Español

I'm sure this is a not uncommon experience, but I've noticed over the years that I seem to have a sort of tipping point for hobbies. Usually, when I get into something, I tend to get really into it – spend a lot of time on the hobby, acquire equipment if necessary, join clubs or classes, borrow or buy books, pore over online resources.

After that initial honeymoon phase, some hobbies don't last. Either my interest wanes (which happened with knitting, tree identification, learning Sanskrit...) or I lose access to the conditions which made it easy for me to pursue the hobby (e.g. scuba-diving when I left Japan, beekeeping when I left LSE where we had a rooftop apiary).

But there appears to be a kind of undefined tipping-point beyond which a hobby or interest tends to become a lasting one – learning Japanese, film developing and darkroom printing, drawing, reading (the last two have been hobbies for as long as I can remember). Of course, there are phases when I pursue some hobbies more energetically while others are on the backburner (blogging, yikes). But for what it's worth, I think if a hobby has passed the tipping-point – which blogging certainly has – I am unlikely to give it up altogether.

Last year I started learning Spanish on Duolingo. The app shows you your "streak" – how many successive days you practised. Initially I had a streak of about 40 days, which seemed like a good start. Then I stopped for whatever reason and didn't pick it up again for months. I thought I had quit before my tipping point.

But to my own surprise, I somehow started again, and as of today I have a 210-day streak. It's not like I practice for very long – around 10 minutes to half an hour per day – but it all adds up. I'll go out on a limb and say it: I think I'm out of the woods now.