The modest goal of this website is to help people connect with research as leisure activity.
[This first entry will be evolving for a while, but is published now to help build out this place.]
The inspiration for this site comes from Celine Nguyen, a San Francisco designer and writer. In an essay published in May, 2024, she extolled the joys of "research as leisure activity," describing it as:
"a kind of intellectual inquiry that comes from idiosyncratic passion and interest. It’s not about the formal credentials. It’s fundamentally about play. It seems to describe a life where it’s just fun to be reading, learning, writing, and collaborating on ideas."
On this site I will, among other things, describe research that I have performed as leisure activity, as in: I was not paid to do it, and I did it on my own time, and I enjoyed it. Here are five topics I have researched to the point where I put some of my findings on the Internet:
- Congenital Amusia: tone deaf, tin ears
- Prescription Cannabis in the UK
- Hereditary hemochromatosis, a.k.a. genetic haemochromatosis
- Hemopause: when menopause meets hemochromatosis
- Conn's Syndrome or primary aldosteronism
Just to be clear, I don't think "publishing your research" is a required part of research as leisure activity, at least not when publishing research is defined as publication in an established peer-reviewed journal or presented in a session of a formal conference.
What I do think is that the urge/desire to share the results of one's research is strong with many researchers; for some, sharing research may be a motivating factor, particular when you think that other people might benefit from knowing what you found out.
Is it leisure?
This brings us to the interesting intersection of leisure and personal or social benefit. Here we find a question: is research activity that directly benefits you or others really performed "at your leisure"?
For example, you may have noticed that all five of the examples that I listed earlier relate to medical conditions; and yes, each one of them impacts me in some way, some less directly than others. So, you could argue that my research on these topics was not motivated by fun or play, ergo it was not a leisure activity.
But here is a counter-argument: consider more established leisure activities such as hill walking or crocheting. If you participate in a sponsored hill walk to raise money for charity, does that mean your hill walking is no longer a leisure activity? I think most people would say, "Of course not." The same would be true of crocheting Christmas ornaments to sell at a charity fundraiser, or riding your vintage motorbike in a charity ride. In these examples, we can see a win-win situation: people spending some of their leisure time participating in a leisure activity they enjoy while also benefiting others.
I suspect that if you are a researcher you will be finding this an intriguing line of enquiry, partly because it raises yet more questions. And researchers love yet more questions. Consider this one: is volunteering a leisure activity? For example, suppose I like exploring my city and surrounding areas in my car, definitely a leisure activity. However, I am aware that this is not a very environmentally passtime. But what if I volunteer to drive patients to and from my local hospital, which serves a very wide area?
I will leave that question hanging for a while and hope you will return to this site as it begins to grow.
Peace out.
Stephen "It's okay to call me Steve" Cobb
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