Until your GFS develops its own GAS...
Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome
21–30 of 177 posts
Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome
#22> 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…
> one should just embrace it and say “my hobby is collecting guitar gear, and my niche is things that Jimi Hendrix used or things that make sounds like he did” GAS is a form of delusion. You are asking people to “just” self-recognize and somehow self-fix their deeply rooted psychological problems.
I think I'm saying that collecting stuff isn't a deeply rooted psychological problem.
Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome
#23So, you're not supposed to buy stuff for your hobby nor build stuff for your hobby? I think it depends on how you define "the hobby" - is it really just the part where you use your equipment? I find that too narrow. A good counter example could perhaps be table top wargaming, e.g. Warhammer and the likes. Surely, people who call that their hobby like to play the (various different) games. But a lot of people love bui…
> A good counter example could perhaps be table top wargaming, e.g. Warhammer and the likes. Surely, people who call that their hobby like to play the (various different) games. But a lot of people love building and painting their miniature armies just as much. And some people hate it. So what's the scoop? If you enjoy the building and painting of new minis more than actually playing the game they're made for, you're doing it wrong?
If you enjoy building and painting miniatures then it's not wrong. It's a different hobby from wargaming though.
> Look, hobbies are for your enjoyment. If buying gear or trying to build it yourself gives you joy, more power to you.
Sure. But a lot of people find themselves accumulating a closet full of junk that was supposed to help with a fun part that they never actually get around to. Which is really just another form of consumerism; while I'm open to the idea that some kinds of collecting can be good hobbies, there's definitely a kind of pseudo-hobby of buying things that all too often ends up as an addiction-like behaviour that doesn't actually bring people much joy or satisfaction.
> The acquisition of gear (be it buying or building) is not a means to an end - it is part of the hobby.
If it brings you joy, yes. If it just quiets the cravings for a while, no.
Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome
#24To steal an old meme: Men will literally come up with new "syndromes" instead of going to therapy.
GAS/GFS sounds like a regular Tuesday on ADHD. I want to play a racing sim. Better learn intricate details of electronics, physics and car mechanics so I can build my own brake pedal. Is the brake pedal working? No. Have I spent even a single minute playing a racing sim since starting this project? Also no. But I have taught myself how to build my own 3D printer from scratch and I also never will do that ever again.
Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome
#25> 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 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’ve gotten to the point of my book buying hobby that I buy books to collect books, rather than to read them.
Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome
#26> 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 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 of consumer. For example, "limited editions" and such are not rare because the product warrants it, it's just designed scarcity to press the buttons of the collectors and extract the most money from them. Or it's bidding wars on vintage items like wine where huge price inflation happens just for the collection kudos not the virtues of the item itself.
For example, I like fountain pens, but I can't really read r/fountainpens because it's mostly people building huge collections of pens and getting excited about buying a new pattern or colour of pen they already own. Nothing makes me sadder than seeing their full collections of 100s of fantastic tools that will sit idle for the vast majority of their life until the owner passes and a relative has to liquidate things they don't understand.
It looks like a dysfunction to me - a stimulation seeking addiction which is not satisfied by the next acquisition and will never fill the emptiness, the need, the dream, of the collector. I know people will be super defensive about their collecting but I would love for that money and energy to be redirected towards higher degrees of self-actualisation. It feels like a failure to scale the Maslow's hierarchy of needs and get stuck in a loop down the bottom. Instead of creating novelty or growing, there is something safe, comfortable and unchallenging to just acquire.
Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome
#27"Syndrome", "guilt", "fear", "failed", "worse".
It's a hobby. There's no wrong way to do it. Have a budget and do what makes you happy. If that's accumulating gadgets, accumulate with joy. It's not an illness.
Another reason for what the article calls Gear Acquisition Syndrome, if not for Gear Fabrication Syndrome, is the nature of the learning curve for some things. For example, I'm learning electronics, slowly. Slowly because I have children and a stressful full-time job. A while ago I bought an oscilloscope. I don't really need an oscilloscope and it's possible I never will. I'm just hooking up 555 timers and trying to get my head round the mysteries of inductance at this stage. The machine is occasionally marginally useful, but mostly I get it out for the sake of fiddling with it.
Does this mean I just bought it for the thrill of owning it? I certainly felt that thrill when it arrived, but I bought it to learn how to use it, as part of the larger project of "learning electronics". My slow progress means it may be a long time before I'm doing things that really require it, but if and when that time comes I'll be ready, with the device and the knowledge to use it correctly (and not blow it up! [1]). I don't know how far I'll get in learning and applying this stuff, but learning the tools is a major part of it, and rewarding in itself.
Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome
#28> 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…
But first, one should ask if the hobby is actually fun without the imagined success(Even if the imagined success is just an excuse for the hobby! Nobody said psychology always makes sense!).
I used to do a lot of DIY software when I first got started, that I now deeply question the value of. I think without the imaginary payoffs, I would have only done about a quarter of it for fun. I don't use any of that code now, nor do I write anything similar on a regular basis, and my entire approach to coding is completely different, so it kind of feels like I was throwing time and money away.
Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome
#29> 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…
But first, one should ask if the hobby is actually fun without the imagined success(Even if the imagined success is just an excuse for the hobby! Nobody said psychology always makes sense!). I used to do a lot of DIY software when I first got started, that I now deeply question the value of. I think without the imaginary payoffs, I would have only done about a quarter of it for fun. I don't use any of that code now,…
> But first, one should ask if the hobby is actually fun without the imagined success
I have a similar litmus test: assuming you’re going to fail, how do you want to spend your time?
Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome
#30All that design and fabrication work, and the pedals swing the wrong way? And has no rigid frame connection to a seat? If you're going to bother, then one of the biggest things is to rigidly attach the pedals to the seat so that they cannot move in relation to the seat even against the full power of legs. And of course car pedals swing on a pivot that is above the pedals not below, although the gas pedal has an extra…
Is it really universally true that clutch and brake pedals have the pivot above?
It is indeed what I’ve always seen on production road cars, but I don’t see why it’s necessarily true for all cars.