Asklemmy

How about taking a trade?

I recently got into video game development, and I’ve had so much fun, and it’s given me some much-needed meaning. I’ve solved problems unique to my game using programming skills as well as game design skills, and it feels meaningful because i can send it to my friends and they can enjoy it without needing to appreciate any of the technical aspects. I get to be creative about how people I care about can have more fun. It could also involve your music composition hobby, since every good game needs some music and sound design! I’m a programmer for my day job so most things I do there are only meaningful to other programmers, and the problems I solve there are incredibly boring ones.

Edit: I saw your comment about being burnt out on programming, and I totally understand that. That happens to me frequently. I enjoy programming as a hobby when I’m not burnt out so we’re kinda in different boats there. There are lots of skills involved in making games and the variety has really refreshed me, though I’ve still gotten sick of sitting at a computer while working on it.

You're on Lemmy, why not try your hand at contributing to an open source project that catches your interest?

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.

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.

I've (more or less) got those two hobbies as well! :D

I work on cars for fun, but that might not be the most budget friendly thing to do outside of basic car maintenance. Of course, this is assuming that you or a friend has a car to work on.

What if you get an Arduino starter kit? That involves putting things together with your hands and writing code to make the hardware do cool things.

For music production, you could check out a website like Looperman or a subscription service like Splice. Then, download a few audio samples and use them as a starting point for a song. This helped me get back into music production after a five month period of minimal inspiration.

Photography (even with a cellphone) could be nice too. You could even use it as a reason to do physical activities like hiking.

EDIT: Have you been hanging out with friends regularly? If not, I think that it should be

Drawing. It's seen as a skill reserved for an elite few, but in reality anyone can develop it. I learned it at school from lessons very similar to how Peter Gray teaches it (see this book for example on the Internet Archive).

All you need is a pad of paper, a few pencils and an eraser. And then sketch away, plants, people, landscapes, characters, whatever you want to explore.

Feeling lost and with no direction, what skill should I learn?

You could go into teaching?

Do you live in an area where you can go sailing?

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.