Okay all you smart folks out there;
Here’s a basic question that I bet no one can get the main answer out in one paragraph.
When is a Hobby( Whatever it is) Not a hobby? What delineates the difference and simply WHO SAYS??? I’m Waiting!
I was tempted to say ‘when you get paid for it’, but giving it some thought I’m not so sure that is necessarily true.
So still thinking…
[dto:]
When it becomes your main source of income it is no longer a hobby.
A hobby is no longer a hobby when you make money at it. The hobby aspect is when you build for yourself and for your enjoyment.
When it becomes a job, or as you folks say, a chore. Short enough. TB?
For me, when it is no longer fun and turns to drudgery.
My prospecting is a hobby in the eyes of some, but is still fun and can make money at it.
In a prior life I fly fished and tied my own flies as a hobby/diversion I made a crayfish Pattern which IMO good and was effective for large & small mouth bass. I showed it to a local fly shop owner and he ordered a dozen for next weekend. It was a chore and no longer fun & entertaining to turn out a dozen replicas for the shop when close enough had been the prior personal standard Last time I tied flies as a job
Its no longer a hobby when you are working toward someone else’s expectations either to get paid or to meet a competition goal set by another.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s ok to build a model for a contest as long as you understand and appreciate the goal which you set for yourself
Back in the '70s, I worked part time with a friend of mine who was a Professional Model Builder. When he got backed up he would call me and ask if I wanted a little bit of spending money. I would help out as best I could. The diversity of builds was awsome.
He would always say that I should never do it as a profession because he would be so tired and wiped out doing it all day that he didn’t want to do it in his spare time too. I didn’t follow his instructions. I applied for a job at a place that built Refinery models. Had a great interview but was told I didn’t have the proper qualifications. Oh well, it was their loss. I’m still building.
Jim [cptn]
Stay Safe.
It can still be a hobby if it makes you a little cash on the side, but as others have said, when it becomes your job and/or no longer a form of entertainment, the hobby part goes out the window.
I know that we’ve all had builds that had a portion that we may not have looked forward to or knew it would get overly repetitive; but in the long run it still was part of the build and still part of the entertainment, i.e. still a hobby.
Definitely agree with a lot of the comments here, and I can only reiterate. “A hobby stops being a hobby” When it becomes a source of dependant income or your only income, thus making it a job and not a hobby.