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Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

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Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#131

Post by LanceH »

prmoustache wrote: post #87
omnibrain wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but I think one should just embrace it and say “my hobby is collecting guitar gear That's something I noticed with a lot of people in my circle and 3d printers. They don't 3d print for their hobby. Most of them have 3d printing or even 3d printers as their hobby.

It is not cost effective to buy a 3d printer if you 3d print only when you actually need a 3d printed part. That is the main reason. You buy/build a 3d printer only if you want to tinker with them. Otherwise you just commission someone to do it or use the local fablab.

I don't know. I spent a couple years printing some parts at our library's maker space. The feedback loop is very, very slow.

Having a 3d printer now, I can get a half dozen iterations on something done in a day and compared to a single iteration per day from the library. So if you're designing your own parts and can't draw them perfectly first go, having the printer is huge.

Replacement battery covers for remote controls. If I value those at $200 each, I've broken even.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#132

Post by hliyan »

I wonder if note taking apps qualify for Gear Acquisition Syndrome. I certainly used to have it where I tried every note taking app imaginable, and created a few of my own. In the end, I found that the best way to focus on actually taking notes is to rely on pen-and-paper or simple text files.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#133

Post by randomdata »

prmoustache wrote: post #87
omnibrain wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but I think one should just embrace it and say “my hobby is collecting guitar gear That's something I noticed with a lot of people in my circle and 3d printers. They don't 3d print for their hobby. Most of them have 3d printing or even 3d printers as their hobby.

It is not cost effective to buy a 3d printer if you 3d print only when you actually need a 3d printed part. That is the main reason. You buy/build a 3d printer only if you want to tinker with them. Otherwise you just commission someone to do it or use the local fablab.

> It is not cost effective to buy a 3d printer [...] just commission someone to do it

If you are lucky enough to have a neighbour to do the commissioning, maybe, but otherwise shipping has gotten so expensive (at least in these parts), and 3D printers so cheap, that a getting few design iterations in your hands will practically buy you the printer.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#134

Post by swayvil »

pimlottc wrote: post #130
wodenokoto wrote: post #8

> Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS). A person’s insatiable urge to buy equipment for their art or hobby, distracting them from actually practicing said art or hobby. > It’s driven in part by the belief that new gear will improve one’s art or performance, e.g. I don’t sound like Jimi Hendrix because I don’t have the same effects pedal he used. Bit tangent, but I think one should just embrace it and say “my hobby is coll…

I read somewhere once that for every community of hobbyists, there's 4 main types of activities enthusiasts engage in: 1. Doing the thing 2. Talking about doing the thing 3. Getting into the gear for doing the thing (collecting, building, customizing) 4. Talking about the gear for doing the thing Very often, the first group is the smallest!

There's a higher evolution of this seen in certain religious circles. Where any mention of "doing the thing" is reviled, called "impossible", "sinful" even. Any discussion of technique banned from the conversation.

So what they do is the other 3, and wait for a random bolt of lightning, or a favorable judgment from the inscrutable supreme authority, or even declare that the "doing" is in fact the "talking etc".

It's an interesting bit of psychology for sure.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#135

Post by cbm-vic-20 »

Paul-Craft wrote: post #54
Fluorescence wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a bit disturbed by collecting hobbies to be honest. When there is some novelty, archival or scientific value to a collection, that is different and fascinating, it's the purely consumerist collecting that gives me the heebie-jeebies. It's purely acquisitive and about the buying and getting and just seems quite sad and empty. Those afflicted become slaves to the companies pumping out items purely for this class o…

I wouldn't go so far as saying it give me "heebie-jeebies," but I also don't see the point in collecting mass market consumer items that are not and have never been rare. Probably the closest I come to ever wanting to do so is that I have a real appreciation for old computer systems. Once, I even got it in my head that I could theoretically own and run a working PDP-11. Fortunately/unfortunately, I've never had the s…

> I even got it in my head that I could theoretically own and run a working PDP-11.

Me too. Thankfully, buying old PDP-11 manuals on eBay and assembling a PiDP-11 satisfied that urge. I also live close to two good computer museums that have plenty of PDPs to poke around on, when they're working. Watching the graybeards diagnose and fix things on these 50+ year old machines reminds me why I don't want to do that at home.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#136

Post by scruple »

Fluorescence wrote: post #26
interroboink wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like this take. Nobody thinks of stamp collecting as a problematic hobby. Collecting and curating is fun in its own right. Though I do think there can be another aspect at play; I often find myself collecting things that I think "might be useful". Eg: I have a ton of empty yogurt containers, for use in hypothetical future art projects. I do use them sometimes, but at this point I have plenty. I still feel the urge…

I am a bit disturbed by collecting hobbies to be honest. When there is some novelty, archival or scientific value to a collection, that is different and fascinating, it's the purely consumerist collecting that gives me the heebie-jeebies. It's purely acquisitive and about the buying and getting and just seems quite sad and empty. Those afflicted become slaves to the companies pumping out items purely for this class o…

Steam libraries with hundreds or thousands of unplayed games. I do understand it, I think, but I'm glad I'm not afflicted.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#137

Post by ConfusedDog »

That's true for many behavior patterns. For me, collecting physical books, ebooks, electronics, tools, etc., before I was so burnt out I also try to learn a lot of different languages. Goal-less life leads me astray. I'm still goal-less though, just not doing that anymore. I have collected too much and burnt out.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#138

Post by kuchenbecker »

I appreciate the post.

I last made a Throttle for a HOTAS setup. Key was I had a functional end to end prototype using Arduino, ultrasonic sensor, and drawer slide in 3 hours and started using it immediately.

Every piece of the prototype was eventually replaced and my "final" version is a mess of wires and incomplete, but I got use out of the early versions as a proof of concept early and never bought the off the shelf alternative.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#139

Post by swayvil »

Fluorescence wrote: post #26
interroboink wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like this take. Nobody thinks of stamp collecting as a problematic hobby. Collecting and curating is fun in its own right. Though I do think there can be another aspect at play; I often find myself collecting things that I think "might be useful". Eg: I have a ton of empty yogurt containers, for use in hypothetical future art projects. I do use them sometimes, but at this point I have plenty. I still feel the urge…

I am a bit disturbed by collecting hobbies to be honest. When there is some novelty, archival or scientific value to a collection, that is different and fascinating, it's the purely consumerist collecting that gives me the heebie-jeebies. It's purely acquisitive and about the buying and getting and just seems quite sad and empty. Those afflicted become slaves to the companies pumping out items purely for this class o…

There's a vast and profitable opportunity awaiting the man who can connect "collecting hobbyists" with generative/AI production technology. A veritable money machine.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#140

Post by bombcar »

MSFT_Edging wrote: post #112
Paul-Craft wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Accumulating stuff that "might be useful" at some indefinite point in the future, without trying to curate the accumulation might not be hoarding, but, it's actually quite similar to the mindset of some of the actual hoarders on the TV show Hoarders. Those people obviously take it to pathological extremes, and I'm not suggesting having a bunch of empty, cleaned out yogurt containers stashed away somewhere is in any w…

> Accumulating stuff that "might be useful" at some indefinite point in the future, without trying to curate the accumulation might not be hoarding, but, it's actually quite similar to the mindset of some of the actual hoarders Every once and a while I'll try to curate my parts bin, tossing bulky or unused items that I haven't needed. Every time I find myself needing some seemingly dumb part from what I got rid of a…

I toss based on how hard I feel it will be to get it back, and just accept it as part of the cost of life.

Still can be annoying, though.

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