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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

#61

Post by Paul-Craft »

gilleain wrote: post #52
wodenokoto wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I'm saying that collecting stuff isn't a deeply rooted psychological problem.

True, but the problem is not the collecting. It's that people want to 'succeed' at some hobby, and are blaming the lack of gear for not achieving some particular goal or level of success (however they define it). To re-imagine the situation, they would have to give up the original goal of the hobby.

Funny you should mention "succeeding" at a hobby. I collect coins. There are 2 major companies that will grade and encapsulate coins in clear, tamper-evident, sealed polycarbonate holders that have labels inside them with bar codes and serial numbers and all that jazz.

Both of those companies have this concept that's called a "registry set," which is where you can go on their websites and enter the serial numbers of coins you own, then create virtual sets out of those coins. You can create your own set lists, which I have no problem with, but there are also pre-made set lists the company created, which are scored according to a rarity-weighted average of the numerical grades of your coins, with a score of 0 for any missing coins. For instance, there's a Buffalo nickel registry and a wheat penny registry, and so on.

I think you can probably see where I'm going with this now. Before these companies came into existence and started publishing rankings of these sets, you couldn't really do something like say "@gilleain has the #1 ranked Buffalo Nickel set in the world," and such. Now you can, and it really annoys the piss out of me. It's not because my collection doesn't rate very highly (it doesn't, FYI), but because I think "competitive coin collecting" is bad for the hobby and only serves to make those 2 companies money.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#62

Post by benj111 »

omnibrain wrote: post #11
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…

> 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.

My journey into Linux was like this.

I decided to install arch once. Didn't have any issues per se, but spent far too much time going through all the window manager options, file browser options etc etc etc.

I eventually decided that I needed an os to do stuff, not be the stuff to do.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#63

Post by 123pie123 »

omnicognate wrote: post #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. Slo…

I've still not used my oscilloscope (properly - measuriung some DC value when I couldn't find my multimeter doesn't count??)

I find a good circuit simulator helps in speeding up the hassle in 'probing' electronics - there's many out there, I do like this one though https://www.falstad.com/circuit/

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#64

Post by bluescrn »

Zondartul wrote: post #55

A 3D printing hobby is basically GAS/GFS-as-a-hobby. You buy the cheapest printer, then print better parts for it, then you buy a second printer to print faster and with more quality, then you go on an ebay spree and buy a VORON kit to make your own, then you build a "mostly-printed CNC", lathe, plotter, laser cutter, and then you run out of room in your garage and start looking for a bigger house. It's a huge money…

Buy a Prusa, Skip most of the setup/tweaking/upgrading. Print things. Learn to design things to print.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#65

Post by thih9 »

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…

For many people reframing GAS as collecting wouldn't work. As stated in the quoted part of the article, people affected by GAS often expect that their new purchase will make them better at their hobby. This usually doesn't happen, or is not that significant - and so the search for a new piece of gear begins. Again, expanding the collection is not the goal, it's a compulsive side effect.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#66

Post by Fluorescence »

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…

> that give one a good excuse to study history, economics, art, metallurgy

Not sharing this as a serious alternative, just sharing this as something nerdy and cool. It's a little more involved than coin collecting lol... but this guy making his own Carnyx (Celtic war horn) ticks many of those boxes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWTFIDAbDtY

A Carnyx being played:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRIQp4qZrrE

Engaging with history in very practical ways like this is very cool. I'd love to make my own Round House one day.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#67

Post by alpaca128 »

hnbad wrote: post #24

To 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 t…

For me a large part of that is writing software and then libraries for that software, and so on. I've been trying (with partial success) to have one large project and inbetween do small tools etc that can be finished in a weekend. Also helps to have a todo list for even the smallest stuff in the main project so that it's easy to start picking up where I left off even if it's been a while.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#68

Post by mauvehaus »

krisoft wrote: post #59

I felt called out by the title since I spent all my hobby time in the last few weeks to fabricate brass gears for an orrery I’m working on. :) Luckily it is not about that kind of gear fabrication syndrome.

At the risk of nerd sniping all of HN: please tell us more about this orrery you're building! Can we follow your progress online?

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#69

Post by gilleain »

Paul-Craft wrote: post #61
gilleain wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but the problem is not the collecting. It's that people want to 'succeed' at some hobby, and are blaming the lack of gear for not achieving some particular goal or level of success (however they define it). To re-imagine the situation, they would have to give up the original goal of the hobby.

Funny you should mention "succeeding" at a hobby. I collect coins. There are 2 major companies that will grade and encapsulate coins in clear, tamper-evident, sealed polycarbonate holders that have labels inside them with bar codes and serial numbers and all that jazz. Both of those companies have this concept that's called a "registry set," which is where you can go on their websites and enter the serial numbers of…

As it happens, my coin-collection ranking is very low. Mainly as I have none.

Totally agree that this 'gamification' of collecting is an unpleasant way to monetise something that is otherwise quite a chill pursuit.

From the companies point of view, of course, it means collectors are more likely to try and 'finish' collections. Like how some card collections (I think?) would have books that you would put your cards in, which gives an endpoint to achieve.

edit: I lie, I do technically have a single coin I suppose. A 1918 silver 'threepenny bit' (3p coin) from a Christmas Pudding. King George V's head on it. Forgot it was in my wallet.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#70

Post by Almondsetat »

Paul-Craft wrote: post #61
gilleain wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but the problem is not the collecting. It's that people want to 'succeed' at some hobby, and are blaming the lack of gear for not achieving some particular goal or level of success (however they define it). To re-imagine the situation, they would have to give up the original goal of the hobby.

Funny you should mention "succeeding" at a hobby. I collect coins. There are 2 major companies that will grade and encapsulate coins in clear, tamper-evident, sealed polycarbonate holders that have labels inside them with bar codes and serial numbers and all that jazz. Both of those companies have this concept that's called a "registry set," which is where you can go on their websites and enter the serial numbers of…

GAS is about simulating skills with resources.

If you want to reach the level of @gilleain you have to obtain the coins he has. Coin collecting is based entirely upon owning resources.

On the other hand let’s say that a guy collecting coins has built a very popular YouTube channel about numismatics. He has his own collection and talks about it. You are envious of his success and you want to become just as popular as him.

A person without GAS would think that in order to achieve this he would have to learn a lot about numismatics and then improve in his ability to speak and entertain.

Someone suffering from GAS would think that acquiring the guy’s collection is the solution and would blame his lack of popularity not on his skills but on his resources

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