12 ms·

Gear Acquisition Syndrome

138 points by fhars 2y ago

rqtwteye 2y ago
It's a big problem for photographers too. Especially with the rapid progress of mirrorless cameras there is always the next camera or lens you need to get. I have bought lenses and never used them. I have also spent more time on looking for accessories for my 3D printer than actually using it. Not sure how to combat GAS. I feel for people with a full time job it somehow compensates for the lack of time working on one's hobbies
- frabert 2y ago
  My explanation is quite simple: cool toys are cool, and they give us the illusion of being better at our hobbies than we actually are. I sometimes indulge in some Gear Acquisition too -- but I try to be cognizant of the fact that if not done carefully, it only leads to a short-term happiness kick which quickly leads to another episode of GAS.
- tlhunter 2y ago
  On the bright side I sometimes sell used camera gear for more than I bought it. A combo body and lens can sell more than the items separately if marketed correctly and when including sample photos. That said, I still haven't bought a new camera body.
- ehmmmmmmmm 2y ago
  I've been there as well. In reality 99% of the time you don't need new gear. However there is also a delicate balance where a new piece of gear makes you excited to go out and do your hobby more and it's that going out more than makes you get better at it.
- throwanem 2y ago
  I avoid GAS pretty easily by the application of a simple method I've developed over years as a hobbyist photographer: Be Aware of Non-Optimality. That is, in bearing in mind there is no benefit to the expenditure of resources to obtain equipment that by itself will not meaningfully improve my practice - and too, that having gear I do not use will make me regret its purchase, further diverging from an optimal state - I find myself no longer with the urge to replace a perfectly serviceable DSLR with a mirrorless that may be newer, but is not really all that much better at capturing the exposures I care to make. I'm probably not explaining it as well as I might, but I am happy nonetheless to say I've found my GAS very reliably cured by BeAN-O.
  - etrautmann 2y ago
    the opposite is also true however. I've been attempting to combat GAS by avoiding a home data server. In reality, I've been needing a NAS for a number of years and have changed my photography practice due to limitations and challenges with dealing with extra data. I just solved this and it's been liberating.
    - Retr0id 2y ago
      I solve my photography storage needs by treating SD cards as write-once consumables. When a card fills up, I just buy another one.
      - ta988 2y ago
        Digital Photograph Acquidition Syndrome
      - rqtwteye 2y ago
        That would get super expensive if you shoot things like airshows, birds in flight or sports where you can easily shoot 2000 images or more in one day. Or 4K video.
        Retr0id 2y ago
        2000 images fits on about $3 worth of SD card, depending on resolution. Less than the time cost of going through and deciding which to delete.
        rqtwteye 2y ago
        I guess it depends on your equipment. 2000*50MB gets you up to 100GB. A decent 128GB card costs you from $20 up. A card that's capable of fast bursts can cost around $100.
- porphyra 2y ago
  Yeah lmao I spent tens of thousands of dollars on my medium format Fujifilm GFX system. It just needs a couple more lenses then it will be perfected and I won't have to buy another piece of gear ever again!
  - rqtwteye 2y ago
    I think a Hasselblad would enrich your life
- hereonout2 2y ago
  > I feel for people with a full time job it somehow compensates for the lack of time working on one's hobbies I identify with this. Have full time job, some disposable income, a few hobbies but no real time for them. This has led to a lot of gear acquisition, buying tools or equipment that are beyond my level of expertise and I don't have time to make the most of. I guess there's worse things to burn money on but does feel like if I had more time to actually do hobbies I'd discover I can get by with far fewer gadgets.
- klodolph 2y ago
  Amateur photographers often cover a lot more types of photography than pros, which makes GAS even worse. A pro might specialize in sports photography and buy some nice long lenses with fast autofocus. Or they might specialize in portraiture and get a nice wide-open 90mm equivalent. Or architectural photography, and get a tilt-shift lens. For some reason, a lot of amateur photographers will dabble in many different types of photography, each with their own demands on equipment.
- JoelMcCracken 2y ago
  I feel this quite a bit. When I was young, I had a ton of time and no money to acquire the needed equipment. Now, I finally have the money to get basically whatever I need within reason, but no time to use it. I am typically able to resist the urge to succumb to GAS, but I don't always. I still have an incomplete atreus (http://atreus.technomancy.us/ http://atreus.technomancy.us/) in my basement; I set it aside when I bought a house, and haven't had time to revisit it since.
- bborud 2y ago
  The good thing about lenses is that if you buy good lenses, they usually retain a lot of value, so you can sell them. And it isn't like you have to use them all the time. For instance, I rarely use my macro lens. And that's okay. But having it means that the 1-2 times per year I need it, I have it.
- Retr0id 2y ago
  I (partially) sidestep this by buying gear that's already well behind the curve.
- kelnos 2y ago
  > Not sure how to combat GAS What works decently well for me is to avoid advertising like the plague. Adblock everything: browser, DNS, anywhere I can do it. Disable targeted advertising wherever I can't outright block it, if that's an option. Avoid visiting websites where there's a lot of advertisement disguised as news or useful content; often enthusiast websites on whatever your hobby is will have a lot of that, so find better sites. Don't watch regular TV with commercials. Only use streaming services, and always pay for the ad-free versions. "That's so expensive," you say? Not when you consider how much crap you'll buy when you're bombarded with advertising all the time. You can never eliminate all advertising from your life, but the less you expose yourself to, the better. Adopt a mindset that ads are a form of psychological manipulation (because they are), and make yourself hate them. That alone will make you somewhat less susceptible to it (or at least I like to think so). Be deliberate about purchases. Seek out things that you know you want because you want them; don't buy stuff because you saw it featured somewhere.
- dimatura 2y ago
  I haven't dabbled much in photography lately, but when I was active in it, budget was a strong constraint. These days my GAS is mostly for synths and budget is less of a constraint, thanks to the full time job you alluded to. I think this phenomenon of having money but no time leading to GAS is pretty common, from what I've seen. In my case, I often avoid it by challenging myself to use whatever I have at hand to try to recreate what I'd be getting with the new gear. Its often a fun exercise even if I don't succeed.
- NikkiA 2y ago
  I'm still on my A7R2, it still works great, and while I sometimes wistfully think about the ultrasonic wiggly massive resolution mode (700Mpix or something) on the A7R4, I cannot in any way justify upgrading. OTOH, I also bemoan the loss of my 70s OM1n 20 years ago.
jeffreyrogers 2y ago
Happens for pretty much every hobby with expensive equipment: telescopes, bikes, guns, etc.
- awelxtr 2y ago
  Chinese retroconsoles aren't that expensive but some "collectors" have a serious case of GAS If you dont believe me check r/SBCgaming
cwenham 2y ago
I do this for electronics; Parts, Materials and Kit. I don't buy PMK because I think it'll make me more skilled, I do it because I want to. I have noticed, however, that when I've got something physically, and can examine it and play with it, then it becomes like a new word in mental vocabulary that I can think with.
- leptons 2y ago
  I look at my electronic parts collection like a chef looks at their spice rack. But I'm often a victim of laziness - I just bought some more transistors because I couldn't find the transistors of the same kind that I know I have somewhere. It's easier to just buy some more parts on Amazon and have them delivered tomorrow than it would be to search every single place the parts I know I have could be. As a result, I have too many electronic parts. I'll probably donate some of it to a local high school eventually.
peppertree 2y ago
Is there a study on the guilt that comes with over acquiring gears.
Swizec 2y ago
There are 3 hobbies: 1. Doing the thing 2. Talking about the thing 3. Nerding about the gear for the thing Every activity has a mix of all 3 types of folk. It’s ok to be in it for the gear if that gets your juices flowing. Sellers love you.
- rcarmo 2y ago
  3D printing is a mix of 1. and 3., but recursive.
dce 2y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEkhJoaUhFI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEkhJoaUhFI
pengaru 2y ago
aka consumerism
- kelnos 2y ago
  At first glance your comment looks low-effort and flippant, but it's really the crux of the matter. Our economy only works if people buy things. Especially things they don't need. Advertising is only getting more and more pervasive and intrusive, and our purchasing habits are tracked, cataloged, and categorized in order to better market things to us.
TrackerFF 2y ago
Me being a guitarist, I probably spent a solid 10 years buying and selling guitars. Thousands, literally. Some weeks I'd get a guitar in the mail, check it out for an hour, then list it, and sell it the same day. I have a friend that goes through the same deal with pedals. Luckily I started experiencing some serious "burnout" - where I could no longer feel any dopamine rush from getting new gear. In the end I had two good guitars that I played on for 5 years, and nothing else - I had little desire to buy something else, but it might also have been due to me becoming more interested in other things. Now that I'm building a small home recording studio, I'm starting to feel the burn again. And I guess I've had some small relapse with the guitars, as I currently have 20 excellent guitars in my house...I could, and should, sell everything but a few. The worst thing is that you stop progressing as a musician, because all the buying and selling steals your time and focus.
- create-account 2y ago
  Yeah that’s the beauty of consumerism. No matter what your hobby is, there are hundreds of different leisure products for you to acquire and stockpile on top of those of your previous hobby (whose accessories you had acquired)
rcarmo 2y ago
The GAS is real. I'm surrounded by music gadgets that I seldom have time (and these days, the proper state of mind) to enjoy, and I keep looking (and building) more.
kimbernator 2y ago
I think every hobby that involves equipment has some version of this. I feel like we've been conditioned to believe that consumption of a product is equivalent to participation in that hobby, mostly because the biggest "reward" we get from it is often the appearance of having varied interests and appearing to the layman like you know what you're doing because you have the "nice" stuff. Broad strokes, if you don't enjoy doing something with shitty gear you probably won't enjoy it with nice gear, either. And if you do enjoy it with shitty gear, you should spend enough time with said shitty gear to understand why you would need something nicer and be thoughtful about your upgrades.
