Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

weenoisemaker.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 177 posts

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#71

Post by gilleain »

Fluorescence wrote: post #66
Paul-Craft wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I have a friend that makes medieval lutes. He even reproduced one from Skyrim - it sounded bad, apparently, as it was designed to look good, not sound good.

More of a business than a hobby, but still.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#72

Post by alpaca128 »

ur-whale wrote: post #46

I have GFS, to a degree that's probably way worse than the article's author. I'm also old enough (40+ years experience as a dev) to actually objectively measure the impact this trait has had on my career. I'll summarize in one simple sentence: any negative feeling / worry /guilt you may have because you discover you have that "penchant": discard it with utmost prejudice. I have had an amazing career in tech. (not ove…

I don't have near as much experience but things like that indirectly got me my current job. I worried a ton in the past because I almost never finished a project, until the feedback I got from others made me realize how much I learned in the process. I could have done some things in a more time efficient manner but in the end I do it because it's fun, and ultimately "reinventing the wheel" (a phrase I could rant about all day) helped me overcome/replace bad habits.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#73

Post by 4death4 »

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…

I agree that collecting is weird, but I also agree with the GP’s general point that one should accept they have a collecting hobby and find contentment in that fact alone. There is a large amount of personal satisfaction to be found by accepting who you are and what you like. So what if other people find it weird?

In all likelihood, you and I find collecting sad and empty because we’re not collectors. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For all we know, collectors have found more fulfillment than we will ever know.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#74

Post by bluescrn »

GuB-42 wrote: post #42
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…

Gear Acquisition Syndrome is tied to compulsive buying and hording, both are recognized illnesses (in ICD-11). Of course, just buying an oscilloscope in the course of learning electronics is not getting you in psychiatry. I mean, it is part of the basic toolkit, plus, you are actually using it. But if you start buying 5 different soldering irons with 10 different types of solder, every kind of pliers known to man, so…

> Gear Acquisition Syndrome is tied to compulsive buying and hording, both are recognized illnesses (in ICD-11).

Which is a long way from 'throwing some disposable income at a hobby'.

If your 'gear acquisition' is getting you in debt, or excessively cluttering your home, you may have a problem. But otherwise, if you can afford it, and it's giving you some satisfaction to collect and fiddle with it, then why not?

Spending, say, $25k on hobby gear might seem excessive. But people don't get shamed for spending far more than that replacing/upgrading cars when they've got a perfectly decent one already.

And if you're buying quality gear, whether it's tools or musical instruments/equipment, it's likely to have a lifetime of several decades, it's not like you're buying junk that'll end up on a mountain of e-waste in a couple of years time.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#75

Post by NKosmatos »

Nice one, and catchy/misleading title :-)

Never heard of Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS) or Gear Fabrication Syndrome (GFS), but I think it would be better to replace Gear with Gadget. From I saw with a quick search, GAS is heavily related to musicians, but I think this applies to all areas (photography, computing, astronomy...).

A little bit off topic... Is it only me that finds the scrolling area of this page annoying? What's the point of having all this screen estate and allowing scrolling only if the mouse is over the middle section?

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#76

Post by mordae »

speeder wrote: post #39
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…

I have ADHD and it is bothering me to no end that when people ask me what my hobby is, I find out I have a huge list of half-finished stuff instead. For example I like blacksmithing. Built a simple sword just grinding the metal, then decided to study how to get a proper forge and whatnot. Studied a lot, learning the chemistry of steel, found where to buy the stuff. Never bought it, never made any forged item. Then I…

> as I should

You shouldn't do anything. It's your life and you live it like you want. All morals, shoulds and shouldn'ts and musts and mustn'ts are a pile of horseshit. You are only responsible to yourself and you are going to be the person judging yourself in the end. When somebody tells you you should go to church, it's about the same importance as if they asked you to play CoD with them.

And if you are bothered that you did not finish something... circle back to it. You have decades of life to purse your happiness. Relax, enjoy the detour and circle back with more knowledge and savings.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#77

Post by mordae »

I have pretty severe GFS and one part of it is that once you understand what you are building, you don't really wish to finish it and continue on a more stimulating tangent.

On the other hand, teaching others stuff that doesn't (by itself) stimulate you anymore gives you an opportunity to check the quality of your understanding and is also fun in itself.

Another way to finish is to build a birthday gift and thus impose a deadline on yourself.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#78

Post by wkjagt »

123pie123 wrote: post #63
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/

I feel almost the same about my oscilloscope but it did help me debug an i2c implementation that would have been very painful to debug otherwise. I could have done that with a much cheaper logic analyzer though. Most of the time the oscilloscope sits unused but sometimes I'm happy to have it when I want to very something simple like a clock signal on an old 8 bit computer. I'm really only scratching the surface of what it can do though with these simple use cases.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#79

Post by bad_alloc »

perlgeek wrote: post #47

I misread the title, and thought he compulsively built gears (as in, gearing mechanism) :-)

Me too. This is somehow an interest many hobby machinists converge on as a far away goal. It is hard to do, needs extra equipment and is mostly avoidable. Still, the allure is there...

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#80

Post by jdub »

NKosmatos wrote: post #75

Nice one, and catchy/misleading title :-) Never heard of Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS) or Gear Fabrication Syndrome (GFS), but I think it would be better to replace Gear with Gadget. From I saw with a quick search, GAS is heavily related to musicians, but I think this applies to all areas (photography, computing, astronomy...). A little bit off topic... Is it only me that finds the scrolling area of this page annoy…

Try calling a guitar a "gadget" to serious players or collectors. :-)
Post reply on HN