I mean it doesn’t pay the bills, but it does get you respect from other speed runners and from people who respect speed running.

It’s also somewhat a matter of your specific hobby … speed running video games is pretty niche and useless compared to most hobbies.

Like on one end of the spectrum, there are hobbies that help everyone, like volunteering, cleaning up or beautifying your community, helping friends and family and loved ones, or organizing community programs.

Everyone is going to respect the hell out of you for that, and it’s pretty easy to see those translate to jobs if you needed them to.

Then there are hobbies that can be beneficial to your or to anyone, like hobbies where you create stuff (whether it’s knitting, 3d printing, home renos, gardening, cooking, etc). These are much easier to use to help others, and to turn into side hustles if you want to.

Then there are hobbies that you like that create community and socialization, from playing team sports, to DnD groups, to parties, to multiplayer video games, to organizing dinners and events.

Then there are hobbies that primarily benefit you and benefit the community only indirectly (in the sense of you being a better or more capable person). This includes stuff like running, weight lifting, reading a book, etc.

Then there are hobbies that don’t even really benefit you but you do anyways, like watching TV, scrolling social media, or getting slightly better at a pointless mechanical skill.