content/blog/2026-02-07-indieweb-carnival-2026-02-intersecting-interests.org

 1#+date:        [2026-02-07 Sat 17:46:00]
 2#+title:       IndieWeb Carnival: Intersecting Interests
 3#+description: Contrasting my passion for technology with my interest in natural hobbies.
 4#+slug: indiweb-carnival-2026-02-intersecting-interests
 5#+filetags:    :personal:web:
 6
 7#+begin_quote
 8Want to participate in the IndieWeb Carnival or read more posts? Visit the main
 9[[https://indieweb.org/IndieWeb_Carnival][Carnival]] page to learn more.
10#+end_quote
11
12I thought about this topic for a long time today before starting to write this
13post, as I don't think of myself as someone with intersecting interests. I
14generally lean pretty hard into interests and in my mind, they're all
15technology-related.
16
17However, I've settled on the following topic: *The Minimalist Technologist*.
18
19* Personal Life
20
21In my personal life, I spend my leisure time doing a few primary things:
22
231. *Technology*: Obviously. I love to learn about new things online, blogging,
24   programming, self-hosting,
252. *Physical Work*: Conversely, my next favorite things to do are all completely
26   technology free. This includes things like yard work, woodworking,
27   organizing, decluttering, etc. There's just something about zoning out,
28   getting into a physical rhythm, and feeling your body's strength create
29   something productive instead of your mind.
303. *Sports*: This is fairly generic, but sometimes it can be a contrast for those
31   who work in tech. Especially if you consider disc golf and/or hiking in this
32   category.
33
34* Work
35
36Now, this may be where I differ even more so than in my personal life. While I
37work in a tech job, I do not actually spend my days deep inside code (when
38possible) or building as many internal tools as I used to.
39
40Instead, my job has primarily become 50 to 60 hours per week of meetings,
41mentoring younger coworkers, teaching and leading trainings, thinking about
42overall strategy of our practice, and project managing.
43
44It's the generic individual contributor (IC) to manager story line, but again,
45it frees me up to switch to a different mindset when I get home and be
46productive on hobby projects. I'm no longer burnt out from thinking on such a
47technical level all day.
48
49Either way, it was interesting to think through this topic and has me thinking
50more about broadening my horizons.