- qup 2y ago
  I have a lot of hobbies, and I would say several of them are not fun with shitty gear. Sometimes quality gear makes the entry process far, far less painful.
  - SonOfLilit 2y ago
    One exception is rock climbing. I've been pressuring everyone around me to get off of rental shoes already, it makes the experience so much less painful and more pleasant...
    - Filligree 2y ago
      Rock-climbing with shitty gear sounds less like a matter of enjoyment, and more like one of survival.
      - ip26 2y ago
        The difference between nice and average gear in rock climbing is pretty slim. A few grams, smooth action on the moving parts... it's also primarily a failsafe, so it's inherently obvious that it won't help you climb dramatically better, any more than a nicer parachute will help you fly a plane better. There's also a long tradition of the strongest climbers you know climbing on mank (i.e. safety gear so ragged it is terrifying to behold)
drblastoff 2y ago
I’ve fallen victim to this, though perhaps fortunately with digital synth plugins that take up no physical space. This is related to another problem of mine: ignoring things I’m naturally good at, and fixating on things I’m naturally bad at. In this case, I have no real musical talent, can’t play instruments in rhythm, can’t arrange a song, and I’ve nevertheless been pursuing this in my spare time for a decade with no results. Sometimes I buy new gear thinking it will help, but people with musical talent can do much more with much less. On the other hand, I showed promise for visual arts but never pursued it. My frustration with being bad at something seems to overpower my desire to be really good at something.
- qup 2y ago
  I do a similar thing. I like learning new things so much, I spend most of my time on new skills that I perform poorly, instead of using & continuing to hone my expert-level skills.
- jimmyjazz14 2y ago
  Honestly most of the time the second I get good at something is when it stops being fun, I think this is pretty normal.
- sirsinsalot 2y ago
  You don't need to be good at something to do it. What is good or bad anyway? It's comparison with others. If you enjoy it, it doesn't matter if you're good or bad at it, if joy itself is the aim. If your aim isn't joy, but success, then of course you'll lack joy. It is very liberating to do something, knowing you're "bad" at it, but doing it only for enjoyment.
  - dingnuts 2y ago
    I relate strongly to the comment you're replying to, and I can tell you that it's very frustrating to have a vision of something you want to create and be unable despite struggling towards that goal for a long time. It has nothing to do with other people. My art doesn't live up to my own standards. That's frustrating as hell! It's not a simple as comparison to others -- who cares about them if I just can't seem to create the sound I want to create?
nlnn 2y ago
Whenever I've had this for a hobby, it's always been when I've had more time to think about the hobby than do the hobby. So this happened more when I had long commutes, so plenty of time to read about new gear, discuss gear on forums, think about gear, etc. When my commuting ended, I had more time to do things, and the lack of engagement with new things coming out mostly put a stop to it.
alsetmusic 2y ago
Haha. I called a friend and told him I'd been diagnosed with G.A.S. 20 years ago. He sounded really serious when he said he was sorry to hear that. I told him the acronym and said I'm headed to the music shop to buy a synthesizer and would he like to join. I'm glad computers have become so powerful because now I can emulate that same synth in software (Korg MS20) and much more.
n3storm 2y ago
Same happens to me on so differentes areas like: arts, drawing, painting and sculpting. And reptile and insect raising: ants and geckos. I have more stuff and tools for future projects that will ever be able to use in 10 years. Realising this thanks to an HN post a year ago I stopped completely acquiring new gear and started finishing projects. Sometimes a get a cheap sketchbook though I had several ones unused :P
- munificent 2y ago
  I'm into several hobbies and something people point out often in all of them is that collecting stuff for a hobby and using stuff for a hobby are actually separate hobbies. There are synthesizer collectors, and electronic musicians. You can be one or the other or both. I think the important part is having the self-awareness to know which you are and make sure your choices are in line with that. If you want to make electronic music but keeping buying new synths without mastering the ones you already have, then the gear acquisition is interfering with your own goals. But if you just like having a bunch of synths and you can afford it, by all means.
- blackkat 2y ago
  Do you happen to recall the post in particular that helped you with this realization?
vunderba 2y ago
Since I don't possess the necessary self discipline, the next best thing to minimizing GAS is to put your money in a place where it's not very liquid - for me that's immediately moving any disposable income into index funds. It's the fiscal equivalent of not stocking your larder with junk food.
- javier123454321 2y ago
  The corollary to that is to give yourself a guilt free allowance for spending within your overall budget. Especially for me and my partner with combined finances, having this strict separation with no visibility or judgement about it is key.
kerkeslager 2y ago
This isn't limited to music. When I worked in NYC and didn't have time to rock climb much, I bought a ton of rock climbing gear--much of it niche equipment that I've never used. Eventually I realized that this was just a stand-in for actually climbing: I believed that my job was enabling me to rock climb by funding my trips and buying my gear, but the reality was that I was stagnating as a rock climber, because most of my climbing time was at the gym, and that was low-quality time because my job was sapping all my time and energy. On the rare times I could take a few days off, I wasn't in the shape I wanted to be and spent a lot of the trip figuring out how to climb on real rock again since I mostly climbed on plastic. Buying gear was a way to feel like I was making some progress as a climber, because I had the gear to do more things, but the reality was that I wasn't. I wish I could say I took some agency and started my freelance business, but the reality is that I sort of stumbled into freelance work, and my business started itself. But I did move to a rock climbing area, and eventually moved into a van, and I'm lucky to be able to climb outdoors >3 days a week now (not full days most of the time, but still). In a way, the GAS period of my life set me up for this well, because now I pretty much never need to make any big purchases--I occasionally have to replace an item that wears out but for the most part I have everything I need. I did also buy a lot of guitar-related gear when I was buying rock climbing gear. That I've mostly sold: all I have at this point is my acoustic guitar, a capo, and a few picks. Again this coincided with me actually playing a lot more guitar, and realizing that I'm really only doing it for myself and only want to do finger-picky acoustic stuff anyway.
BoredPositron 2y ago
I am a photographer, drone pilot, and mountain bike rider, so it looks like hobbies with "gear acquisition syndrome" built-in are my opium. What's funny is that most of the expensive gear I bought before the inflation spiral I have now sold for quite a profit. There are also some pretty big youtube channels that talk up older digital camera models and I am 90% sure they are doing it to dump some excess inventory. You get cameras from around 2010 that are selling close to new camera prices...
flanbiscuit 2y ago
Site wasn't loading for me (front page of HN DDOS effect) so here's wayback machine snapshot from today: http://web.archive.org/web/20240807161556/https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/48282 http://web.archive.org/web/20240807161556/https://library.oa... I lightly "suffer" from this in both music and non-music hobbies. I bought the Analogue Pocket with the base that connects to a TV but I've played one game on it and that's it. I've bought gameboy mod carts to make Chiptunes music but I've never performed or even regularly sit down and try and make music, I just like the potential of it. I bought that Pocket CHIP a while back thinking I was going to use it for something (PICO-8 games maybe?), but now it just gathers dust. My current gear obsession is travel gear, thanks to Reddit's OneBag community. I'm going on a 16 day trip soon and I wanted to only have carry-on so I've spent hundreds of dollars on quality merino wool clothing and new travel backpack. Granted, this is probably the most practical of all my purchases because I will use it more often than the video game devices gathering dust. But I also could have just sucked it up and taken the clothing I already own and figured it out. https://www.analogue.co/pocket https://www.analogue.co/pocket https://shop.pocketchip.co/collections/frontpage/products/pocket-c-h-i-p-new https://shop.pocketchip.co/collections/frontpage/products/po... https://www.reddit.com/r/onebag/ https://www.reddit.com/r/onebag/
- flanbiscuit 2y ago
  Speaking of G.A.S., I just noticed that post about the new Teenage Engineering device: "Medieval". It's US$ 300 and very tempting. But I know I won't do anything with it so I won't buy it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41176831 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41176831 https://teenage.engineering/store/ep-1320/ https://teenage.engineering/store/ep-1320/
  - jdkee 2y ago
    Thanks, that TE link just made me buy one.
PUSH_AX 2y ago
The timing of this post is great. As I sit here considering buying the latest teenage engineering offering.
recursive 2y ago
And after acquiring a specific piece of music gear to produce every conceivable sound, I'm actually less productive than I was before, because of the paradox of choice. Constraints breed creativity. I think I've basically cured my musical GAS.
atoav 2y ago
I am a musician. Among most musicians I know know I am also one of those with the least obsession with gear. Gear is just that. Gear. Much of the sound in musical gear doesn't correlate with price. Sure when it comes to recording gear and studio equipment price tends to correlate with reliability, but we are living in truly magical times. I gifted my brother a 160 Euro Harley Benton (Thomann's budget brand for guitars etc) Telecaster clone. That guitar in sound and playability easily could be the last guitar I would have bought. Amplifiers are similar. Now I am playing the electrical guitar for 20 years and I online one electrial guitar. A heavily modded US strat that I bought 15 years ago. Now the main difference between me and my peers is that I am a sound nerd and electronics afficionado — that means if I want to get towards a sound I know how to get there. And this is the crux. Many people (especially guitar players) chase some sort of sound that they never achieve, because they can't tell which part of the physical world maps to which part of the sound they get. Depending on the style of music a lot of it in the end is in the fingers. But you can't buy enter fingers, you can just train. But that doesn't give you a dopamine boost. For all people with GAS I recommend that less is more. Get to know ow your shit. It is capable of great sounds. You just need to put in the work.
