I just finished reading the latest Dan Brown novel, The Lost Symbol. It was a fairly well-written book and the plot moved along at a far more steady pace than his previous two stories. On top of that, it included heavy references to two topics regarding which I’ve always been intrigued: encryption and the Masons.
I’ve always loved the idea of an international organization that spans both cultures and generations. While I have yet to join the Masons, studying this particular group has been somewhat of a hobby of mine. Cryptography is very much in the same vein. I’m a mathematician at heart, so studying numbers and patterns to discover a hidden meaning is thrilling for me.
Last night I invested several hours into cracking some publicly available ciphers on my computer. They used a few coding methods I’ve never heard of, and some that I had. I also was able to finally delve into RSA public key cryptography and, for all its widespread use these days, I find it’s really not a secure means of communication at all.
The moral of the story, though, is that last night I got caught up in several hours’ worth of an activity I enjoy. As a result, I had a great evening, slept well, and started today refreshed. Cryptography has next to nothing to do with my work or my day job, but I enjoy it nonetheless and it provided me both a much needed respite from work and a thorough intellectual challenge.
So tell me, what activities are there that you enjoy that might help “waste time” at the end of the day? What things do you do with the kind of passion that few others experience? Do these activities serve as merely a break from the usual, or are they the kinds of things that can evolve into a second career if left unwatched?
