Gear Acquisition Syndrome

I seem to have anti-GAS.

I've got a 5-year old phone (thanks Apple for maintaining OS security support for my model for so long!), a 3-year old laptop I'm not planning on replacing any time soon, and the non-computer based hobbies I've managed to stick with for any length of time are running and bouldering, where the only gear you really need for both are appropriate shoes. And I only have one pair of shoes for each.

Yeah, I've got some light, breathable, non-chafing clothing that makes both less unpleasant to do, but I couldn't tell you with 100% certainty what brand they are, or exactly what they're made of. And I have a bottle of liquid chalk, whatever they were selling in the gym the last time I needed to get some more. But I'm not on Strava or whatever, and I don't track my per-km splits or my heart rate/zone or elevation gained or cadence. I'll time a whole run with a $20 Casio wrist/stopwatch, and sometimes calculate an average pace, but that's about it.

Not that I'm particularly good at running or bouldering, but I'm enjoying doing both at the level I'm currently at, so that's fine.

Anyway, any hobby that requires a bunch of gear is just a turn-off for me. The more gear I'd need, the more I want to give it a wide berth.

Computer software I love to nerd out on. But everything else? Hardware? That's a break from the nerdery for me.

My rule is that I start off with lower-mid-range equipment, until I know whether I actually like a hobby.

If you love cycling and you do it all the time? By all means spend $3000 on a high-end, premium-brand, ultra-light-weight bike, if you've got the disposable income and buying it would bring you joy.

But if you're just considering getting into cycling? There are perfectly good $500 bikes out there, and you don't need to delay getting into a sport just because you don't have $3k to spare right now.

I expect this can be abstracted and include other fields, too. My particular affliction has included electronic lab equipment. Like, did I really need that specialized tool to measure and verify the performance of my oscilloscope? Did I really need the second oscilloscope on my bench? I'm rarely involved in RF, but I have a spectrum analyzer collecting dust now. Etc...

Same, but I don't consider it a problem.

If I find that I love a product, I'll buy a spare. If it turns out that I think the successor product is better, I'll buy that and simply sell my spare to someone with the opposite opinion.

Completely disagree. Just because shitty gear exists doesnt mean theres some virtue in breaking your neck with it. Quality is always better. Few examples: 3D printing. Reading up about all the possible printers, decided on P1P. Cant imagine dealing (and enjoying dealing) with all the problems of cheaper printers, I enjoy knowing that whatever I want printed will get printed correctly first try. Snowkiting: Cant imagine enjoying being thrown around by cheap kites, while watching people being smoothly and controlably pulled by more expensive ones. PC Gaming: Cant imagine enjoying playing at 30fps at FullHD when I know how 144Hz 4K gaming looks and feels like. And the list goes on and on and on.

Sure, there are people who enjoy tinkering, and the process of "reaching for the top with gear that shouldnt get them there at all", but having quality gear straight from the beggining allows a broader set of people to enjoy a hobby they would otherwise be left out of.