Cooking

Yeah, you read this right: cooking. No, not cooking up electronics or some software. I'm talking about "cooking" as in food. I know, this might come as a surprise to some that I cook. In fact, I cook most of my meals; and they are quite healthy, I might add.

I've found cooking to be very therapeutic. Of course, it takes time: I will often spend a couple of hours cooking, intermixed with doing work and/or just enjoying a nice glass of red wine and reading. Even more fun is to call a couple of friends over and cook together, while chatting and generally horsing around (not near the open flame, obviously).

I make it a point to eat everything I cook, unless it is really bad. This is called "reinforcement learning", and trust me: it makes you a better cook (or it lowers your standards, take your pick) pretty fast. If it doesn't kill you first, of course ;-)

As Alton Brown has shown, cooking is a science as well as an art. If you have a "hacker" bent of mind, you will enjoy cooking. Among others, Nathan Myhrvold, the former head of Microsoft Research, was a master chef.