Question is pretty much just the title – What new skills related to hobbies and activities that you had never done before did you actively learn and attain after 30?
I’m not necessarily talking about life stuff like, “I learned to love” or “I learned to forgive people”, or soft skills like “I learned to be more social” – I’m taking skills and knowledge related to activities. Examples:
– Perhaps you never barbecued before age 30, but now you’ve become a master of spice rubs with skills related to barbecueing.
– Did you gain musical skills by learning an instrument, never having played music before your 30s?
– You were never mechanically inclined until you bought a classic car and restored it successfully, gaining new skills related to automotive repair. (I know this is common for home maintenance.)
– Before your 30s, you never considered it, but now you’ve attained your pilot’s license and gained skills and knowledge pertaining to flight.
– Skills related to metalworking and metalcraft were never within your wheelhouse until you picked up blacksmithing.
Just curious what you guys out there have done. (This is lame, but I’m 36 and I want to learn how to ride a unicycle. I’ve never done it before, but I bet I can learn, hopefully without too many injuries. I don’t know why I want to learn, and I know it’s not a “useful” skill, but it’s always seemed interesting to me.)
Curious to see what fellow dudes over 30 have picked up in this stage of their lifetime, and how it went.
12 comments
I learned to rock climb. I learned to Snowboard. I learned how to track ride a motorcycle. I learned wilderness medicine and how to save a life in the back country.
ALL of this, was after I turned 37.
This year I’m on target to; learn SCUBA diving, and /possibly/ expand medical skills up to Paramedic.
I grew up playing bass, acoustic, and electric guitar. Was never very good at any of them. But in my late 30s, I started teaching myself to play keyboard. At 40 now, I’ve found I’m better at this and should have been playing keyboards all this time. I’ve picked it up naturally and can play pretty well for the length of time I’ve been learning.
I learned the bass; I’m in a couple of bands now. My dad got into racing cars at 45, he’s not doing it anymore, but had some fun for years. My brother golfs. You can always pick up a hobby, at any age.
I’ll never be as good of a bassist as the people that started playing when they were 10, because I don’t have the time or energy. But I’m having fun, and making music; that’s all that I want anyway.
motorcycles and drones. surprised my brain can learn this stuff well still. had a history of BMX and vidya games so it came naturally right away. finding that i can place in top 50 world wide for drone racing without much practice, according to the charts
i think 30+ men with free time and money can compete with brains of 20yos just by putting in the work and focused learning. probably like 30% as efficient if all else was equal, but can close the gap with structure and still end up enjoying the hobbies just as much
I’m in my 50s and learning new IT skills. My last venture into this field was Turbo C in high school and some classic SQL (pre-joins) a bit later. By experience, I’m in manufacturing not IT. I decided to go full Linux and data science just this year. I’m old to be competing against younger coders and computer engineers, but my experience with real data and analytics also trump them in years. So, I’m ok with that. Never too old to learn some form of compsci.
I’m learning woodworking.
Using mostly handtools (but not exclusively).
I learned to rock climb; good balance, flexibility, strong legs, attention to details, and focus under pressure helped. Practicing with my fiancée on belay, immediately helped us establish trust. Also, I returned to motorcycling after 30. I had some previous experience with dirt bikes (MX) as a little boy, and more as a teenager on a street bike. That, however, ended with a bike destroying accident, me narrowly escaping serious injury. Two decades later, I returned to motorcycling, starting with a Ducati. Decades of safe defensive driving, along with many thousands of hours of intense bicycle training and racing helped me advance quickly on two wheels. Nowadays, I ride big displacement adventure bikes, exploring and camping all over the place. Most recently, I learned to ride a Onewheel, the electrically propelled, “self-balancing” skateboard. Previous experience with regular skateboards, snowboards (which I also learned after 30), along with surfing, gave me a leg up mastering the device. I have logged almost 2000 miles this past year. It’s been more fun than I ever could have imagined. Seems the electric unicycle (EUC) is the natural progression in personal electric vehicles (PEV). Maybe you would be interested? I’ve always been athletic and interested in many types of outdoor adventures, which led to so many great adventures and memories. It’s been a great run, these past 30+ years, doing all the outdoor activities I could. Keeping fit after 50, however, has been challenging. I plan to keep going as long as my body allows!
I learned to draw and paint with watercolors at age 46.
At age 48, I decided I wanted to finally get around to learning Japanese. I’ve been watching anime all my adult life and know some words, but not any grammar. It’s been very interesting and stimulating. Beats watching Netflix and gaming on the couch all weekend. I also get to meet and socialize with young people less than half my age in class, which is really cool.
Not a skill per se, but I ran my first 5km at age 46 also. I set a goal and followed a couch-2-5K program. Together with the art it helped get me out of a depression during COVID, when I almost lost my job.
Home improvement. I bought my first house at 30. Never learned how to do anything DIY. Then I started watching YouTube videos. I’ve redone or replaced almost everything in my house by myself.
I started playing ultimate frisbee and learned a few new ways to throw the disc.
I had my first snowboard lessons this year, scared shitless but enjoyed doing it with my kids and went done a number of runs. I’m mid thirties.
I’ve also taken up game fishing, caught some great fish including two blue Marlin. Become one of my biggest hobbies
Machine learning and weight training