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> 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 hob

• ano-ther 3y ago
  That’s a creative re-framing. Sadly, the realization that you are not going to be a rockstar but a gear collector is likely to trigger a midlife crisis.
• omnibrain 3y ago
  > 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.
  • drewzero1 3y ago
    For a long time I was baffled by the seemingly unnecessary gizmos that are popular 3d print subjects, because to me 3d printing was just a means to an end. Eventually I realized that the printing itself is a hobby for a lot of printer people. Personally I like to use my printer to enable my other hobbies, but along the way I've picked up 3d design and printing as secondary hobbies.
    • drivers99 3y ago
      I designed a custom shape for something I needed for another hobby (holding a first-surface mirror at 45 degrees so I could try to learn to paint by copying) and that was really satisfying to learn 3d modeling and making a real object. I should probably do more things like that, such as making a robot or something.
    • bluGill 3y ago
      I have realized I already have more hobbies than i have time for. I do need parts to repair my other hobbies, I might get a 3d printer for that, but i'm thinking about using some printing service to make parts for me instead
      • marcosdumay 3y ago
        A good 3D printer isn't a very large time-sink. But it's only worth it if you have a reasonable number of those parts, or if lead-time is important. For most people designing stuff, led-time is essential, but not everybody that want some specific part designs it.
  • benj111 3y ago
    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.
    • omnibrain 3y ago
      That (and the at the time, in my personal opinion, superior to anything else Office 2010 with the improved tabbed interface) was the reason I went back to Windows. Nowadays most of the time I don't even bother to change the color scheme an set a background image. I just recently started to customise my Powershell profile. Let's see where this leads...
      • benj111 3y ago
        I'm still on Linux. I just use a premade Debian rather that selecting every single tiny piece. If I need to change things I can, I just don't feel I have to change everything.
    • crashmat 3y ago
      I think it depends on whether you can do stuff in the os even if it is not yet set up exactly perfectly. If so, then you can do stuff when you need to, and play with the os when you want to. But obviously some will be too distracted from doing anything such that that's still a bad idea.
    • epiccoleman 3y ago
      This mirrors my experience with emacs. I enjoyed tinkering with it but found I'd lose 30 minutes every time I thought "I bet I can make it do..." Nowadays I'm using Code with the Vim plugin and I haven't tinkered with my config for quite some time. Emacs is infinitely more powerful - but with Code I was able to set it up once and be done, and there's value in that too.
  • prmoustache 3y ago
    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.
    • LanceH 3y ago
      I don't know. I spent a couple years printing some parts at our library's maker space. The feedback loop is very, very slow. Having a 3d printer now, I can get a half dozen iterations on something done in a day and compared to a single iteration per day from the library. So if you're designing your own parts and can't draw them perfectly first go, having the printer is huge. Replacement battery covers for remote controls. If I value those at $200 each, I've broken even.
    • randomdata 3y ago
      > It is not cost effective to buy a 3d printer [...] just commission someone to do it If you are lucky enough to have a neighbour to do the commissioning, maybe, but otherwise shipping has gotten so expensive (at least in these parts), and 3D printers so cheap, that a getting few design iterations in your hands will practically buy you the printer.
  • LanceH 3y ago
    I just bought my first 3d printer a couple weeks ago. It was so tempting to pull up the benchmark and see what I could do. Instead I sat down, drafted something I wanted to make, and made. So my first print is something that sees daily use. My woodworking setup for my garage, however. Someday it will see use other than for organizing my woodworking setup in my garage. I just need that one more tool. And to build a place to put it.
• interroboink 3y ago
  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 to keep saving them, though — for some imagined future. I wouldn't say "I enjoy collecting yogurt containers," though. I'm no hoarder, but I do feel a certain pull/compulsion in that direction from time to time, and I could see the same being true elsewhere. It's not always easy to know whether I'm scratching an itch or worrying at it.
  • thih9 3y ago
    I feel like presenting yourself as a collector could work at most as an excuse for concerned friends and family. A person with GAS does not enjoy collecting; they do end up collecting, but it's a side effect.
  • TrapLord_Rhodo 3y ago
    There's a difference between collecting and preserving. Saving your old yogurt containers for a future use, is the later. In the same way you could save coffee grounds for growing mushrooms, Jars for growing sprouts, etc. Buying artificially scarce dead trees isn't really the same.
