I could have been an academic or an activist. My son reactivated in me the "making" aspect of experimental physics that had a big impact on me despite doing theory for my PhD. (My son builds buildings by day, guitars by night)
In the last two years I've become a semi-pro photographer. I guess I am also an "activist" now but approach it as personal change [1] instead of interpersonal conflict.
[1] a kind of global "daoism" that embraces all kinds of human development
But aside from that, there's nothing healthier than making things (beyond rearranging bits)!
[1] I.e. managing the interpersonal conflict that comes with trying to change the rules. An alt-strat to overcome the masculine appeal of zero-sum games like politics, finance, or these days, _TECH_. For with high enough power in the (global[2] power-)law the sum becomes zero (annihilating)
[2]locally[3] one might model these winner-takes-all games as one between eg management/labor(/principal) or (psychopath/)clueless/losers or (pm's boss/)pm/engineers
[3]I don't think there's a temporal-scale mismatch in the sense of Buxton but the player's ability to gauge/manipulate the local timescale tracks the score (thanks aeb
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46311961)
In the last two years I've become a semi-pro photographer. I guess I am also an "activist" now but approach it as personal change [1] instead of interpersonal conflict.
[1] a kind of global "daoism" that embraces all kinds of human development