- WWLink 2y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnvYSKshvwc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnvYSKshvwc There's at least a few guitar youtubers who played that "which electric guitar am I playing?" game. I think you can pretty easily make almost any sound from any electric guitar lol.
  - atoav 2y ago
    Yeah, especially if you don't take the strings and pickups/electronics as they are.
hannibalekta 2y ago
I reached out to someone to buy a second hand saxophone mouthpiece today that one of my favourite players uses. I already own 4, 2 of them masterfully refaced. I play for 26 years and know that only practicing makes me better, not gear. I’m on vacation and don’t even have an instrument. It’s pure GAS for no good reason. Shame on me.
jerlam 2y ago
I think of myself as resistant to the pull of advertising and gear acquisition, but I've developed a related problem. When I find something that I like, I want to buy multiples of it, even if there is a very low chance that I'll wear the item out or lose it, and it may become unusable in that time. I've had many objects in my life that I thought were great, and then they become unavailable and I spend an inordinate amount of time searching for them, even though what I have still works fine. Because my brain says "What happens when it breaks?" and then I have to settle for something new and inferior. I bought a travel backpack ten years ago. It was an unusual design, but I understood its benefits and liked it immensely. Most people did not, so after the first year it was redesigned and then discontinued. I do not know if I can get anything similar to it again, and I doubt the company will repair it. When I now see other bags that are similar but still not as good, they are significantly more expensive (because of inflation) and I regret not buying several at the time. Even though mine still works great.
- myself248 2y ago
  Same, but I don't consider it a problem. If I find that I love a product, I'll buy a spare. If it turns out that I think the successor product is better, I'll buy that and simply sell my spare to someone with the opposite opinion.
- twic 2y ago
  This only seems like a problem if you struggle to afford these purchases, or lack space for the spares. Otherwise, it's mildly eccentric but sensible.
- bborud 2y ago
  The problem is that it usually takes me a while to realize that something is good. Not least because I like durable things and ... well, it takes time to determine if something is durable. I bought my favorite jacket 12 years ago in Tokyo. A very neutral/timeless thing. After 3 years the jacket still looked like new. Although I had worn it almost every day for 3 years. I searched for it online and found one for sale. On eBay. Used. And the wrong size. If I had known the jacket was that good I would have bought 2-3 more. I still use it. It still looks almost new. Fantastic garment.
Karellen 2y ago
I seem to have anti-GAS. I've got a 5-year old phone (thanks Apple for maintaining OS security support for my model for so long!), a 3-year old laptop I'm not planning on replacing any time soon, and the non-computer based hobbies I've managed to stick with for any length of time are running and bouldering, where the only gear you really need for both are appropriate shoes. And I only have one pair of shoes for each. Yeah, I've got some light, breathable, non-chafing clothing that makes both less unpleasant to do, but I couldn't tell you with 100% certainty what brand they are, or exactly what they're made of. And I have a bottle of liquid chalk, whatever they were selling in the gym the last time I needed to get some more. But I'm not on Strava or whatever, and I don't track my per-km splits or my heart rate/zone or elevation gained or cadence. I'll time a whole run with a $20 Casio wrist/stopwatch, and sometimes calculate an average pace, but that's about it. Not that I'm particularly good at running or bouldering, but I'm enjoying doing both at the level I'm currently at, so that's fine. Anyway, any hobby that requires a bunch of gear is just a turn-off for me. The more gear I'd need, the more I want to give it a wide berth. Computer software I love to nerd out on. But everything else? Hardware? That's a break from the nerdery for me.
- tayo42 2y ago
  Some of my hobbies I'm like this. I actually think it's been a detriment in one case where I hit a skill wall without realizing until years later. I just convinced my self I suck for to long, and the problem actually was the equipment for to long.
hawthorned7 2y ago
I'm always seeking out new gear because I love finding new sounds. I also went to school for classical piano and can play pretty well. Does a chef that likes finding new spices have GAS? Def a joke in there but for real. There are certain sounds that can only be found in vintage analog synths for instance. Of course there are always samples but there are also samples of cellos and violins. But they will never compare to actually playing the real instrument so therefore I must buy them alllll.
nottorp 2y ago
I know someone who does this with mountain gear.
bobjordan 2y ago
I expect this can be abstracted and include other fields, too. My particular affliction has included electronic lab equipment. Like, did I really need that specialized tool to measure and verify the performance of my oscilloscope? Did I really need the second oscilloscope on my bench? I'm rarely involved in RF, but I have a spectrum analyzer collecting dust now. Etc...
- myself248 2y ago
  No, but if you join a makerspace and help fortify their electronics lab, you get to help other people make use of those instruments. This means you get to share in the satisfaction when they succeed, because you were the nudge that got them past some block, for a lot less actual work on your part! ;)
davidw 2y ago
I think a lot of businesses kind of thrive on selling the dream. Like how much gear bought at REI is really pushed to the limit for outdoor pursuits vs worn around town? I love shopping there and looking around and daydreaming about being out in the woods. It's not really an indictment of the businesses, it's just sort of human nature.
- katbyte 2y ago
  It sucks for us who do push gear. I’m constantly breaking things because I’m well, using them. Anytime u have to buy something it involves hours of research to determine “is this a real quality product or a shitty one marketed as quality”, or “has it changed owners and now rubbish” I don’t mind paying for quality gear at all. It just needed to be quality
- WalterSear 2y ago
  I shop there because the obesity epidemic has made it too hard to find pants in my size at other stores.
woolion 2y ago
I just discovered GAS therapy [0], as there was some controversy about the OP-1 pricing (also from Teenage Engineering). To summarize both sides, software is pretty cheap and limitless. Device are limited which can spark creativity by constraints, their tactile form factor feel great, and their portable nature can be a great advantage. However, there are other arguments that typically revolve around how "software cannot replicate vintage sounds" where the holy wars really begin. Nobody has ever proven that, but the myth endures. Recently enough [1] showed all that basically with an eq, a compressor and a distortion you can reproduce any vintage amp sound, you just need to know how it deviates from a flat sound response. How expensive the vintage or high-end hardware is might be a deterrent for some but a very attractive proposition for others. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU8alMWUmDI&pp=ygULZ2FzIHRoZXJhcHk%3D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU8alMWUmDI&pp=ygULZ2FzIHRoZ... [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcBEOcPtlYk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcBEOcPtlYk
doe_eyes 2y ago
It's funny to see it framed in the context of music when it's a pretty universal behavior, essentially limited only by how many cool upgrades exist for a particular hobby. It's a particularly common affliction for photographers (better cameras, better lens, studio lighting, etc), but the same happens in lo-tech fields - say, woodworking (check out my premium chisels!) or even lawn care. In most hobbies, it's just a money sink. It is uniquely destructive in photography because if you have too much gear, you can't carry it around and you end up missing out on shots.
- ibejoeb 2y ago
  Rock climbers, man. Total gearheads.
  - jajko 2y ago
    Maybe if they do alpinism too, or trad climbing. But it can also be just a neat little pile worth less than 500$
    - AlotOfReading 2y ago
      You might be able to squeeze in a nut set and a couple quickdraws after you spend $400 of that on the rope, shoes, and harness.
      - KittenInABox 2y ago
        If you're into bouldering, you can just get a crashpad and shoes.
- Retr0id 2y ago
  I've been getting into photography lately, and early on I was able to carry around my whole gear collection at once. It was an interesting new dimension when I started having to make decisions about what to take and what to leave behind.
- dimatura 2y ago
kirth_gersen 2y ago
This sounds like another guise of fear of missing out. You can't do X without gear Y. However, your brain doesn't realize there are other constraints on realistically doing X; free time, energy, creative spark, etc. But at least buying Y feels like a concrete step towards doing X and modern society has made it VERY easy to buy things. So, you buy Y and promise yourself you'll do X...someday.
- dwaltrip 2y ago
  Yeah it’s a way to feel like making progress without doing the hard work of practicing and developing your skills. Easy trap to fall into. With most hobbies, a beginner will benefit far more from just doing projects / practicing than buying expensive high-end gear. It’s also the only way to find if you actually want to pursue the new interest. Which is very good to do before spending lots of cash.
johnohara 2y ago
Seems to me GAS is nuanced by the type of musical instrument acquired. The syndrome may be less severe with piano and harp players than it is with guitar, and electric bass players. Although, it may extend to excessive acquisitions of sheet music and books on musical theory. Single kit exceptions may include drummers and xylophone players. This syndrome is very evident in high-performance vehicle markets where there seems to be no end to the modifications one can make to go faster, sound louder, or look cooler.
- bborud 2y ago
  You forgot synthesizers. And I'm not even a good player :-)
- giobox 2y ago
  My experience with guitar collectors is that is often easier to collector guitars than practice and get good at the instrument, and I include myself in this statement. The guitar is so accessible and available at retail so widely, its not surprising to me it attracts collectors perhaps more so than a harp or a piano. Plus the guitar has a very strong connection to modern pop music, which surely helps drive its appeal.
- WWLink 2y ago
  > The syndrome may be less severe with piano and harp players than it is with guitar, and electric bass players. Have you ever seen Liberace's collection? Hehe. If you have enough money and space you can collect pianos as well.
jrsdav 2y ago
