As someone who is lazy as fuck about learning art and doing other hobbies but still learning art the part about tracing hurt my soul

Perfect is the enemy of good.

I "do astrophotography."

...I strap my phone to a telescope and I've been loving it lol

God this is so true. I teach compuster science, and I always make a point in one lecture to show the students how many tabs full of basic questions I have to open when grading their assignments. Nobody can memorize all of this, and it's so important to shake off that feeling of not being good enough just because you have to look something up.

me: does a thing because I like it and I get kinda not shit at it.

Everyone else: HaVe You cOnSIDErEd DoinG ThaT PRofEssIONaLLY? YOu cOULd mAKE so MUCH MOneY.!1!

me: fuck off. I have a job. I do this for me.

everyone else: Do What yOU LOve anD You'lL neVER worK A dAy IN Your life.!

me: turn your hobby into your job and you don't have a hobby anymore. There's no faster way to hate your passion than to monetize it.

As someone who occasionally does professional photography/ filming, the auto setting on your camera is fine if you're just snapping pics. Where you'd want manual is if you were taking a larger series of photos and wanted to apply the same effects/ processing to the batch.

I'm trying my best but it's so goddamn hard. I went to two trade shows past weekend and actually talked to someone new (well, the same person twice, but still). But literally every other person there had a much more extensive collection and knowledge than I do, after 5 years of obessessing over the subject.

I will always just be a very lightly informed amateur without real skills in any field.

Are you telling me I installed Arch (btw) for no reason??

Nothing like poverty to teach you how to do things yourself.

I grew up poor. We're didn't suffer or starve, mom and dad just never had any extra to give us kids anything like fancy toys or games or anything. I remember being completely bored out of my mind in the house and wanting a snack. The best thing we could come up with was toast and butter ... but sometimes we didn't even have butter so we opted for lard instead ... and sometimes we didn't even have bread! (but we didn't opt for eating pure lard)

What that meant was that I spent all my life learning how to do things myself and on my own. I learned carpentry, plumbing, electrical, mechanics, welding, metal working, landscaping, operating machinery, small engine mechanics, boat building / repairing, hunting, trapping, camping, survival ... mostly because we lived away from the city and we are Indigenous ... we never had anything or anyone help us so we had to learn to do things on our own. I remember being on many snowmobile trips into the wilderness and breaking down ... dad would just spend hours or even a night or two camping, tearing apart an engine, fixing a problem, putting it all back together and going on our way again. Same thing in the summer with an outboard. It all just built confidence for me and my brothers and sisters to never be stuck in any situation. We just learned to do what we could, work at it and figure it out. Sometimes we might not do a great job because we didn't know what we were doing and other times we were geniuses because we had messed up so many times before that we finally figured out how to do it right.

Once you build the skill and confidence, you can do just about anything in any situation ... then the world doesn't feel so intimidating any more. It's a skill and you have to learn to do it. And the only way to do it is to just go out and get started with it.

I've been playing guitar for 25 years and I kinda suck. I've forgotten everything I know about music theory, I don't know any songs and my fingers just don't move that fast. But I enjoy coming home and making some noise for 15-20 minutes. I just move my hands around and make a lot of bad sounds until I start making a good sounding riff then I'm done.

I also love to watch someone unlock this super power within themselves. To not stress out about the wonky pancake or the missing crochet stitch.

I'm a 38 yo straight dude with a potty mouth and a bad attitude. I love sewing. Idky and I'm terrible at it but it gives me the good feels so I practice as much as my brain will allow.

I think some people are misunderstanding what this is trying to say. It's not saying that you should always take the easy route with your hobbies. It is not saying that you shouldn't learn the "right" way to do your hobby.

It's saying that it's just a fucking hobby. It's purpose is to be enjoyed not mastered. Do it the hard way when you're feeling it. But don't force yourself to struggle because someone on the Internet said that this way is how you learn the most efficiently or get the best results.

Also, speaking of tracing stuff. Your phone is basically a light table! You can pull up the picture on your phone and trace it. Use a light touch so you don't accidentally zoom. Computer monitors work with bigger stuff. I did that with this pigeon meme, and I'm pretty thrilled with it.

This is the end result of no one actually understanding the notion of “practice makes perfect” and probably some other shit that kids are internalizing these days that I am not privy to.

It’s also really helpful to read again.

No one is perfect, people just get good at stuff by doing it a lot (and can also get worse if they stop doing it). So many friends of mine are always talking about doing creative stuff and how hard it is and yet they never actually just take the first step to try anything.

It's even more acceptable to half-ass your job.

They're paying you the minimum they can get away with, so pay them back in kind.

I have a job where the consequences of making a mistake are Significant.

I have a crafting hobby because I can suck at it with no consequences at all, and sometimes I make something cool.

Anyone who tells you to manually set everything in photography is silly. I took a photography class and made sure to thoroughly read a professional photographer's breakdown of my camera and how to operate it.

The only reason I've seen suggested why you should use manual mode is if you want a very specific shot that the automatic settings won't allow you to get. You know, like everything else. Automatic modes (i.e. aperture modes mainly) are there for a reason and while it's good to know how to manually set your parameters and read the light meter, you realistically don't want to be fiddling with your camera while whatever subject you want to photograph is potentially changing (for portrait or still shots its not as bad, but if you need to do any form of quick shooting you're only hampering yourself). Do I still use manual mode sometimes? Of course! I was taught how to use it and when I need it it is extremely helpful. But I typically only need it for night photography or if I want a specific effect (which can often be achieved with shutter mode but I never really use that).

Every time I share my photography with my parents, they suggest new ways I should be selling it. Just let me enjoy the pretty birds, dad

The internet has made serial hobbying so much easier. "Back in the day", it was much harder to expand your skills, so you learned a few things really well.

Now there's more opportunity to find something that fits your style, so half-assing is really just the trial period before you move on.

As a "still a serial hobbiest", It's great.

I love to draw but I have zero artist taste.
I love to paint even though it is usually ugly.

I did a few things a consider interesting but mostly pieces my friends think is made by school children until tell otherwise and I don't even keep the ones I consider ugly.
But I have fun at painting not I make a beautiful painting.
And I have fun every time I paint even when I put my ugly looking result straight into the garbage bin.

Hey kids, do you like violence?

Wanna see me stick nine inch nails through each one of my eyelids?

Wanna copy me and do exactly like I did?

Try 'cid and get fucked up worse than my life is?

... watch the movies without reading the comics

HERESY!! You're not a real fan unless you've collected every omnibus print in existence (specifically, the ones that I like)!!

/s