I’ve heard this before, but haven’t found it the case personally. I started work in manual jobs and messing around with computers was my evening hobby. Many years later, I now do IT as a job (partly from gaining skills from that hobby) but also have continued it as my primary thing to do when I’m not working. I was worried when I changed into this career that my hobby would become too much like work to be enjoyable, but I’ve not found that.
Is this the same for other people, or am I unusual in doing something in my off hours that’s so close to my career? I’m genuinely curious to know if others have found the same or whether they found another hobby.
Yes, and no.
Some jobs were hell and some were amazing, but I was always happiest cooking for the family (kids are grown and gone, so now it’s mostly the two of us).
I like the diversity of what I can prep at home, sometimes (when we’re flat out at the restaurant) seeing what i can week out that’s good with no ingredients.
Basically it’s the different challenges at home vs. the daily grind that make the difference for me. Some days I like the consistency that work brings, and sometimes it’s just something to check off a list so I can get home and do ‘some real food’.
So your job is cooking?
That makes a lot of sense. A lot of the ‘stress’ of my job comes from people - asking permission, considering stakeholders, working around their needs - that it’s quite freeing to “JFDI” something, knowing that it’s only me that cares or is affected.
The venn diagram between “work” and “play” for me has a lot of intersecting area, but the distinctions are mostly clear. Guessing it’s the same for you - especially with the extra depth that cooking for family involves.
Absolutely, it’s amazing how much each spect of the career has different disciplines - for example when you can set up an event from soup to nuts, so to speak: Make a menu, get a budget, get the product, gat the cooks to produce it, execute the event, and then reconcile the costs, feedback from the guests (and your boss/business owner) and have everything go as planned has each its own sense of satisfaction and heartburn.
This year marks 40 years, everything from McDonald’s to 4* 5 Diamond restaurants, several countries and 3 continents, which finally led to us opening a humble little BBQ joint ran by just us 2 (and a couple neighbor kids during high season) and it took all that experience (and, luck!) to survive the opening 4 months before COVID, lol.
Cooking at home is more simplified, and more satisfying.