Dabbling

The concept of hobbies is kind of interesting. A hobby is something you do because you enjoy doing it, but then that's also true of both enjoyable work and pure entertainment. A hobby is also something you usually don't expect to become your main activity or make much (if any) money, but if you ask an artist who is also working whether art is their hobby, they tend to get pretty ornery. Similarly, you might volunteer at a soup kitchen and enjoy it very much, but you wouldn't call it a hobby. I would argue that the definition of a hobby is something that could turn into a serious pursuit, but doesn't.

There are many people, myself included, who pick up an instrument for a while, mess around a bit, maybe take some lessons or learn a few songs on their own, and have a good time playing. However, they never go further than that. If you ask them "are you a musician?" they would say no. If you ask them "are you going to join a band or record an album?" they would also say no. Even given a direct opportunity for it to turn more serious, they would turn it down. Why? Because they're just messing around, this isn't meant to be a serious thing.

I question the wisdom of this limitation. If you enjoy something, why hold yourself back from the possibility that it could be something more than a frivolous pastime? Is your worst case scenario really that you play the guitar for fun, eventually get good at it, and then people enjoy your guitar music? That's a pretty mild worst case! Maybe you've already got other pursuits that take priority, but just because you're a part-time guitarist doesn't mean that you can't be a good one, or that you should deliberately avoid opportunities for it to go anywhere.

Dabbling is, it seems to me, another kind of liability shield. If you can find a way to separate what you do from what a professional does, if you can make it not serious in some qualitative way, you become immune to professional-level criticism. "Hey, your guitar playing sucks" – "joke's on you, I don't even really play the guitar for real". Problem solved. By cutting yourself off from the possibility of success, you also cut yourself off from the possibility of failure.

But what a sacrifice to make, to eliminate the chance that your pastimes could become important enough that people would judge you by them. And what a waste to take something you enjoy and cripple it out of fear that it could mean too much and make you vulnerable.