“I'm really not that fussy — I think it's more important to make the best use of what you have. I don't like to walk into a studio, lay down the law, and say, 'I must have this, otherwise I cannot continue with the session.' I'm not like that. I prefer to be more, 'What have you got? Let's see what we can do with that.' I hate spending inordinate amounts of time just playing with a sound, trying different pieces of equipment, and different mics and that stuff. Let's get the job done. Let's make a record. The whole process of recording is one big experiment in itself." - Alan Parsons
twic 2y ago
A flip side of GAS is that the market optimises for gear acquirers. A decent square taper bottom bracket is perfectly good for 99% of cyclists, and maintenance free for a decade or more. But gear acquirers are only interested in the latest and greatest ultra-stiff super-light external bearing BBs, so now square taper is dead except at the cheapest, shittiest grades. Which means that i, as someone who just wants my cranks to go round, am forced to enter their world.
- sudosysgen 2y ago
  I agree with you regarding press fit BBs, but aren't externally threaded BBs also better for casual cyclists and more reliable? I don't care in the slightest about BB stiffness and weight, but I would much rather have a BSA threaded external BB. That way if something happens and I need to change my cranks (or god forbid, bearings) I don't have to worry about needing a specialized crank puller or anything like that, an Allen key is enough, and I never have to worry about stripping my cranks, and I never have to worry about my cranks falling out and marring from the bolt getting loose. Something like an ISIS spline two/three piece crank that's either self extracting or bolted like Shimano MTB cranks is perfect. Simple, cheap, no specialized tools needed, and no risk of catastrophic failure. And I'll never need to repack the bearings ever again. Plus, as someone who lives in a place where they salt the roads, I'd much rather deal with a rusty threaded external bearing BB than a square taper that might never come out of the frame.
  - twic 2y ago
    The bearings in external bottom brackets are much less well protected, and so more vulnerable to water and dust and so on. That means they need to be regreased or replaced more often. I see people talking about doing that monthly, annually, whatever. I have been riding the same square taper bottom bracket since 2012, and it's doing fine. The square taper per se may not be as good as a bolted spline or something. It is annoying to need a crank puller, but for me, it's been something i need once every five years or so, so not much of a problem in practice. So, compared to external bearing bottom brackets, a small disadvantage that buys you a big advantage. I have no opinion about the splined internal bottom brackets!
blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
I only learned of this phrase recently but now I see it mentioned everywhere. Isn’t there a word for this phenomenon? Or is it actually a new concept that is spreading virally or something?
- aspenmayer 2y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion > The frequency illusion (also known as the Baader–Meinhof phenomenon) is a cognitive bias in which a person notices a specific concept, word, or product more frequently after recently becoming aware of it.
vincnetas 2y ago
i call this "gadget feever". Phones, computers, accesories etc. With age i recognise it within me better and better, but have spent lots of time and money for this.
Fomite 2y ago
This is all over my hobby, miniature wargaming. "If I just get this brush, or this new line of paints, I'll be good at painting..."
sandworm101 2y ago
Rock Climbing. Trad/aid climbing. Hundreds of pounds of gear. All manner of little twists of metal on loops of string or webbing. Ropes. Harnesses. Shoes. Bespoke ascender rigs. Bags of various belay devices. Some of it is expensive, costing hundred of dollars a piece. Other stuff is dirt cheap. Once you buy that second rurp, then you are an addict.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
flyinghamster 2y ago
It isn't limited to musicians. Go onto any bicycle-related forum and you will always find the N+1 crowd who are constantly buying new bikes.
- kawera 2y ago
  Amateur photographers too.
sandspar 2y ago
The recent meme of the unequipped Turkish Olympic shooter comes to mind. The other competitors in the shooting event had expensive specialized gear. The Turkish guy had no gear and he got silver. >Reflecting on his viral moment, [the shooter guy] said, "People sometimes say, 'It's so easy, you won a medal with your hands in your pockets.' But there's 24 years of work and effort behind that medal. I train six days a week for 4-5 hours a day. I wish it was gold, but we still achieved a lot."
MisterBastahrd 2y ago
Was doing this with food storage containers. I looked above my fridge one day and saw about 40 tupperware lids that I had never used and would likely never use. I went through them, saving the large containers for large meals (think Thanksgiving leftovers) and some moderate sized containers for eating for the week. Everything else got tossed and I instead purchased two sets of food service containers. They accomplish the same goal, they're all the same size, and they don't take up nearly as much space.
m3kw9 2y ago
There is also left end of the bell curve where one enjoys and tries to squeeze single big out of a product that they love and resisting upgrades.
solid_fuel 2y ago
From another angle, I think it's understandable that people like to have premium "signifiers" of their skill. A carpenter with a full set of well maintained chisels seems on first glance more likely to be a good carpenter than one who carves uses with a box cutter. So there may be a natural drive to collect and display things that indicate skill in our chosen areas of interest. Now, to twist this around a bit: is this "gear acquisition syndrome" a contributor to the constant churn of tools and frameworks in our field? Especially in programming, collecting and using new "gear" (libraries, frameworks, administrative tools) is essentially free - often the only cost is time.
- p3rls 2y ago
  I know a tradesman who works out of a bucket with a ripped up tool organizer inside that's held together with duct tape and zip ties. His tools are all falling apart and often doesn't have the correct tool and is one of the types you'll see using a wrench as a hammer non-recreationally. But still he's one of the cleverest there is, has seen every issue in the field 10,000 times and knows exactly how to handle it... but the immediate lack of respect he gets when he walks into a building is stunning. It adds so much friction to encounter.
neilv 2y ago
For photography (Canon DSLR, photojournalism and studio), there was a pursuit of the right gear, but I was usually as much as I was buying. For example, the ordinary reasonable thought, I could make such great images with that 50mm f/0.9 prime, I might use it for everything, is usually a fantasy. Try it, then sell it before its resale value drops, then find a better use for the money and the space and weight in your backpack.) A bit similar for homelab servers&networking gear. I've sold many times more rack units' worth of stuff than I currently own. (And currently there's a silent K3s server that's nearing the chopping block, since I haven't been using it.)
layer8 2y ago
This is not too different from book/movies/music acquisition syndrome. In particular for books, you continue even if you know you’ll never read them all, or even a significant fraction.
fudged71 2y ago
As someone who's battled Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS), I've learned that fixating on the latest tech often hinders progress. Instead, I've found success by embracing effectuation principles: 1. Use what you have: Start with your existing tools and resources. 2. Take action: Begin immediately, rather than waiting for the "perfect" setup. 3. Adapt and learn: Iterate based on real-world feedback. This mindset shift can lead to more meaningful progress and innovation. When you catch yourself obsessing over new gear, try this: 1. Pause and reflect: Is this acquisition essential for immediate progress? 2. Reevaluate: Can you achieve your current goals with what you already have? 3. Focus on action: Use your existing means to take concrete steps today.
moth-fuzz 2y ago
Honestly my GAS subsided when I realized most of my favorite records were made with affordable or off the shelf gear. So many guitarists on the 80s used JCM800s because that was what Marshall was putting out. Eric Clapton’s Stratocaster wasn’t vintage when he bought it, it was just an off the shelf guitar! Same with most amps, instruments, keyboards, synths, drum machines, even samplers which are hailed as legendary because they have higher bass and a lower bitrate (an effect you can get with a one-knob EQ and a bit crusher, respectively). The artists were just using the tools available to them because… they were available. I have simplified my recording and production setup to mainly just a computer, 10 channel audio interface, a 90s mackie mixer because it’s big and fun and sums neatly to the 10 channels (8 busses + master 2 buss), and whatever bits of quirky and fun gear I can find. My GAS left when I realized I don’t need any of it. I could make music on just a laptop if I wanted to, I could just play my guitar and resample it for synth sounds if I wanted to. Plenty of iPhone producers out there who just make weird sounds with their mouth. It’s all relative. People will say you’ve Got to have at LEAST one analog mono, one poly, a digi, a sampler, and an endless supply of grooveboxes, but computers are truly more than capable. “Analog sound” is just an EQ away. Just focus on the creative aspect and the gear aspect diminishes and becomes yet another source of creativity - find quirky pawn shop stuff that makes you smile when you play it. Even if you don’t record it, you don’t feel like it’s GAS because it brings joy.
mrexroad 2y ago
Hobbies I geek out on gear: fountain pens, coffee, backpacking, tools (especially fine woodworking or cabinet making). Hobbies where my skills have reached a point of equilibrium with my gear: bikes, photography, electronics, knives, auto detailing, cars. For me it has a lot to do with disparity between my current ability level and being able to recognize whatever a realistic upper end is to my potential (80th percentile). Basically, if there's a skill-gap, I'm more likely to fall prey to "better gear" rather than gear that solves a specific problem. When I recognize my skills have reached ~80% of my potential, I lose interest in new gear and either work around specific gear limitations or understand what is possible within the limitations and embrace the constraint. Beyond that, I only acquire new gear to solve hyper-specific problems w/o reasonable workarounds, or if there's some super-specific niche/quirky/vintage thing that I have an emotional attachment to or otherwise identify with. Conversely, if I have an unrealistic perception of my potential, then, well... there's probably lists of shiny things to show for it.
siva7 2y ago
If you have the money and the gear makes you happy then by all means go for it. I'm not buying a Rolex to read the time either. For that i have my phone. Sometimes it's just nice to enjoy the expensive gear you have and play it occasionally and there is no ambition to master the instrument on a competitive level.
makz 2y ago
I’ve been an amateur bass player since 2008. My GAS stopped when I took a year of lessons from professional player. I learned that most of the sound comes from good playing technique.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

