Probably something in the fitness space. I keep thinking about doing Personal Training qualifications anyway, I could lead nerd-fitness sessions at tech conferences 
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I’d love to build green homes.
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I would live on the golf course. My wife would see less of me than now!
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I don’t really have any desire to do another job. I just spent an exhausting month creating an MVP for a new product (more details to follow!) and thoroughly enjoyed it.
I would like to travel more. I have a vague dream that I would like to travel the world, staying with various mISVs and helping them with their marketing/usability etc in return for accomodation. A bit like Erdos, the eccentric itinterant mathematician. I think that would be a fascinating and non-touristy way to see the world. Its not really practical while I have a son at school though. Maybe one day…
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I also have a pipe dream about setting up a small charity in the 3rd world (where money goes a lot further) with local staff, supporting it financially and spending a month or two a year there helping out. Preferably somewhere with a nice climate! But thought of dealing with all the red tape and issues that go with it (e.g. government corruption) and running something like that from another country is pretty daunting. If anyone knows someone who has done that, I would be interested to hear about it.
Of course, there are lots of wonderful charities doing great work already. But you never get to see the results from of any money you give to them.
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I think doing something as a hobby/entertainment and doing it as a business are very different things. Just as hobby programming is very different from running a software product business.
My grandfather always wanted to run a pub. But it was much tougher than he expected. Long hours of cleaning, stock taking, book keeping etc. Nothing like sitting in a pub as a customer. So he quit it after a few years. On the plus side, my parents first met in that pub. ;0)
A recent hobby of mine has been aquariums and keeping corals/fish.
So a non-software dream would be something in that industry. Whether opening a store or doing some sort of wholesale import/export of livestock.
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You should come to Cape Town sometime. South Africa is in a lot of places a 3rd world country with a 1st world infrastructure. I’ve got a bunch of projects on the go here that you could make a massive impact on in a short time I’m sure. Perhaps wrapped into a visit to speak next year at http://scaleconf.org/ which I help organise… let’s talk 
My non-software dream is to learn to fly and do disaster relief work across the continent. These days I’d also want to come equipped with a bunch of drones that we could then use for mapping the problem areas in more detail.
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This is more of a long term goal for me at present. Currently I am very busy with PerfectTablePlan, a new product, consulting, training, blogging, Code Club etc, as well as trying to have a non-work life. But I would be interested to hear more.
One of my someday/maybe ideas was to start a nightclub… and suddenly that’s actually happening. I always imagined it’d be a goth/industrial/metal night like JWZ’s at Death Guild / DNA Lounge, but instead it’s a Eurovision nightclub in Perth, Australia (obviously). Our first night is going to be in mid-November, and if it’s successful it might become semi-regular. So far it’s turned out to be easier & more affordable than expected, but I’m sure that’s famous last words…
I’d also like to record an album at the studio where Achtung Baby was made (Hansa Studios in Berlin). I got to tour the studios last year, and while I can’t afford it yet, it’s cheaper to record there than I thought. I’m not a very good musician, but if Andrew Mason from Groupon can make an album…
I’d also like to become a Kiva Fellow one day, but until I’m ready for that I’m still an active member on Kiva. It’s still my favorite charitable organization.
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@syneryder I’d love to hear more about your experience starting the nightclub. Maybe you can put up a thread post or a blog post about it? Non-software, physical businesses fascinate me.
Sure thing! I’m hoping I can blog about it later with lots of details, maybe even conversion rates etc. It’s maybe not that exciting because we don’t own the venue, we’re starting with a one-off night to test the waters and only hoping to breakeven… but it’s been interesting to me.
High-level summary is that some venues let you rent the club for a night & take all the door sales (at a price you set), as long as you guarantee a minimum bar spend, and cover any damage by your customers/guests.
My dream is to visit every country in the world. I’m more than halfway there already…
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Great question!
As others have mentioned, I’d love to get into wood- and metalworking. Particularly, I’d love to build furniture. I’d also like to build a house somewhere rural, but I imagine that would be more working with contractors and builders rather than doing it myself. Unless my woodworking skills really take off…
But generally, living the bon vivant life, complete with plenty of travel, cooking, and perhaps a bit of wine tasting sounds like it would be pretty agreeable. Yeah, I could deal with that.
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I’d like to have an aquaponics farm, learn how to make hip hop beats, buy my mom a house and run a marathon (again).
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I have done wood working and it is very enjoyable. I recommend going with as many hand tools as possible. I also really enjoy landscape photography.
I wonder if lots of carpenters also want to be software entrepreneurs? ;0)
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I think that many software people would have been artisans in the past… It is very difficult to make a living at a manual trade today (more artzy such as furniture, lutherie, coach building… etc)…
I tried to take two sabatical years to play in my garage… it became boring real fast… Some things are best left as a hobby… lol