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The Four Hobbies, and Apparent Expertise

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Re: The Four Hobbies, and Apparent Expertise

#71

Post by twic »

jiggawatts wrote: post #14

I started off in the "enjoying collecting gear" quadrant of photography, then I heard an insightful comment by a pro: "If you have $5K, you can either buy one good lens and use it to take photos of the pigeons outside your apartment, or spend that money on a destination holiday and take pictures of amazingly beautiful places with your old lens which still works perfectly fine." I stopped buying new kit and started go…

That advice surprises me. It's quite possible to go to the most amazingly beautiful place on earth and still take pigeon-dull photos, with or without a fancy camera. I've done it myself. Surely what matters is learning how to see, and to depict?

Oh, and working in Silicon Valley may not be necessary. A non-techy friend of mine bought a medium format camera and took it to Antarctica. But then he is a cardiologist.

Re: The Four Hobbies, and Apparent Expertise

#72

Post by RugnirViking »

dan-g wrote: post #2

I feel like this is me spinning in circles deciding on “the best language” to use for a side project, never committing, and then inevitably losing momentum. Frameworks and languages are a software engineer’s “kit”, I guess?

The best language for a side project is either

a) the language you want to learn, the side project is a means towards this end

or

b) the language you know best, you want the side project to actually be good

Re: The Four Hobbies, and Apparent Expertise

#73

Post by red_admiral »

On the hobby/gear distinction, I once heard a great interview with Sir Paul McCartney (of Beatles fame). He talked about how someone once asked him what brand of electric guitar strings he used - apparently a point of great debate among the gear nerds in the music business - and he replied "I don't know, silvery looking ones?" or something like that. It blew some minds.

Re: The Four Hobbies, and Apparent Expertise

#74

Post by hef19898 »

MadameBanaan wrote: post #70
cesaref wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That Z9 will be yesterdays tech in a year or two, and you'll be able to pick it up for a fraction of its current price. It'll still perform exactly as well as it does today, but the gear heads will be onto the next new thing.

I do two very expensive hobbies: Triathlon and Astrophotography I've never bought flagship gear, and I often buy second hand. This is the way.

That is the reason I love gear heads, otherwise I wouldn't have been abke to get the Nikkor lenses I have for the price I paid, and they are all used by the way. That none of those is compatible with the new Z system helps as well.

Because why would a camera and a lense, that was the top of the line back the day, be less suitable today? Not that a Z9 wouldn't be nice, but I have other hobbies as well and want to see places!

Re: The Four Hobbies, and Apparent Expertise

#75

Post by hef19898 »

ezconnect wrote: post #40
jiggawatts wrote: post #14

I started off in the "enjoying collecting gear" quadrant of photography, then I heard an insightful comment by a pro: "If you have $5K, you can either buy one good lens and use it to take photos of the pigeons outside your apartment, or spend that money on a destination holiday and take pictures of amazingly beautiful places with your old lens which still works perfectly fine." I stopped buying new kit and started go…

I traveled to places with my Nikon D40. What is amazing is the camera still works with all the drops and salt water it has taken.

Unless it breaks, and suits your needs, no need to change. My old D70 was replaced due to a nasty, and large, scratch on the sensor.

Re: The Four Hobbies, and Apparent Expertise

#76

Post by kashyapc »

hprotagonist wrote: post #3

There are two ways you can get exercise out of a bicycle: you can “overhaul” it, or you can ride it. On the whole, I am not sure that a man who takes his pleasure overhauling does not have the best of the bargain. He is independent of the weather and the wind; the state of the roads troubles him not. Give him a screw-hammer, a bundle of rags, an oil-can, and something to sit down upon, and he is happy for the day. He…

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing this. The word "bummel" (a German word for "stroll") is described wonderfully in the last paragraph of the book, it is quoted here[1].

A modern day example of the above "overhauler" way (a theme familiar to HN): we see many variants of "Look! I've setup the perfect static website!" Then the person goes on to write a single, lonely post on "how to setup a perfect static site", and then ... go silent for 5 years, or forever. They've burnt too much energy in "configuring".

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Men_on_the_Bummel#The_wo...

Re: The Four Hobbies, and Apparent Expertise

#77

Post by mnky9800n »

gensym wrote: post #5
hprotagonist wrote: post #3

There are two ways you can get exercise out of a bicycle: you can “overhaul” it, or you can ride it. On the whole, I am not sure that a man who takes his pleasure overhauling does not have the best of the bargain. He is independent of the weather and the wind; the state of the roads troubles him not. Give him a screw-hammer, a bundle of rags, an oil-can, and something to sit down upon, and he is happy for the day. He…

This is exactly why I switched my sport of choice from cycling to running. In cycling, I kept getting pulled into the gear and tinkering. (It didn't help that I raced cyclocross, so during race season, every Monday was spent cleaning and repairing the result of the previous day's races). TBH, it was fun, but if I spent as much time training as I did tinkering, maybe I would have had some decent race results. With run…

i just decided that i enjoy working on bikes more than i do riding them and i decided that was fine. What i dislike the most is talking to people on reddit about it. if i need a new part that i dont know where to find google will lead me to the forum that will lead me t owhat i need. if i can't find it i can ask on reddit. but i do not want to sit around on forums talking about bikes. what a waste of time. and look at me, im sitting around in a forum talking about bikes. i'll see myself out.

Re: The Four Hobbies, and Apparent Expertise

#79

Post by bearmode »

twic wrote: post #71
jiggawatts wrote: post #14

I started off in the "enjoying collecting gear" quadrant of photography, then I heard an insightful comment by a pro: "If you have $5K, you can either buy one good lens and use it to take photos of the pigeons outside your apartment, or spend that money on a destination holiday and take pictures of amazingly beautiful places with your old lens which still works perfectly fine." I stopped buying new kit and started go…

That advice surprises me. It's quite possible to go to the most amazingly beautiful place on earth and still take pigeon-dull photos, with or without a fancy camera. I've done it myself. Surely what matters is learning how to see, and to depict? Oh, and working in Silicon Valley may not be necessary. A non-techy friend of mine bought a medium format camera and took it to Antarctica. But then he is a cardiologist.

Some of the best photos I've taken in my ~12 years as a hobbyist photographer have been less than 30 minutes from home. Despite all the holidays I've been on.

Re: The Four Hobbies, and Apparent Expertise

#80

Post by rramadass »

hprotagonist wrote: post #3

There are two ways you can get exercise out of a bicycle: you can “overhaul” it, or you can ride it. On the whole, I am not sure that a man who takes his pleasure overhauling does not have the best of the bargain. He is independent of the weather and the wind; the state of the roads troubles him not. Give him a screw-hammer, a bundle of rags, an oil-can, and something to sit down upon, and he is happy for the day. He…

Ha, Ha, Ha!

Jerome Klapka Jerome (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_K._Jerome) is one of my favourite authors. For those folks unfamiliar with his works Project Gutenberg is a great resource https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/173 Start with "Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow" and go from there.

Just make sure that you are not eating/drinking while reading his books and have somebody monitoring you in case you collapse from pure laughter :-)

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