138 points by fhars 2y ago

It's a big problem for photographers too. Especially with the rapid progress of mirrorless cameras there is always the next camera or lens you need to get. I have bought lenses and never used them. I have also spent more time on looking for accessories for my 3D printer than actually using it. Not sure how to combat GAS. I feel for people with a full time job it somehow compensates for the lack of time working on one's hobbies

frabert 2y ago
My explanation is quite simple: cool toys are cool, and they give us the illusion of being better at our hobbies than we actually are. I sometimes indulge in some Gear Acquisition too -- but I try to be cognizant of the fact that if not done carefully, it only leads to a short-term happiness kick which quickly leads to another episode of GAS.
tlhunter 2y ago
On the bright side I sometimes sell used camera gear for more than I bought it. A combo body and lens can sell more than the items separately if marketed correctly and when including sample photos. That said, I still haven't bought a new camera body.
ehmmmmmmmm 2y ago
I've been there as well. In reality 99% of the time you don't need new gear. However there is also a delicate balance where a new piece of gear makes you excited to go out and do your hobby more and it's that going out more than makes you get better at it.
throwanem 2y ago
I avoid GAS pretty easily by the application of a simple method I've developed over years as a hobbyist photographer: Be Aware of Non-Optimality. That is, in bearing in mind there is no benefit to the expenditure of resources to obtain equipment that by itself will not meaningfully improve my practice - and too, that having gear I do not use will make me regret its purchase, further diverging from an optimal state - I find myself no longer with the urge to replace a perfectly serviceable DSLR with a mirrorless that may be newer, but is not really all that much better at capturing the exposures I care to make. I'm probably not explaining it as well as I might, but I am happy nonetheless to say I've found my GAS very reliably cured by BeAN-O.
- etrautmann 2y ago
  the opposite is also true however. I've been attempting to combat GAS by avoiding a home data server. In reality, I've been needing a NAS for a number of years and have changed my photography practice due to limitations and challenges with dealing with extra data. I just solved this and it's been liberating.
  - Retr0id 2y ago
    I solve my photography storage needs by treating SD cards as write-once consumables. When a card fills up, I just buy another one.
    - ta988 2y ago
      Digital Photograph Acquidition Syndrome
    - rqtwteye 2y ago
      That would get super expensive if you shoot things like airshows, birds in flight or sports where you can easily shoot 2000 images or more in one day. Or 4K video.
      - Retr0id 2y ago
        2000 images fits on about $3 worth of SD card, depending on resolution. Less than the time cost of going through and deciding which to delete.
        rqtwteye 2y ago
        I guess it depends on your equipment. 2000*50MB gets you up to 100GB. A decent 128GB card costs you from $20 up. A card that's capable of fast bursts can cost around $100.
porphyra 2y ago
Yeah lmao I spent tens of thousands of dollars on my medium format Fujifilm GFX system. It just needs a couple more lenses then it will be perfected and I won't have to buy another piece of gear ever again!
- rqtwteye 2y ago
  I think a Hasselblad would enrich your life
hereonout2 2y ago
> I feel for people with a full time job it somehow compensates for the lack of time working on one's hobbies I identify with this. Have full time job, some disposable income, a few hobbies but no real time for them. This has led to a lot of gear acquisition, buying tools or equipment that are beyond my level of expertise and I don't have time to make the most of. I guess there's worse things to burn money on but does feel like if I had more time to actually do hobbies I'd discover I can get by with far fewer gadgets.
klodolph 2y ago
Amateur photographers often cover a lot more types of photography than pros, which makes GAS even worse. A pro might specialize in sports photography and buy some nice long lenses with fast autofocus. Or they might specialize in portraiture and get a nice wide-open 90mm equivalent. Or architectural photography, and get a tilt-shift lens. For some reason, a lot of amateur photographers will dabble in many different types of photography, each with their own demands on equipment.
JoelMcCracken 2y ago
I feel this quite a bit. When I was young, I had a ton of time and no money to acquire the needed equipment. Now, I finally have the money to get basically whatever I need within reason, but no time to use it. I am typically able to resist the urge to succumb to GAS, but I don't always. I still have an incomplete atreus (http://atreus.technomancy.us/ http://atreus.technomancy.us/) in my basement; I set it aside when I bought a house, and haven't had time to revisit it since.
bborud 2y ago
The good thing about lenses is that if you buy good lenses, they usually retain a lot of value, so you can sell them. And it isn't like you have to use them all the time. For instance, I rarely use my macro lens. And that's okay. But having it means that the 1-2 times per year I need it, I have it.
Retr0id 2y ago
I (partially) sidestep this by buying gear that's already well behind the curve.
kelnos 2y ago
> Not sure how to combat GAS What works decently well for me is to avoid advertising like the plague. Adblock everything: browser, DNS, anywhere I can do it. Disable targeted advertising wherever I can't outright block it, if that's an option. Avoid visiting websites where there's a lot of advertisement disguised as news or useful content; often enthusiast websites on whatever your hobby is will have a lot of that, so find better sites. Don't watch regular TV with commercials. Only use streaming services, and always pay for the ad-free versions. "That's so expensive," you say? Not when you consider how much crap you'll buy when you're bombarded with advertising all the time. You can never eliminate all advertising from your life, but the less you expose yourself to, the better. Adopt a mindset that ads are a form of psychological manipulation (because they are), and make yourself hate them. That alone will make you somewhat less susceptible to it (or at least I like to think so). Be deliberate about purchases. Seek out things that you know you want because you want them; don't buy stuff because you saw it featured somewhere.
dimatura 2y ago
I haven't dabbled much in photography lately, but when I was active in it, budget was a strong constraint. These days my GAS is mostly for synths and budget is less of a constraint, thanks to the full time job you alluded to. I think this phenomenon of having money but no time leading to GAS is pretty common, from what I've seen. In my case, I often avoid it by challenging myself to use whatever I have at hand to try to recreate what I'd be getting with the new gear. Its often a fun exercise even if I don't succeed.
NikkiA 2y ago
I'm still on my A7R2, it still works great, and while I sometimes wistfully think about the ultrasonic wiggly massive resolution mode (700Mpix or something) on the A7R4, I cannot in any way justify upgrading. OTOH, I also bemoan the loss of my 70s OM1n 20 years ago.

