Random Hobby
Bread baking
- Making
- Kind
- Low
- Cost to start
- 95
- Matching the filters
- 95
- In the list
Hobbies are drawn from a list of 95, each tagged with what kind of thing it is and roughly what it costs to get started. The cost filter is the useful part: "take up a hobby" is easy advice to give and the barrier is almost always money or equipment.
How it works
- Seven kinds: making, art, physical, mind, performance, outdoors and writing.
- Three cost bands. Low means under about £50 to begin. Usually materials and nothing else. Medium is roughly £50 to £300, typically one piece of equipment. High means several hundred or more before you can properly start.
- The bands describe the cost of starting, not of continuing. Running is cheap to start and shoes wear out; pottery needs a kiln or a studio membership that recurs.
- Filtering by both kind and cost can narrow the pool to very few entries, and the matching count is shown so you can see that.
The list favours hobbies you can practise rather than consume, which is a deliberate bias: the ones with something to get better at tend to hold attention longer than the ones that are only bought into.
Examples
Anything
Filters
None
Result
One of 95
Every hobby has the same chance, so the kinds with more entries come up more often.
Cheap to try
Cost
Low
Result
Drawn from the low-cost entries only
The most useful filter, since the cost of entry is what stops most people trying something.
A narrow combination
Kind
Performance
Cost
High
Result
A small pool, with the count shown
Few performance hobbies are expensive to start. Showing the count makes it clear the draw is from a handful rather than the full list.
Frequently asked questions
What do the cost bands actually mean?
Low is roughly under £50 to begin, materials, and often things you already own. Medium is about £50 to £300, usually one piece of equipment. High means several hundred or more before you can start properly. They are rough bands, and second-hand equipment moves most hobbies down one.
Does the cost include keeping it up?
No, only starting. That distinction matters: running is cheap to start and needs new shoes twice a year, while chess costs almost nothing forever. A hobby with a low entry cost and a high running cost is the usual unpleasant surprise.
How many hobbies are in the list?
95, spread across seven kinds. It is a curated list rather than an attempt at completeness. There is no definitive catalogue of hobbies, and a list of thousands would be worse at the actual job of suggesting one thing to try.
Why does the same hobby keep coming up?
Filters narrow the pool sharply. Choosing one kind and one cost band can leave only three or four entries, so repeats are likely. The matching count is shown next to the result for exactly that reason.
What if the suggestion is impossible where I live?
Several entries need particular geography, surfing, sea kayaking, mushroom foraging. The list has no idea where you are. Treat an impossible suggestion as a prompt to draw again rather than as a recommendation.