  • ramses0 3y ago
    Late reply, but... I'm with you on this one! Reduce/Re-Use/Recycle, washing glass spaghetti jars, etc. What I've come to the conclusion is the following guidelines/rules: 1) "Save _all_ the things!" Yeah, save them, use them, etc. 2) Use it or lose it: I have a space under the sink for washed/clean plastic containers. If that gets too junky, it's time to throw them out in the trash, offer them "free" on craigslist/facebook marketplace, your neighborhood group, whatever. 3) Regularize: we've ended up with strict "use cases" after saving "_all_ the things!". Sour cream containers become waste-grease-buckets for the freezer. Glass spaghetti jars become candy/cookie containers. Peanut-butter-jars become nail/screw holders in the garage. 4) Limit the flow: Once you "run out of space", keep only one or two "on hand" if it's a particular type of jar that you know you will "flow through". Basically you should reach a steady-state of using the stuff you're saving rather than growing your "cache" unbounded. Unless it's a really useful/valuable/unique type of box/jar/product, get rid of it! Even if it's awesome (but unique), probably get rid of it, b/c it'll end up being "the odd one out" unless you have a really specific need for it. 5) re-Regularize: is there a certain type/brand of spaghetti-jars that are soooo awesome, because they fit on a shelf, have the right size opening, etc. etc.? Start consolidating around one particular type (as you "flow through" them) and getting rid of the oddball ones. 6) Front-door, back-door: Put things by the front door if they're going to be given away, sold, donated, etc. Put things by the back door if they're destined for the trash. Make those decisions and then take action on them as you can. There's a lot of value in saving some of this "stuff" from the waste-stream, and lots of pleasure to have all your other "stuff" organized in solid plastic containers (that you ended up kindof paying "nothing" for)... just don't fall victim to the "save everything", instead know that you can just "stretch out your hand" and grab the things you need _when_ you need them, not _if_ you need them. :-)
• Cthulhu_ 3y ago
  To add, the gear mentioned in hobbies like this will often hold its value; they're well built tools, often not mass produced, and well looked after. Source: I wanted a set of the Volca electronic instruments, but the secondhand market was not significantly cheaper than new.
• deleted 3y ago
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• Almondsetat 3y ago
  > 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.
  • wodenokoto 3y ago
    I think I'm saying that collecting stuff isn't a deeply rooted psychological problem.
    • Someone 3y ago
      I think it’s deeply rooted, but only a problem because we live such safe lives. It started as a deeply rooted necessity. If you want to get through a winter that you don’t know the severity of, you better have above-average stocks of food and wood, plus stuff to repair your home if a severe storm strikes, plus extra winter clothing in case the winter is truly severe or your house burns down, and you’ve got to flee to your family, a few days walking away.
    • gilleain 3y ago
      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.
      • Paul-Craft 3y ago
        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.
• eternityforest 3y ago
  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.
  • starcraft2wol 3y ago
    Some of us like to program
    • eternityforest 3y ago
      Programming random small toy stuff that catches your interest is fun, as is making something you really believe is useful. But when you design a project I a way that's not appropriate for your resources, and it becomes an overwhelming pile of bugs, because you tried to do something really complex and reinvent 20 different wheels, it's less fun, unless you can polish it up to be like what you imagined, but that could take years depending on how crazy your idea was.
  • blechinger 3y ago
    Waste is part of life. Especially waste as a byproduct of good faith attempts. Is it better to avoid creating waste? Yes, however; perfection is the enemy of progress, no one is clairvoyant, and best is conditional anyway. My point is: you didn't do anything wrong. The mere fact you're thinking about it reveals you've grown wiser for the experience. Kudos, friend. Thanks for sharing.
  • klabb3 3y ago
    > 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?
  • 3y ago
• verve_rat 3y ago
  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.
  • saalweachter 3y ago
    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.
    • slowmovintarget 3y ago
      Every time a bell rings, another programmer has written an editor.
  • drewzero1 3y ago
    I occasionally pick up old hand tools at rummage sales, estate sales, etc. just because I like the look of them, but have found that I enjoy cleaning up and using them too. I have an old cherrywood level that is a decoration in the house, but when I need to hang a shelf or a picture it's very handy to have a perfectly good level hiding in plain sight. I always thought old hand tools were kind of crap to use though until I cleaned up an old block plane and sharpened the blade. With a sharpened blade it made incredibly satisfying curls of wood on my next woodworking project, where I would have normally used my loud and unpleasant belt sander. I think I get it now why some people really love collecting old tools.
• thih9 3y ago
  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.
• jcpst 3y ago
  GAS is often a side-effect of developing certain hobbies in a consumer-centric environment. I feel like myself and my friends are aware of this. GAS is the syndrome, and we talk about it to help keep ourselves in check and not lose sight of what we’re actually doing.
• pimlottc 3y ago
  I read somewhere once that for every community of hobbyists, there's 4 main types of activities enthusiasts engage in: 1. Doing the thing 2. Talking about doing the thing 3. Getting into the gear for doing the thing (collecting, building, customizing) 4. Talking about the gear for doing the thing Very often, the first group is the smallest!
  • bigbluesax 3y ago
    That's an interesting way of looking at it, it's not just different from person to person but also from hobby to hobby. For me climbing is mainly about 1, but on reflection I defnitely spend more time talking about competative games than actually playing. I can also think of a few people who have hobbies that focus around 3 and 4.
  • swayvil 3y ago
    There's a higher evolution of this seen in certain religious circles. Where any mention of "doing the thing" is reviled, called "impossible", "sinful" even. Any discussion of technique banned from the conversation. So what they do is the other 3, and wait for a random bolt of lightning, or a favorable judgment from the inscrutable supreme authority, or even declare that the "doing" is in fact the "talking etc". It's an interesting bit of psychology for sure.