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Gear Acquisition Syndrome

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Re: Gear Acquisition Syndrome

#111

Post by ta988 »

Retr0id wrote: post #87
etrautmann wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the opposite is also true however. I've been attempting to combat GAS by avoiding a home data server. In reality, I've been needing a NAS for a number of years and have changed my photography practice due to limitations and challenges with dealing with extra data. I just solved this and it's been liberating.

I solve my photography storage needs by treating SD cards as write-once consumables. When a card fills up, I just buy another one.

Digital Photograph Acquidition Syndrome

Re: Gear Acquisition Syndrome

#112

Post by rqtwteye »

Retr0id wrote: post #87
etrautmann wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the opposite is also true however. I've been attempting to combat GAS by avoiding a home data server. In reality, I've been needing a NAS for a number of years and have changed my photography practice due to limitations and challenges with dealing with extra data. I just solved this and it's been liberating.

I solve my photography storage needs by treating SD cards as write-once consumables. When a card fills up, I just buy another one.

That would get super expensive if you shoot things like airshows, birds in flight or sports where you can easily shoot 2000 images or more in one day. Or 4K video.

Re: Gear Acquisition Syndrome

#113

Post by loloquwowndueo »

dmd wrote: post #107
herpdyderp wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do this with shoes. I won’t need a new pair for decades!

I did this with shoes. Bought 4 pairs of the shoes I liked. Right on schedule, they discontinued them, and I was so happy I'd done so! And then when after about 5 years I said "hey, these shoes are getting pretty worn, time to move on to the next pair", I was 43 years old, and lo and behold ... my feet had widened and I couldn't even get my feet into the brand-new shoes. I had to put them in an expanding last for alm…

Next time don’t store the old shoes - rotate wearing them so at the end of (shoe_lifetime * number_of_pairs) years you’ll have a number of pairs of evenly-worn shoes :)

Re: Gear Acquisition Syndrome

#114

Post by loloquwowndueo »

dheera wrote: post #95
bborud wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that it usually takes me a while to realize that something is good. Not least because I like durable things and ... well, it takes time to determine if something is durable. I bought my favorite jacket 12 years ago in Tokyo. A very neutral/timeless thing. After 3 years the jacket still looked like new. Although I had worn it almost every day for 3 years. I searched for it online and found one for sale.…

I use a lot of 30-50 year old camera lenses. Stuff was just built better back then. None of all this plastic jiggly crap.

Funny because 30 years ago (1994) we used to say the same thing about stuff built in the 50s :)

Re: Gear Acquisition Syndrome

#115

Post by Retr0id »

rqtwteye wrote: post #112
Retr0id wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I solve my photography storage needs by treating SD cards as write-once consumables. When a card fills up, I just buy another one.

That would get super expensive if you shoot things like airshows, birds in flight or sports where you can easily shoot 2000 images or more in one day. Or 4K video.

2000 images fits on about $3 worth of SD card, depending on resolution.

Less than the time cost of going through and deciding which to delete.

Re: Gear Acquisition Syndrome

#116

Post by neilv »

For photography (Canon DSLR, photojournalism and studio), there was a pursuit of the right gear, but I was usually as much as I was buying.

For example, the ordinary reasonable thought, I could make such great images with that 50mm f/0.9 prime, I might use it for everything, is usually a fantasy. Try it, then sell it before its resale value drops, then find a better use for the money and the space and weight in your backpack.)

A bit similar for homelab servers&networking gear. I've sold many times more rack units' worth of stuff than I currently own. (And currently there's a silent K3s server that's nearing the chopping block, since I haven't been using it.)

Re: Gear Acquisition Syndrome

#117

Post by layer8 »

herpdyderp wrote: post #104
jerlam wrote: post #50

I think of myself as resistant to the pull of advertising and gear acquisition, but I've developed a related problem. When I find something that I like, I want to buy multiples of it, even if there is a very low chance that I'll wear the item out or lose it, and it may become unusable in that time. I've had many objects in my life that I thought were great, and then they become unavailable and I spend an inordinate a…

I do this with shoes. I won’t need a new pair for decades!

They might contain materials like rubber that degrade anyway with time.

Unfortunately, some items are inherently ephemeral.

Re: Gear Acquisition Syndrome

#118

Post by thevillagechief »

herpdyderp wrote: post #104
jerlam wrote: post #50

I think of myself as resistant to the pull of advertising and gear acquisition, but I've developed a related problem. When I find something that I like, I want to buy multiples of it, even if there is a very low chance that I'll wear the item out or lose it, and it may become unusable in that time. I've had many objects in my life that I thought were great, and then they become unavailable and I spend an inordinate a…

I do this with shoes. I won’t need a new pair for decades!

I still regret not stockpiling a pair of shoes I got 14 years ago. My favorite pair of shoes ever. I went looking for them a year later, and of course they had been discontinued. So yeah, I've started doing this.

Re: Gear Acquisition Syndrome

#119

Post by dimatura »

twic wrote: post #67
drblastoff wrote: post #22

I’ve fallen victim to this, though perhaps fortunately with digital synth plugins that take up no physical space. This is related to another problem of mine: ignoring things I’m naturally good at, and fixating on things I’m naturally bad at. In this case, I have no real musical talent, can’t play instruments in rhythm, can’t arrange a song, and I’ve nevertheless been pursuing this in my spare time for a decade with n…

> I have no real musical talent, can’t play instruments in rhythm, can’t arrange a song Have you heard of dubstep? Actually, acid house might be the genre for you, since "it’s true that if you gave 100 monkeys a TR-808s and a TB-303 each, you’d probably get at least 70 decent acid tracks". [1] [1] https://www.factmag.com/2014/01/22/20-best-acid-house/

I get its a joke, but dubstep is actually one of the harder EDM genres to make, in my opinion. As in, how much skill/work it takes to make a "mediocre" dubstep track, especially for the more commercially well known "brostep" variety. Minimal techno, ambient, noise or lo-fi beats are perhaps electronic genres that are (again IMO) easier to make mediocre tracks for. Great tracks are hard to make in any genre, of course.

Re: Gear Acquisition Syndrome

#120

Post by layer8 »

This is not too different from book/movies/music acquisition syndrome. In particular for books, you continue even if you know you’ll never read them all, or even a significant fraction.
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