Everyone should learn new things as often as they can. Pick up a new hobby or skill, become very proficient at it, incorporate it into your life, repeat. This active mental engagement is the best way to prevent dementia and keep your mind sharp.
My midlife crisis is degoogling, switching to Linux, eating less meat, reducing the footprint I leave on this world, spending more time with my wife and daughter, treating my recently diagnosed ADHD and not giving as many fucks regarding work. Oh, and I took up archery. Pretty ok I guess. I’m 42.
Hmm I’ve been a coffee geek and bicycle nerd (hobby mechanic) since my teenage years, and ran a half-marathon in my mid 20ies … guess I’ve been 40 for a long time now …
30 something, regular MTB, Areopress. I’m on the right trajectory.
Me who just went to see a friend this morning on my fixie “Neat… I totally fit the stereotype!”
I can’t find a single job to save my life because all the job postings are saturated, what’s wrong with me?
The only thing wrong, judging by that statement, is the hellscape you (and I) live in.
I think the person who drew this comic was born into the wrong generation. (They’re a boomer at heart.)
Nah, the interests are boomer, just different hobbies.
And this is how you get Tang ping movements.
You’re poor.
90s mountain bikes make great gravel bikes and you can usually get one for dirt cheap. Hell find a steel frame road bike and put some grippy tires on it.
God forbid people pick up new hobbies as they grow older, we should all make as much money as humanly possible and then die i guess.
The problem with hobbies is they tend to contribute to clutter and as you get older you want less of that.
Some even try to stay healthy! What a bunch of losers!
fuck yeah i love money
I have really enjoyed my midlife crisis (which looks a little different as a woman): lost 30 lbs, began dressing like a scary executive, got rid of the imposter syndrome, and give very few fucks. It has been delightful.
Do you have fingernails that shine like justice?
No, but her voice is dark like tinted glass.
She’s changing her name from Kitty to Karen
No, doesn’t qualify for one of my few fucks to give. 😉
Please explain the scary executive getup. I am taking notes for my own impending midlife crisis.
Yeah is this well fitted suit scary, or turtleneck scary. I personally leaned the other way and wear literal rose tinted Lenon glasses now. Fuck it, I tried everything else to see this world as anything other than a shithole filled with idiots, may as well take a metaphor out for a spin
That is because the world is a shit hole run by idiots. This is the perfect perspective for the scary executive look. Your disgust and impatience is justified - go with it. 😉
I am reticent to take advice from a sun burn slapper, but I like the message, I will go with it
This has some good stuff: https://www.caspermagazine.com/feature/the-art-of-tailoring-with-an-edge
I see that to dress like a scary exec, I must first earn like a scary exec…
You can also adapt it to your needs. For example, replace the bag with an axe or a limp kitchen towel
🤣 good on you!
Can confirm. I did exactly this at 40. Now in my 50’s I just traded in the gravel bike for an ebike and bought a milk frother for my espresso machine!
I went straight to emtb with 41 😬 no espresso machine in the house yet. I‘m too lazy to clean it.
I’m in that age bracket and I’ve turned to spunking the little amount of disposable income on amateur radio kit and equipment.
I wish I’d picked up a debilitating cocaine habit instead. It’d be cheaper.
Oh hey that’s something I’ve been vaguely interested in for a while!!! You enjoying it? What do you do?
Very little 😂
No I got into it to learn the theory of it more than anything. I’ve been faffing about with a VHF setup to see if I could establish a little station that could be heard anywhere in the town I’m in. That’s inexpensive to do and you can probably knock together a basic station with decent range for £100 and the time and effort needed up a ladder.
The next step is to look further afield and build a station that operates in the 20m band, but I’m yet to be able to convince Chief Girlfriend that an end fed antenna dangling across the back garden, or a fiver metre whip mounted to the roof is a good idea. HF transceivers are exponentially more expensive, and require some support devices too.
Otherwise, I go “hilltopping” and head up elevated positions with a quarter-wave antenna and a cheap handheld radio to listen out on what’s happening. It’s good for the geek in me; it’s good for the mind being at such pretty viewpoints; and it’s good for the body walking or running up hillsides.
