What hobbies have low barriers to entry but high skill ceilings?

1. Writing! You can start with just a notebook and pen (or a PC/laptop if you prefer that) and just start writing whatever you want. Great to help you relax and escape to another world if needed. /r/WritingPrompts is awesome for ideas too.
   — PikaPikaPoka


2. Origami. [This is a single sheet of paper](https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7509/27058987841_34f6f32079_b.jpg) folded for like 12 hours.
   — Munninnu


3. Model making. Entry level kits are super easy and even good for younger children. Mid level model making is using the high end kits that takes a ton of time and patience. high end model making is pretty much what Adam Savage does with his spare time these days.
   — htaedfororreteht






4. Board gaming. You can go to meetups for practically nothing, be taught a few games easily, and have a good time. The longer you game, you will eventually run into somebody who is one (or more) of the three: 1) It seems like everything always goes their way regardless of the game goes. It always seems like they have the cards they need and their plans are never foiled 2) Somebody who is trailing all game, only to blow past the field when end game scoring is done. 3) Somebody who can come into a game having no experience with it whatsoever, but can discern an ideal strategy almost immediately and proceed to obliterate the competition.
   — SilverFirePrime


5. Chess. The rules are pretty straightforward, but getting good is really hard, takes a lot of time, practice, and even then, if you're not starting when you're a child, it's too late.
   — flexiballs


6. Knitting or embroidery. Both are pretty simple and cheap to learn but there are projects that are about as difficult as you could possibly want them to be. Crossword puzzles too.
   — counterboud






7. Painting. You can start with connecting dots and crayons but sky is the limit.
   — ihatedrama2913


8. Ukulele. I've played music my whole life, but just took it up within the last 3 months. There are a ton of songs that only require 3 or 4 chords, and of those chords, 2 or 3 only require you hole down one string on one spot. Even the most musically inept could figure it out pretty quickly. Once you look into it though, there are a ton of higher skill songs, strumming techniques, finger picking etc. That take tons of talent and practice.
   — Lov1ng


9. Drawing. You can start with stick figures, and as long as you got some witty text, [you can do wonderful things with it.](https://www.xkcd.com). But if you're better at it, you can make some fun cocktail doodles, and even better still you can do illustrations for childrens' books. Further, you can take commissions, design, portraits anything. Think you've got it mastered? Well, you can do charcoal, digital, painting, loads of stuff.
   — Officer_Warr






10. Gardening? Cooking? Video games. Guitar if you consider the cost of the guitar a low barrier, which it should be if you aren't getting a high end electric.
    — Robodingo


11. Birding. You can start out with a relatively cheap pair of binoculars, a bird feeder, and you start keeping lists of what you've seen when and where. You can learn the common birds. Really, nearly anybody can do this. And then you expand into being able to identify all the species in your area which numbers in the hundreds, plus many of those have different plumages with females and with winter plumages and some of them have extended age groups to gain the full adult plumage which are incredibly confusing. You can also learn to ID them by their songs, and also their calls. Plus you really should have halfway decent social skills, to avoid becoming yet another insufferable snob.
    — le_vybrosit_account