BestAura

Almost no one can make a living at cigarette card or stamp collecting, but many people find it enjoyable, so it is commonly regarded as a hobby.

Amateur astronomers often make meaningful contributions to the professionals. It is not entirely uncommon for a hobbyist to be the first to discover a celestial body or event.[citation needed]

In the UK, the pejorative noun anorak (similar to the Japanese “otaku”, meaning a geek or enthusiast) is often applied to people who obsessively pursue a particular hobby that is considered boring, such as train spotting or stamp collecting.

Whilst some hobbies strike many people as trivial or boring, hobbyists have found something compelling and entertaining about them (see geek). Much early scientific research was, in effect, a hobby of the wealthy; more recently, Linux began as a student’s hobby.