Moving to: m/AskMbin!

• Lockpicking
• Rubiks Cubes
• Raspberry Pi stuff.
• Narrative driven Video games, obviously
• Cooking

I got into leatherworking during the pandemic and it's been really rewarding. The actual act of cutting and sewing the leather is very zen to me, and in the end you have something new that you can use or give as a gift!

Getting started is fairly cheap (some punches, needles, thread, a sharp knife, and leather is all you really need to get started). I order everything online so no need to interact with people.

Lots of good tutorials online to learn (Carter leather, weaver, are both good YT channels)

I'd anyone is interested in trying it I'd be happy to help get you started 😊

Do the Blender donut tutorial and learn 3D modeling. It's free. It's a great time sink. Amazing online community. Personally, I find it very rewarding. I learned during lockdown and it's one of my favorite accomplishments and I still have so much to learn.

This is going to sound a little strange, but playing music on stage works for me. At least in moderation, and provided you aren't the lead singer/MC who has to interact with people. You just wanna be some guy in the corner jamming on whatever you jam on.

You kind of get the best parts of being in a social situation in terms of seeing new places, having interesting experiences you can ponder for days to come, and occasionally getting free food and/or a green room where you can veg out in isolation and no one expects anything of you. But you can avoid the negatives: having to make small talk, looking awkward with nothing to do and no role to play, being labelled antisocial, getting roped into some horrible activity you did not sign on for, etc.

And it turns out there are a lot of introverted musicians. You only really need one extravert in a band.

I put on headphones (ANC transparency mode enabled) and jam out while bicycling for an hour daily. I put over 3,000 miles on my Trek Verve2 annually

Programming. I honestly love writing code. I've built quite a few useful tools for myself, I've toyed around with making games, I regularly play around with new languages and libraries to see how they work, and I've also written a bunch of pointless code that has no practical purpose but was fun or enjoyable to create. All of which cost me no money and required very little interaction with other people.

Gaming
Gardening
Hiking
3d printing
Woodworking
Reading

Climbing/bouldering at a bouldering gym, its sociable but since its often a solo sport you can leave any time.
Also every climber I've come across is very chill, and its good exercise.

Metal detecting, provided it's legal where you live.

I had a lot of fun building my 4wd rc car

Running.

Photography. I took this up as a hobby after having kids and no longer had time for woodworking. It is portable and doesn't require expensive equipment, although if you get into it you can certainly spend as much as you like on lenses.

I can bring the camera with me on vacation in a city and take fun pictures of buildings, or get lost in the woods for a few hours observing and photographing nature.

My photos are just for me, but there are often small local photo clubs where you can share, learn and even exhibit in coffee shops and libraries if you want.

Creative writing -- also it costs almost nothing. Fiction, poems, whatever you want.

Painting, drawing and art -- not terribly expensive to get started, especially colored pencil and water color

Solo outdoor activities like hiking, cycling (road or mountain), frisbee golf, cross country skiing, kayaking, canoeing, beachcombing

Photography -- you can just use your phone or buy a fancy camera. Make prints, hang them around your house.

Playing musical instruments -- pick your favorite, there are instructions on YouTube for everything:

• free (singing, whistling, spoons)
• cheap (harmonica, thumb piano, plastic flute, hand drums)
• medium (guitar, bass, keyboard, drums, many strings and wind instruments, electronic music)
• more expensive (analog and modular synths, piano, the larger string and wind instruments)

I enjoy miniature painting, as it will let you engage as much (or little) with the various communities as you wish. Order paint online, and paint in the troll cave by yourself? Certainly! Make some small talk with the clerk and patrons at your local hobby shop, now that you share a common interest and have something to talk about? Absolutely!

Get obsessed with 40K lore, wonder where all your money and free time went, realize you have enough miniatures to paint for several decades, and yet you still can’t stop buying them and oh god those paints would go amazing with that color scheme you pictured so maybe just one more purchase —-

@FrostBolt I’m a big fan of plant care! I find it super relaxing to have a little garden in my apartment (plus I love the pop of color in my living room!)

Other hobbies I have are puzzle games (eg sudoku, crosswords, word scrambles), podcasts, and audiobooks

Cycling. Nobody to bother you and you can just keep going for hours. Even if you ride with other people, they're won't be much chatter during the ride. Going for a drink afterwards is optional. And even if you go you can just talk about gear ratios and spring rates.

Programming (python), making music/learning instruments and synths.

If…. You’re looking for a hobby… what inspires you? When was the last time you felt awe or marveled at something?

For me, I enjoy remote control… stuff… and robots. Which got me into 3d printing (my first printer was a Frankensteinian inkjet cobbled together to spray resin on powder. Dad made the mistake of not asking what I wanted the inkjet for. Fun times.)

Model plane flying.

If you want, you can do it completely on your own, just you, the plane and a nice meadow.

If you itch for company, you can always join a club where everyone nerds the same way as you.

It's a bit on the expensive side, but very creative and rewarding.

Cooking! I'm not a weird loner with a fire fetish, I'm channeling my inner Francis Mallmann. No really, if you get really serious about it, cooking can be a great solitary, hyperfocus, hobby. From distilling my own sea salt to cataloging where to harvest wild fennel and clams, it's not something I'd want to do in a group.

And, you do get to have people over in circumstances you completely control!

Creating/writing/producing music, playing somewhat chill MMO games (often solo), walking/hiking in nature/interesting urban areas I haven't fully explored before. Drinking a beer in late afternoon while sitting out in nature, just letting my thoughts run free and enjoying life (if that counts as hobby, or just an activity I do most days). Those all get me pretty far and never drain me like extroversion activities do.

This is going to go against what a lot of people will tell you, but my thought is that you should try to challenge yourself to be social and learn to develop those skills, rather than continuing to develop antisocial skills in your comfort zone. To that end, I'll suggest you look into things like Toastmasters or another public speaking club, and tabletop RPGs - in person, not on Discord. You will have to overcome the challenges of being social and learning at the same time, but I think that those would be valuable experiences for you. Local boardgame groups will also be helpful, as you'll be able to focus on the game rather than the socializing.

Everyone needs to learn how to be social. Don't hide from it.

Disc golf. It can be very cheap to get started. Most courses are free. It gets you outside and in nature.

It can be as social or solo as you want. I like to play alone because then I can take all the time I want to throw/rethrow as long as I don't have people coming up behind me.

Cross stitch, crafting, baking, plants

I like playing the guitar and I also enjoy video games.
Surprisingly enough I have a soft spot for MMORPGs, but I tend to play them solo. I just enjoy the grind, I suppose.

Other than that, I think going for walks in nature is pretty nice, too.

Gardening is a great introvert hobby. It gets me outside in the sun and sometimes I run into neighbors, so I can keep up with the people around me without having to commit to any big social event. I have a flower garden in the front, so not only is it a hobby, but it also makes my house look nice. Then in the back I grow vegetable and herbs, so we get lots of delicious veggies out of it too.

I also love checking out books from my library app and spending an afternoon reading with a cup of tea. It’s also free!