gloom

The difference between work and a hobby is whether or not you could end up hurting other people more badly than yourself. It's not about whether or not you are getting paid. Flying your personal plane for pleasure is a hobby, especially if you don't care if you die trying a stunt. Taking along a passenger is work. Even if they appear to sign up for the risks on paper. What counts is having enough knowledge to judge the risk AND enough agency to control your outcomes.

I still think about the Titan submersible incident. Work going bad because it was treated like a hobby. The fate of the 19-year-old Suleman Dawood is especially tragic. The others at least arguably knew what they were doing and what sort of person they were trusting their life to in Stockton Rush. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_submersible_implosion#Fatalities

Can keep hobbies and work apart = working person
Only hobbies and not work treated as hobbies = retirement
Work treated as hobby = moral hazard assholery
Hobby treated as work = self-importance (many substack writers fall into this category— they have no real ability to hurt anyone more than themselves)

Blogger at ribbonfarm.com, running summerofprotocols.com, host of /gloom ☀️

Work vs play is a stupid distinction. Well-structured modern work in 2024 should have ludic qualities.

But work vs hobby is a serious distinction.