jeffreyrogers 2y ago

Happens for pretty much every hobby with expensive equipment: telescopes, bikes, guns, etc.

awelxtr 2y ago
Chinese retroconsoles aren't that expensive but some "collectors" have a serious case of GAS If you dont believe me check r/SBCgaming

cwenham 2y ago

I do this for electronics; Parts, Materials and Kit. I don't buy PMK because I think it'll make me more skilled, I do it because I want to. I have noticed, however, that when I've got something physically, and can examine it and play with it, then it becomes like a new word in mental vocabulary that I can think with.

leptons 2y ago
I look at my electronic parts collection like a chef looks at their spice rack. But I'm often a victim of laziness - I just bought some more transistors because I couldn't find the transistors of the same kind that I know I have somewhere. It's easier to just buy some more parts on Amazon and have them delivered tomorrow than it would be to search every single place the parts I know I have could be. As a result, I have too many electronic parts. I'll probably donate some of it to a local high school eventually.

peppertree 2y ago

Is there a study on the guilt that comes with over acquiring gears.

Swizec 2y ago

There are 3 hobbies: 1. Doing the thing 2. Talking about the thing 3. Nerding about the gear for the thing Every activity has a mix of all 3 types of folk. It’s ok to be in it for the gear if that gets your juices flowing. Sellers love you.

rcarmo 2y ago
3D printing is a mix of 1. and 3., but recursive.

dce 2y ago

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

pengaru 2y ago

aka consumerism

kelnos 2y ago
At first glance your comment looks low-effort and flippant, but it's really the crux of the matter. Our economy only works if people buy things. Especially things they don't need. Advertising is only getting more and more pervasive and intrusive, and our purchasing habits are tracked, cataloged, and categorized in order to better market things to us.

TrackerFF 2y ago

Me being a guitarist, I probably spent a solid 10 years buying and selling guitars. Thousands, literally. Some weeks I'd get a guitar in the mail, check it out for an hour, then list it, and sell it the same day. I have a friend that goes through the same deal with pedals. Luckily I started experiencing some serious "burnout" - where I could no longer feel any dopamine rush from getting new gear. In the end I had two good guitars that I played on for 5 years, and nothing else - I had little desire to buy something else, but it might also have been due to me becoming more interested in other things. Now that I'm building a small home recording studio, I'm starting to feel the burn again. And I guess I've had some small relapse with the guitars, as I currently have 20 excellent guitars in my house...I could, and should, sell everything but a few. The worst thing is that you stop progressing as a musician, because all the buying and selling steals your time and focus.

create-account 2y ago
Yeah that’s the beauty of consumerism. No matter what your hobby is, there are hundreds of different leisure products for you to acquire and stockpile on top of those of your previous hobby (whose accessories you had acquired)

rcarmo 2y ago

The GAS is real. I'm surrounded by music gadgets that I seldom have time (and these days, the proper state of mind) to enjoy, and I keep looking (and building) more.

kimbernator 2y ago

I think every hobby that involves equipment has some version of this. I feel like we've been conditioned to believe that consumption of a product is equivalent to participation in that hobby, mostly because the biggest "reward" we get from it is often the appearance of having varied interests and appearing to the layman like you know what you're doing because you have the "nice" stuff. Broad strokes, if you don't enjoy doing something with shitty gear you probably won't enjoy it with nice gear, either. And if you do enjoy it with shitty gear, you should spend enough time with said shitty gear to understand why you would need something nicer and be thoughtful about your upgrades.

qup 2y ago
I have a lot of hobbies, and I would say several of them are not fun with shitty gear. Sometimes quality gear makes the entry process far, far less painful.
- SonOfLilit 2y ago
  One exception is rock climbing. I've been pressuring everyone around me to get off of rental shoes already, it makes the experience so much less painful and more pleasant...
  - Filligree 2y ago
    Rock-climbing with shitty gear sounds less like a matter of enjoyment, and more like one of survival.
    - ip26 2y ago
      The difference between nice and average gear in rock climbing is pretty slim. A few grams, smooth action on the moving parts... it's also primarily a failsafe, so it's inherently obvious that it won't help you climb dramatically better, any more than a nicer parachute will help you fly a plane better. There's also a long tradition of the strongest climbers you know climbing on mank (i.e. safety gear so ragged it is terrifying to behold)

drblastoff 2y ago

I’ve fallen victim to this, though perhaps fortunately with digital synth plugins that take up no physical space. This is related to another problem of mine: ignoring things I’m naturally good at, and fixating on things I’m naturally bad at. In this case, I have no real musical talent, can’t play instruments in rhythm, can’t arrange a song, and I’ve nevertheless been pursuing this in my spare time for a decade with no results. Sometimes I buy new gear thinking it will help, but people with musical talent can do much more with much less. On the other hand, I showed promise for visual arts but never pursued it. My frustration with being bad at something seems to overpower my desire to be really good at something.

qup 2y ago
I do a similar thing. I like learning new things so much, I spend most of my time on new skills that I perform poorly, instead of using & continuing to hone my expert-level skills.
jimmyjazz14 2y ago
Honestly most of the time the second I get good at something is when it stops being fun, I think this is pretty normal.
sirsinsalot 2y ago
You don't need to be good at something to do it. What is good or bad anyway? It's comparison with others. If you enjoy it, it doesn't matter if you're good or bad at it, if joy itself is the aim. If your aim isn't joy, but success, then of course you'll lack joy. It is very liberating to do something, knowing you're "bad" at it, but doing it only for enjoyment.
- dingnuts 2y ago
  I relate strongly to the comment you're replying to, and I can tell you that it's very frustrating to have a vision of something you want to create and be unable despite struggling towards that goal for a long time. It has nothing to do with other people. My art doesn't live up to my own standards. That's frustrating as hell! It's not a simple as comparison to others -- who cares about them if I just can't seem to create the sound I want to create?

