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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

#81

Post by Mindcraft »

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 think seeking value in hobbies is a problem, they don't need to have any inherent value for the hobbyist other than being fun. I say it is a problem because it leads to a kind of mentality where one seeks productivity and optimization of RoI in all things in life. You are allowed to enjoy thing for no other reason than being fun. That being said, I agree with you, but I feel this kind of thinking could lead to see others who just want to enjoy a hobby as less than me, and that's where I draw the line.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#82

Post by rubenv »

Not often you see simracing mentioned here!

For sure there are gains to be made by having proper material as opposed to entry level, but those quickly become marginal.

The biggest gains by far are usually found in working on your driving style. Have a look at telemetry of someone who's slightly faster and work out the differences methodologically.

Shameless self-promotion: if you're racing in iRacing, have a look at https://garage61.net, we have over 125 million laps of telemetry to learn from.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#83

Post by soco »

interroboink wrote: post #14
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 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 finally collected/hoarded/acquired all house improvement gear I ever thought I'd be able to use. And when I also get to use them - like once every 5 years if I'm lucky - I get such a satisfaction! So was I unhealthy or prepared? I even asked myself but as they're only occupying a cupboard I let myself breathe and wait for the next opportunity to polish a handle or drill a square hole.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#84

Post by saalweachter »

verve_rat wrote: post #48
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…

You see this a bit with hand tool woodworking. Some people will restore old tools (hand planes are a popular choice) and sell them on, some will keep then and claim they will use them some day, and others give up on making things and just collect the tools. All of the above is fine, learning the history of and techniques in restoring things is cool.

There's a bit of The Toolmaker's Dilemma in both woodworking and programming.

You can work on a project, or you can work on a tool to make that project easier. A work-station, a jig, a library, a pod orchestration framework. Sometimes the new thing you've made will make the target project easier; sometimes you go down a rabbit hole and forget the project you were supposed to be working on as you start designing a new language to write a library in to write a database with that would suit your new project a lot better than SQLite.

Open any wood-working magazine, and half the projects are workbenches and shop organization.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#85

Post by xattt »

bluescrn wrote: post #74
GuB-42 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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? Spen…

> If your 'gear acquisition' is getting you in debt, or excessively cluttering your home, you may have a problem.

Hoarding syndrome happens gradually. It may appear normal for a while to an outside observer, until it’s not.

I think the hallmark of problematic collection would be how much someone holds onto a device when physical constraints for their home are met.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#86

Post by prmoustache »

interroboink wrote: post #14
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 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…

> Nobody thinks of stamp collecting as a problematic hobby.

I do. About any collecting hobby. I view that more as an addiction than a hobby tbh.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#87

Post by prmoustache »

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.

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.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#89

Post by eternityforest »

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…

The wrong way to do a hobby is if it doesn't actually bring you or anyone else any happiness, which in extremely GAS/GFS cases seems to be possible.

An Oscilloscope is a pretty reasonable thing even for a beginner, it's totally unnecessary but it does make things easier, it's something you'll probably actually use.

I had GAS/GFS pretty bad when I first got into electronics. Most of the stuff I regret buying was all pretty simple though. Cables can be a real big offender. I hate nonstandard cables with obscure connectors because they take up so much space for one function!

Digital electronics is far easier and requires less parts, but analog can still be really light on parts.

Electronics GAS seems to come in the form of "Big ideas" driven by bulk discounts. It's easy to imagine yourself doing ten projects over the next few years, all using some common set of parts.

But then some new and better thing comes out, and your pile of XT60 extension cords you made is forgotten.

The problem got so bad for me that I pretty much just chose to stop messing with random parts and instead explore the limits of what can be done with extremely common stuff.

Like, one time I bought some RCA jacks because it seemed like a good idea to use for switch inputs and the like.

But 2.1mm power jacks are even more common, and I can use resistors to protect against accidentally plugging in a wall wart to a sensor port.

Everyone likes lab power supplies, but can I redesign my circuit to run on a USB-C breakout trigger module? I've already got phone chargers laying around.

0.1" headers aren't perfect. It's easy to mis-connect something. It's easy to come up with some new unified standard for using JST connectors that will make all your stuff compatible... but then you have a project that doesn't work well with it...

When I first saw a commercial install made of random Amazon modules, I thought "They shoulda made a PCB" and I had all these ideas.... but then I realized that when the random Amazon modules breaks, I can swap it in a few minutes, and fix it later if I want.

With a custom board, I can't fix it at all until I've first discovered how it works, which will probably take an hour just to find out what pin does what when the documentation is gone....

Now I mostly start every project with an ESP32 module and go from there!

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#90

Post by breckenedge »

Tabular-Iceberg wrote: post #30
Brian_K_White wrote: post #16

All 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.

I believe some Honda clutch pedals are floor mounted, at least on the TSX I drove. I really didn’t like the feel.
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