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The Four Hobbies, and Apparent Expertise

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Re: The Four Hobbies, and Apparent Expertise

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With running, it's harder to believe that the gear is what's holding me back from performance. Running reminds me of strength training. No one thinks a new barbell is going to add 10% to their one-rep max.

Not a new barbell, no. But there is potential for endless fiddling with nutrition, supplements and exercise plans. More than enough gym bros enjoy taking about 3x12, 5x5, creatine shake timing and hormones more than lifting heavy things.

> Not a new barbell, no.

though Rogue sure tries their best.

Re: The Four Hobbies, and Apparent Expertise

#152
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is hilarious in road cycling is all the middle aged men who really do believe that kit = faster. If you have any basic bike of a reasonable standard, it is ALL about hours, weight and power. Nothing else. On a one hr climb up a 10% mountain, nothing is gonna save your fat ass.

I don't think they have any illusions about it. They are enthusiasts and enthusiasts like to spend money on their hobbies. If they can afford it, I don't see the harm.

True. Live and let live.

Re: The Four Hobbies, and Apparent Expertise

#153
post #4

A great example of this is my sailing buddy. Last year, we probably spent 60 hours working improvements and noncritical fixes, 100 hours on discussions and watching videos, and about 6 hours sailing.

To be fair there is a lot of maintenance involved with owning a boat in general. Whether moored or trailered things will rot/degrade but alas yes it's classic edit: about to head to the marina to take care of some stuff at night lol, it's "clean the carb" time

My buddy is a bit of a perfectionist, so is always trying to resolve perceived shortcomings in various systems. And if we were doing a trans-oceanic race, that fixation on performance and safety would be worthwhile. But we are doing coastal pleasure sailing, so a lot of his optimizations are overkill.

IMO, 10:1 is a terrible "maintenance versus enjoyment hours" ratio.

Re: The Four Hobbies, and Apparent Expertise

#154
post #18
post #4

A great example of this is my sailing buddy. Last year, we probably spent 60 hours working improvements and noncritical fixes, 100 hours on discussions and watching videos, and about 6 hours sailing.

Hey it’s me, your internet sailing friend. On the road right now on the way back from Charleston Race Week. 30 hours of driving. 20 hours in the boatyard rigging and derigging. 2 hours each day getting the boat ready and packing/rigging things. We did 10 races total, each about 40 mins. There’s an immense satisfaction moving a large complex object a long distance. Building it, using it, taking it apart, and moving it…

Oh you racers are crazy people.

Me and my buddy are just trying to feel the wind in our hair. Maybe anchor for a night or two; maybe swim or catch a salmon.

Re: The Four Hobbies, and Apparent Expertise

#155
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But rock climbing doesn't have the gear heads of other hobbies - at least, I've never encountered these. There are definitely people that enjoy the technical aspects of how to best secure yourself with your gear, what knots to use and so on, but otherwise I haven't had many of these discussions. On that aspect, rock climbing and especially bouldering are very similar to running. Don't get me started on trail running,…

on the non sport side of things, people talk about and collect a lot of gear. read some stuff about trad climbing

Yeah, trad is different, you're right. There are subreddits devoted to displaying the whole trad gear, neatly arranged in dedicated cabinets. I stand corrected, doing mostly sport climbs and boulders.

Re: The Four Hobbies, and Apparent Expertise

#156

I’ve found some of the most useful people on forums like StackOverflow, have very little experience actually shipping product. They are often my “go to” people, for things like the correct way to do stuff, or for rabbithole exploration of technology/technique, but it comes more from a place of theory, than it does, from practical application. This is not always a bad thing. In fact, it can be a very good thing. I’m v…

> There’s a lot of looking down of noses, between “doers,” “talkers,” and “thinkers,” but I’ve found it’s best to have respect for each other, and combine our strengths. Nicely said. While “those who can, do; those who can’t teach” is funny, it’s usually so, so wrong.

>While “those who can, do; those who can’t teach” is funny, it’s usually so, so wrong.

Right? I have found that teaching is a skill like anything else and is usually orthogonal to whatever skill is under discussion. It'd be like saying "Those who can, do. Those who can't, bake."

I think a more useful saying would be "Don't assume that just because someone can DO it, that they can TEACH it." i.e. Engineering professors :-(

Re: The Four Hobbies, and Apparent Expertise

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There’s a lot of looking down of noses, between “doers,” “talkers,” and “thinkers,” but I’ve found it’s best to have respect for each other, and combine our strengths. Nicely said. While “those who can, do; those who can’t teach” is funny, it’s usually so, so wrong.

>While “those who can, do; those who can’t teach” is funny, it’s usually so, so wrong. Right? I have found that teaching is a skill like anything else and is usually orthogonal to whatever skill is under discussion. It'd be like saying "Those who can, do. Those who can't, bake." I think a more useful saying would be "Don't assume that just because someone can DO it, that they can TEACH it." i.e. Engineering professor…

> I think a more useful saying would be "Don't assume that just because someone can DO it, that they can TEACH it." i.e. Engineering professors :-(

The best teachers that I've had, were trained as teachers. They knew the material, but weren't application experts.

The worst teachers that I've had, were content experts. I remember this Calc II teacher, who was a genius, but had no patience at all, for people that weren't on his level (we call those people "students"). I generally ask a lot of questions; sometimes, ones that seem obvious. I end up learning the material very well, but the process can be a bit messy (and embarrassing). This guy would abuse people that asked questions.

I got an incomplete, that semester. I was on the Dean's List, all the others.

Re: The Four Hobbies, and Apparent Expertise

#158

It's well known in the reading community that "reading" and "talking about the books you want to read" and "buying and owning books" are all very different things; I guess the missing piece would be "talking about the books you've bought and now own" which is sharing pictures of "shelfies" etc. I'm not really into the last one but the first three are all very enjoyable to me, in very different ways, although I only r…

Tsundoku: The art of buying books and never reading them

Re: The Four Hobbies, and Apparent Expertise

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a guitar player, this really resonates. I now spend almost all my time with my unadorned acoustic, leaving behind the tinkerhole of my electric guitar and its effects pedals, looper, amp etc.

Oh yes! GAS is real, and seemingly endless. I'm getting better though. I've had the same two electric guitars for about a decade now, and have no real urge to change them up. The pedals though. I can't use an amp in the townhouse I'm in, so fell into the rabbit hole of ampless setups. Almost everything is just a new take on a 30-60 year old circuit though, or a model of the same. I can't handle guitar modelling softw…

Happy to note after a couple years using S-Gear that I tinker with it less than I expected and haven't been seriously tempted to buy an amp. I think having the option to try all the presets is satisfying enough, whereas with amps I would always wonder if just one more pedal purchase would find the magic tone. I still need more guitars, though.
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