The Poly-Hobbyist
Update: UGH, I come back to this page after three years and it still sounds pretentious. There’s no term for this that doesn’t sound bad. The mistake is to even try to have a term for this. I’m going to just stick with "interests all over the place" from here on out. (As in the usage in this new card: What should a personal website be?.)
Original attempt:
I have many interests. Well, passions, really. I love books, art, computer science, and a variety of crafts. I’m not a top performer at any of these things, but they’re all pursuits that I’ve poured many, many hours into developing and enjoying.
I do them because I like them. I feel content, satisfied when I’m immersed in them.
What am I?
Polymath invokes the imagery of the interdisciplinarian genius like da Vinci or von Neumann (and many others). Too pretentious! Renaissance man sounds even worse.
Jack of all trades (and "master of none"?) doesn’t feel right either.
Philomath (lover of learning) is okay. I’m definitely one of those. But I don’t just love learning, I also love applying and doing.
So I think maybe I’ll just call myself a "poly-hobbyist" for now until I think of something better.