Catagorizing Every Hobby
why? and, more importantly, how? To answer the first question, let me ask you a qustion. have you every been bored? likely, but thats irrelevant.
I made this because I felt that there was no plesent system in catagorizing hobbies, everyone goes about it wrong. They either catagorize it on its elements, like Sports, Art, Karate, ect. And some even come close to the ideal solution with broader terms like "creative" and suchlike terms.
So, yeah sure, those methods get the job done with crudely approximating what they are about, but they dont communicate its essence.
Sure, they are adiquate, but they are not perfect.
ok, so what is this perfect method?
I'm glad you asked. The perfect method is a system with 4 major catagorize which can each be split into 2 sub-catagories.
The terms ive coined for the catagories are latinate (or at least they look like it), in parenthesies I've also added an english gloss of what the main point of the catagory is.
- Possic (collecting)
- Possic [ˈpɔzɪk] hobbies concern consuming and collecting things, or the general state of having them. Examples of possic hobbies are collecting things and reading articles. to some extent, showing things off is possic, but usually this is a secondary trait of the hobby.
- Agic (preforming)
- Agic [ˈædʒɪk] hobbies concern preforming a pre-established action or reproducing something that already exists, this more broadly includes general speaches if the topic/script is pre-planned. Examples of agic hobbies are acting, knitting pre-made patterns, practicing a religion, or, to some extent, sports.
- Cognic (creating)
- Cognic [ˌkɔgˈnɪk] hobbies concern creating things made from one's own mind and general problem solving. Examples of cognic hobbies are drawing and solving cross-words.
- Fractic (destroying)
- Fractic [ˈfɹæktɪk] hobbies concern destroying and vandalizing things, this includes harming or killing humans, and more generally doing something to leave a negative impact. Examples of Fractic hobbies are vandalizm and theft.
Alongside this, each of these catagories can be split using the two prefixes ego- and aego- which specifies the intended audience.
- ego- (for the self)
- An ego- [igoʊ̯] hobby is done with yorself as the main recipient/benefactor/focus of it. learning would be an ego-possic hobby, since there are almost no cases where you learn for someone else or with someone else as the benefactor/audience.
- aego- (not for the self)
- An aego- hobby is done with others as the main recipient/benefacrot/focus of it. writing (publicly) is an aego-cognic hobby, since the act of writting is intended to have others view it.
Note that each catagory usually is of one of these two types by default: possic and fractic hobbies are usually done for yourself, while agic and contributic hobbies could go both ways. When catagorizing hobbies, I will only mention its subtype if that hobby must be one of them. for example, I would catagorize Painting as contributic, but I'd catagorize Singing-in-the-shower as ego-agic since there is no possible interpretation where it could be for any other person than yourself.
Whether a hobby is regarded as ego- or aego- is more about the hobby's goal than the person's own asperations; teaching a class would be an aego-agic hobby, even if you are only doing it for the money. the "and earning money for it" addition would never be something someone would expect to be in the hobby's description since that is not at all a part of the essence of the hobby.
One more important thing that I must mention is that hobbies can fall into multiple catagories, for that reason I will be catagorizing hobbies with a Primary catagory and an optional Secondary catagory. Technically I could also include tertiary but that would not be that helpful; how much a catagory applies to a certain hobby usually decrecess exponentially.
What do you mean by hobby?
What I mean by "hobby" is an activity which one does habitually/regularly. To further specify, a hobby must be something a person intentionally does; so neither shitting nor digesting nor circulating blood will be labled a hobby. I will also not count habits as a hobby, as, although similar in nature, is not something you do knowingly or decide to do. you would not count "waking up at 8am everyday" as a hobby, would you?
My definition of a hobby is more inclusive than most people's, I include habitual actions done because of culture as hobbies, as in practicing a religion.
I also include things that one may not want to do as a hobby, the most blatent example of this inclusivity is that I label all professions as hobbies.; They are something you do regularly with volition, it meets all aspects of our definition!