nlnn 2y ago

Whenever I've had this for a hobby, it's always been when I've had more time to think about the hobby than do the hobby. So this happened more when I had long commutes, so plenty of time to read about new gear, discuss gear on forums, think about gear, etc. When my commuting ended, I had more time to do things, and the lack of engagement with new things coming out mostly put a stop to it.

alsetmusic 2y ago

Haha. I called a friend and told him I'd been diagnosed with G.A.S. 20 years ago. He sounded really serious when he said he was sorry to hear that. I told him the acronym and said I'm headed to the music shop to buy a synthesizer and would he like to join. I'm glad computers have become so powerful because now I can emulate that same synth in software (Korg MS20) and much more.

n3storm 2y ago

Same happens to me on so differentes areas like: arts, drawing, painting and sculpting. And reptile and insect raising: ants and geckos. I have more stuff and tools for future projects that will ever be able to use in 10 years. Realising this thanks to an HN post a year ago I stopped completely acquiring new gear and started finishing projects. Sometimes a get a cheap sketchbook though I had several ones unused :P

munificent 2y ago
I'm into several hobbies and something people point out often in all of them is that collecting stuff for a hobby and using stuff for a hobby are actually separate hobbies. There are synthesizer collectors, and electronic musicians. You can be one or the other or both. I think the important part is having the self-awareness to know which you are and make sure your choices are in line with that. If you want to make electronic music but keeping buying new synths without mastering the ones you already have, then the gear acquisition is interfering with your own goals. But if you just like having a bunch of synths and you can afford it, by all means.
blackkat 2y ago
Do you happen to recall the post in particular that helped you with this realization?

vunderba 2y ago

Since I don't possess the necessary self discipline, the next best thing to minimizing GAS is to put your money in a place where it's not very liquid - for me that's immediately moving any disposable income into index funds. It's the fiscal equivalent of not stocking your larder with junk food.

javier123454321 2y ago
The corollary to that is to give yourself a guilt free allowance for spending within your overall budget. Especially for me and my partner with combined finances, having this strict separation with no visibility or judgement about it is key.

kerkeslager 2y ago

This isn't limited to music. When I worked in NYC and didn't have time to rock climb much, I bought a ton of rock climbing gear--much of it niche equipment that I've never used. Eventually I realized that this was just a stand-in for actually climbing: I believed that my job was enabling me to rock climb by funding my trips and buying my gear, but the reality was that I was stagnating as a rock climber, because most of my climbing time was at the gym, and that was low-quality time because my job was sapping all my time and energy. On the rare times I could take a few days off, I wasn't in the shape I wanted to be and spent a lot of the trip figuring out how to climb on real rock again since I mostly climbed on plastic. Buying gear was a way to feel like I was making some progress as a climber, because I had the gear to do more things, but the reality was that I wasn't. I wish I could say I took some agency and started my freelance business, but the reality is that I sort of stumbled into freelance work, and my business started itself. But I did move to a rock climbing area, and eventually moved into a van, and I'm lucky to be able to climb outdoors >3 days a week now (not full days most of the time, but still). In a way, the GAS period of my life set me up for this well, because now I pretty much never need to make any big purchases--I occasionally have to replace an item that wears out but for the most part I have everything I need. I did also buy a lot of guitar-related gear when I was buying rock climbing gear. That I've mostly sold: all I have at this point is my acoustic guitar, a capo, and a few picks. Again this coincided with me actually playing a lot more guitar, and realizing that I'm really only doing it for myself and only want to do finger-picky acoustic stuff anyway.

BoredPositron 2y ago

I am a photographer, drone pilot, and mountain bike rider, so it looks like hobbies with "gear acquisition syndrome" built-in are my opium. What's funny is that most of the expensive gear I bought before the inflation spiral I have now sold for quite a profit. There are also some pretty big youtube channels that talk up older digital camera models and I am 90% sure they are doing it to dump some excess inventory. You get cameras from around 2010 that are selling close to new camera prices...

flanbiscuit 2y ago

Site wasn't loading for me (front page of HN DDOS effect) so here's wayback machine snapshot from today: http://web.archive.org/web/20240807161556/https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/48282 http://web.archive.org/web/20240807161556/https://library.oa... I lightly "suffer" from this in both music and non-music hobbies. I bought the Analogue Pocket with the base that connects to a TV but I've played one game on it and that's it. I've bought gameboy mod carts to make Chiptunes music but I've never performed or even regularly sit down and try and make music, I just like the potential of it. I bought that Pocket CHIP a while back thinking I was going to use it for something (PICO-8 games maybe?), but now it just gathers dust. My current gear obsession is travel gear, thanks to Reddit's OneBag community. I'm going on a 16 day trip soon and I wanted to only have carry-on so I've spent hundreds of dollars on quality merino wool clothing and new travel backpack. Granted, this is probably the most practical of all my purchases because I will use it more often than the video game devices gathering dust. But I also could have just sucked it up and taken the clothing I already own and figured it out. https://www.analogue.co/pocket https://www.analogue.co/pocket https://shop.pocketchip.co/collections/frontpage/products/pocket-c-h-i-p-new https://shop.pocketchip.co/collections/frontpage/products/po... https://www.reddit.com/r/onebag/ https://www.reddit.com/r/onebag/

flanbiscuit 2y ago
Speaking of G.A.S., I just noticed that post about the new Teenage Engineering device: "Medieval". It's US$ 300 and very tempting. But I know I won't do anything with it so I won't buy it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41176831 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41176831 https://teenage.engineering/store/ep-1320/ https://teenage.engineering/store/ep-1320/
- jdkee 2y ago
  Thanks, that TE link just made me buy one.

PUSH_AX 2y ago

The timing of this post is great. As I sit here considering buying the latest teenage engineering offering.

recursive 2y ago

And after acquiring a specific piece of music gear to produce every conceivable sound, I'm actually less productive than I was before, because of the paradox of choice. Constraints breed creativity. I think I've basically cured my musical GAS.

atoav 2y ago

I am a musician. Among most musicians I know know I am also one of those with the least obsession with gear. Gear is just that. Gear. Much of the sound in musical gear doesn't correlate with price. Sure when it comes to recording gear and studio equipment price tends to correlate with reliability, but we are living in truly magical times. I gifted my brother a 160 Euro Harley Benton (Thomann's budget brand for guitars etc) Telecaster clone. That guitar in sound and playability easily could be the last guitar I would have bought. Amplifiers are similar. Now I am playing the electrical guitar for 20 years and I online one electrial guitar. A heavily modded US strat that I bought 15 years ago. Now the main difference between me and my peers is that I am a sound nerd and electronics afficionado — that means if I want to get towards a sound I know how to get there. And this is the crux. Many people (especially guitar players) chase some sort of sound that they never achieve, because they can't tell which part of the physical world maps to which part of the sound they get. Depending on the style of music a lot of it in the end is in the fingers. But you can't buy enter fingers, you can just train. But that doesn't give you a dopamine boost. For all people with GAS I recommend that less is more. Get to know ow your shit. It is capable of great sounds. You just need to put in the work.

WWLink 2y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnvYSKshvwc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnvYSKshvwc There's at least a few guitar youtubers who played that "which electric guitar am I playing?" game. I think you can pretty easily make almost any sound from any electric guitar lol.
- atoav 2y ago
  Yeah, especially if you don't take the strings and pickups/electronics as they are.

hannibalekta 2y ago

I reached out to someone to buy a second hand saxophone mouthpiece today that one of my favourite players uses. I already own 4, 2 of them masterfully refaced. I play for 26 years and know that only practicing makes me better, not gear. I’m on vacation and don’t even have an instrument. It’s pure GAS for no good reason. Shame on me.

jerlam 2y ago

I think of myself as resistant to the pull of advertising and gear acquisition, but I've developed a related problem. When I find something that I like, I want to buy multiples of it, even if there is a very low chance that I'll wear the item out or lose it, and it may become unusable in that time. I've had many objects in my life that I thought were great, and then they become unavailable and I spend an inordinate amount of time searching for them, even though what I have still works fine. Because my brain says "What happens when it breaks?" and then I have to settle for something new and inferior. I bought a travel backpack ten years ago. It was an unusual design, but I understood its benefits and liked it immensely. Most people did not, so after the first year it was redesigned and then discontinued. I do not know if I can get anything similar to it again, and I doubt the company will repair it. When I now see other bags that are similar but still not as good, they are significantly more expensive (because of inflation) and I regret not buying several at the time. Even though mine still works great.

myself248 2y ago
Same, but I don't consider it a problem. If I find that I love a product, I'll buy a spare. If it turns out that I think the successor product is better, I'll buy that and simply sell my spare to someone with the opposite opinion.
twic 2y ago
This only seems like a problem if you struggle to afford these purchases, or lack space for the spares. Otherwise, it's mildly eccentric but sensible.
bborud 2y ago
The problem is that it usually takes me a while to realize that something is good. Not least because I like durable things and ... well, it takes time to determine if something is durable. I bought my favorite jacket 12 years ago in Tokyo. A very neutral/timeless thing. After 3 years the jacket still looked like new. Although I had worn it almost every day for 3 years. I searched for it online and found one for sale. On eBay. Used. And the wrong size. If I had known the jacket was that good I would have bought 2-3 more. I still use it. It still looks almost new. Fantastic garment.