Alternatively, I’ll sit in the garden while the kids play around with FlightRadar24 open on a device and a handheld radio tuned to the local airport approach frequency, and talk about what an aircraft is or may be doing while listening to the chatter.
So yeah, I don’t do a lot really. I live quite close to the coast so getting into marine frequencies is something on my list to do; and speaking to folk worldwide would be a laugh!
I’ve thought about that! seems fun! On the other hand I have choosen the worst, most stressful, expensive and frustrating 40s hobby because I’m like that. 3d printing. Should have gone for the radio. (still spend all my free time doing that )
3d printing is pretty challenging I take it? I’ve seen pictures of some setups, with all those spools of material. Pretty neat, but probably more difficult than I imagine.
I think it’s very frustrating. I tried selling my printer twice before, out of anger lol. But once you get to understand the problems things get better. But of course I have an ender3, not a “super perfect” bambu lab. people say bambu have no problems so that would be nice
I’ve been finally realizing my dream of having a home studio filled with all sorts of synthesizers, samplers, drum machines, effects, mixers, etc. Pretty frustrating since now that electronic music has been incorporated into mostly every genre and there are also a lot of collectors all the now vintage pieces that my favorite artists used back in the day are priced insanely out of reach. Upside is there is a ton of cool new stuff coming out, too much cool new stuff.
Isn’t it all software now?
Sure you can do everything in software, there’s some great sounding virtual synths nowadays. I prefer the tactility of hardware and just plugging this into that and seeing what happens, away from a computer which has taken over virtually every other aspect of life. Plus blinky lights pretty lol. I don’t use a computer for anything except to record a stereo mix. It’s mostly just to unwind and space out anyways. If I wanted to put together a song with a traditional structure I would probably use a computer. Anyways, I guess a lot of people also feel that way because the market for new hardware synthesizers has been expanding for years now, seems like there’s more new stuff coming out all the time, there’s a lot of boutique makers in the analogue and modular spaces, guitar pedals as well.
Sounds like you would enjoy https://vcvrack.com/
I’ve used it and it’s nice but I still prefer to have the actual modules in front of me to patch, and there is something going on with the circuitry of the non-DSP modules that make it a bit special. There’s some subtle modulations and such. Software does attempt to emulate this with complex maths and circuit models but it doesn’t seem quite the same to me personally.
Retro anything has jumped in value tremendously; for me its been game hardware.
I’m not sure how a midlife crisis would look for me because I’ve basically kept the same weird interests I had as a teen.
So basically a life-long midlife crisis?
😏Entire-life crisis
Ooooo!! 🙋♂️, I can relate to that!
I guess so. Is that really a crisis if it’s basically what you do though?
My friends and family seem to think so
similar, i went from not having transportation besides my feet to having an ebike. we joke that it’s my midlife crisis, but really it’s just my transportation.
my midlife crisis will involve so many saxophones. when i can afford a midlife crisis.
I have a very mild case of that in that I bought a weird traditional flute from Japan a couple of months ago. It looked cool and a game character I like has one. A bit hard to play, but I’m getting there.
It’ll certainly be a lot more expensive, but I wish you a future crisis full of epic sax all the same.
What flute and game was it?
A shinobue, a transverse flute made of bamboo (well, traditionally, mine is not too bad but it’s plastic. One day, maybe).
The game is Xenoblade Chronicles 3. The two protagonists play the shinobue as a ritual to send off people who have passed.
I like Okami too, and I believe Waka’s flute in that game is also a shinobue.
I bought an electric flute/recorder but never got around to learning it. Xenoblade Chronicles is on one of my list to eventually play.
Wish you well with learning it.
Thank you. i’m probably going to get the electric sax before i get the bass (if i’m spending 30 grand on an instrument i have a few others ahead of the bass sax), but we can dream.
Yeah, my midlife crisis was basically, I just got extra bored at work and spent more time doing all the usual non-work activities. Finally resolved when I decided I didn’t need to work any more, which gave me a lot more time for all of teenage-me’s favorite things. Wasn’t even tempted to buy a Corvette.
