at it, too, although it's hard work. Taking normal food and making it last literally forever is neat, you just need to pay attention to all the details.

Sales. If you want to starting make really good money without a masters or PhD. Learn sales. Get a bdr type role. Even part time and get some experience. After that you can start making 6 figs within a few years.

Going thru similar shit right now myself I found an anchor in working out. I started from total zero - zero push ups, zero pull ups, zero sqats, zero crunches. I can do most of these now, with pullups to go still. But I also got into better mindset and learning discipline too. Good stuff that I've neglected for 20+ years.

Metal working, (although kinda expensive to get into) sheet metal bending, machining, welding. I really enjoy learning and making real world useful parts out of metal.

Wood working/whittling Its cheap to learn and can be very rewarding. Id suggest to look at local stores for discarded pallets for free wood. To make a few things out of, aim for hardwood, but lots of them end up being pine.

Potentally electronics? (Although you said you didnt want a hobby that doesnt use computers)

Photography could be rewarding Going outside to parks and just taking pictures really helps feeling grounded an in the now. And you can show others your photos!

Woodworking. I love it. Wood is such a warm medium to work with, and it's a really easy hobby to get into, too. You don't have to buy expensive power tools, nor do you need to set a target of making fine furniture.

For me, I started out with scrap wood, trying to make as perfect as dovetail joint as possible, using just hand tools - a cross-cut saw and a good, sharp chisel.

That took me down a path of trying to learn different joinery techniques, which was a whole lot of fun. I bought a couple of joinery books from the big A and scrounged scraps from my local hardware to practice on. And, I know you said you wanted to get away from the computer, but there's some incredibly good woodworking channels on YT. I tend to avoid the ones that talk too much about what they're doing - I prefer to just watch masters at work. I find Japanese woodworking videos incredibly satisfying and enjoyable.

I don't get to indulge the hobby as much as I want - family life keeps me pretty busy nowadays - but, when I have the occasional afternoon to myself, I love spending it in my little workshop, mucking around with wood. I always come away from a bout of woodworking feeling relaxed.

I really want to get into casting, because it's crazy how much stuff you can make. Machining too, but that requires a lot of equipment. If you want to use metal casting to make machining tools, David Gingery's works are a classic.

Gymnastics. Seriously. You don't need to be all that athletic to do the core basics. You get fitter and have fun just throwing yourself onto big soft mats.

I recently got deep into making paper!

It's relatively simple, relaxing, and has a lot of repetitive tasks that take a while... So it's been fantastic for reading audiobooks! I also get to recycle old paper and cardboard instead of putting it into a bin and hoping that it's dealt with.

Every single piece of equipment can be made by hand for cheap though honestly I highly recommend a blender and a tub. Both of which could be replaced with hand made things but like... Why would you want to spend hours beating recycled paper to a pulp which you could put it into a blender for a little bit while doing something else.

It's also great for my debilitating RSD because even though it requires a specific touch to be gained... Every step except for literally the very last one can be repeated at any point with no downside.

If the pulp isn't blended right... Blend it more... If the deckle is unevenly covered... Just put it back in the water... Etc etc

I really think more people should do recycling stuff in general but this has been fantastic.