Completely agree about the "so what do you do" commentary. It also has a bias of specialism to it -- as if we're all only incumbent to "do" one thing.
But I'd like to further develop the thing you said about people associating music with hobbies. The 'hobby' concept has destroyed a lot of trades that would otherwise make people money. Don't get me wrong -- there are some things that are fine as hobbies and should be reserved as such, like playing video games.
However, when we take something that is a skill and minimize it to something that should only be performed during leisure time, then we're putting things like skilled woodworking, or musicianship, in the same category as flying kites. Which is ridiculous. The fact that things like music are difficult to monetize has reduced the quality of music overall because friendly competition motivates better quality things. Music was once a well-respected trade. But since the music industry makes music look the way it does, it's reduced to entertainment.
I look for these "hobbies" to return to being the trades that they once were, as we get out of this post-industrial era where one must be a "systems engineer", or "environmental technician" and other pompous trades.
Completely agree about the "so what do you do" commentary. It also has a bias of specialism to it -- as if we're all only incumbent to "do" one thing.
But I'd like to further develop the thing you said about people associating music with hobbies. The 'hobby' concept has destroyed a lot of trades that would otherwise make people money. Don't get me wrong -- there are some things that are fine as hobbies and should be reserved as such, like playing video games.
However, when we take something that is a skill and minimize it to something that should only be performed during leisure time, then we're putting things like skilled woodworking, or musicianship, in the same category as flying kites. Which is ridiculous. The fact that things like music are difficult to monetize has reduced the quality of music overall because friendly competition motivates better quality things. Music was once a well-respected trade. But since the music industry makes music look the way it does, it's reduced to entertainment.
I look for these "hobbies" to return to being the trades that they once were, as we get out of this post-industrial era where one must be a "systems engineer", or "environmental technician" and other pompous trades.