Karellen 2y ago

I seem to have anti-GAS. I've got a 5-year old phone (thanks Apple for maintaining OS security support for my model for so long!), a 3-year old laptop I'm not planning on replacing any time soon, and the non-computer based hobbies I've managed to stick with for any length of time are running and bouldering, where the only gear you really need for both are appropriate shoes. And I only have one pair of shoes for each. Yeah, I've got some light, breathable, non-chafing clothing that makes both less unpleasant to do, but I couldn't tell you with 100% certainty what brand they are, or exactly what they're made of. And I have a bottle of liquid chalk, whatever they were selling in the gym the last time I needed to get some more. But I'm not on Strava or whatever, and I don't track my per-km splits or my heart rate/zone or elevation gained or cadence. I'll time a whole run with a $20 Casio wrist/stopwatch, and sometimes calculate an average pace, but that's about it. Not that I'm particularly good at running or bouldering, but I'm enjoying doing both at the level I'm currently at, so that's fine. Anyway, any hobby that requires a bunch of gear is just a turn-off for me. The more gear I'd need, the more I want to give it a wide berth. Computer software I love to nerd out on. But everything else? Hardware? That's a break from the nerdery for me.

tayo42 2y ago
Some of my hobbies I'm like this. I actually think it's been a detriment in one case where I hit a skill wall without realizing until years later. I just convinced my self I suck for to long, and the problem actually was the equipment for to long.

hawthorned7 2y ago

I'm always seeking out new gear because I love finding new sounds. I also went to school for classical piano and can play pretty well. Does a chef that likes finding new spices have GAS? Def a joke in there but for real. There are certain sounds that can only be found in vintage analog synths for instance. Of course there are always samples but there are also samples of cellos and violins. But they will never compare to actually playing the real instrument so therefore I must buy them alllll.

nottorp 2y ago

I know someone who does this with mountain gear.

bobjordan 2y ago

I expect this can be abstracted and include other fields, too. My particular affliction has included electronic lab equipment. Like, did I really need that specialized tool to measure and verify the performance of my oscilloscope? Did I really need the second oscilloscope on my bench? I'm rarely involved in RF, but I have a spectrum analyzer collecting dust now. Etc...

myself248 2y ago
No, but if you join a makerspace and help fortify their electronics lab, you get to help other people make use of those instruments. This means you get to share in the satisfaction when they succeed, because you were the nudge that got them past some block, for a lot less actual work on your part! ;)

davidw 2y ago

I think a lot of businesses kind of thrive on selling the dream. Like how much gear bought at REI is really pushed to the limit for outdoor pursuits vs worn around town? I love shopping there and looking around and daydreaming about being out in the woods. It's not really an indictment of the businesses, it's just sort of human nature.

katbyte 2y ago
It sucks for us who do push gear. I’m constantly breaking things because I’m well, using them. Anytime u have to buy something it involves hours of research to determine “is this a real quality product or a shitty one marketed as quality”, or “has it changed owners and now rubbish” I don’t mind paying for quality gear at all. It just needed to be quality
WalterSear 2y ago
I shop there because the obesity epidemic has made it too hard to find pants in my size at other stores.

woolion 2y ago

I just discovered GAS therapy [0], as there was some controversy about the OP-1 pricing (also from Teenage Engineering). To summarize both sides, software is pretty cheap and limitless. Device are limited which can spark creativity by constraints, their tactile form factor feel great, and their portable nature can be a great advantage. However, there are other arguments that typically revolve around how "software cannot replicate vintage sounds" where the holy wars really begin. Nobody has ever proven that, but the myth endures. Recently enough [1] showed all that basically with an eq, a compressor and a distortion you can reproduce any vintage amp sound, you just need to know how it deviates from a flat sound response. How expensive the vintage or high-end hardware is might be a deterrent for some but a very attractive proposition for others. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU8alMWUmDI&pp=ygULZ2FzIHRoZXJhcHk%3D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU8alMWUmDI&pp=ygULZ2FzIHRoZ... [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcBEOcPtlYk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcBEOcPtlYk

doe_eyes 2y ago

It's funny to see it framed in the context of music when it's a pretty universal behavior, essentially limited only by how many cool upgrades exist for a particular hobby. It's a particularly common affliction for photographers (better cameras, better lens, studio lighting, etc), but the same happens in lo-tech fields - say, woodworking (check out my premium chisels!) or even lawn care. In most hobbies, it's just a money sink. It is uniquely destructive in photography because if you have too much gear, you can't carry it around and you end up missing out on shots.

ibejoeb 2y ago
Rock climbers, man. Total gearheads.
- jajko 2y ago
  Maybe if they do alpinism too, or trad climbing. But it can also be just a neat little pile worth less than 500$
  - AlotOfReading 2y ago
    You might be able to squeeze in a nut set and a couple quickdraws after you spend $400 of that on the rope, shoes, and harness.
    - KittenInABox 2y ago
      If you're into bouldering, you can just get a crashpad and shoes.
Retr0id 2y ago
I've been getting into photography lately, and early on I was able to carry around my whole gear collection at once. It was an interesting new dimension when I started having to make decisions about what to take and what to leave behind.
dimatura 2y ago

kirth_gersen 2y ago

This sounds like another guise of fear of missing out. You can't do X without gear Y. However, your brain doesn't realize there are other constraints on realistically doing X; free time, energy, creative spark, etc. But at least buying Y feels like a concrete step towards doing X and modern society has made it VERY easy to buy things. So, you buy Y and promise yourself you'll do X...someday.

dwaltrip 2y ago
Yeah it’s a way to feel like making progress without doing the hard work of practicing and developing your skills. Easy trap to fall into. With most hobbies, a beginner will benefit far more from just doing projects / practicing than buying expensive high-end gear. It’s also the only way to find if you actually want to pursue the new interest. Which is very good to do before spending lots of cash.

johnohara 2y ago

Seems to me GAS is nuanced by the type of musical instrument acquired. The syndrome may be less severe with piano and harp players than it is with guitar, and electric bass players. Although, it may extend to excessive acquisitions of sheet music and books on musical theory. Single kit exceptions may include drummers and xylophone players. This syndrome is very evident in high-performance vehicle markets where there seems to be no end to the modifications one can make to go faster, sound louder, or look cooler.

bborud 2y ago
You forgot synthesizers. And I'm not even a good player :-)
giobox 2y ago
My experience with guitar collectors is that is often easier to collector guitars than practice and get good at the instrument, and I include myself in this statement. The guitar is so accessible and available at retail so widely, its not surprising to me it attracts collectors perhaps more so than a harp or a piano. Plus the guitar has a very strong connection to modern pop music, which surely helps drive its appeal.
WWLink 2y ago
> The syndrome may be less severe with piano and harp players than it is with guitar, and electric bass players. Have you ever seen Liberace's collection? Hehe. If you have enough money and space you can collect pianos as well.

jrsdav 2y ago

“I'm really not that fussy — I think it's more important to make the best use of what you have. I don't like to walk into a studio, lay down the law, and say, 'I must have this, otherwise I cannot continue with the session.' I'm not like that. I prefer to be more, 'What have you got? Let's see what we can do with that.' I hate spending inordinate amounts of time just playing with a sound, trying different pieces of equipment, and different mics and that stuff. Let's get the job done. Let's make a record. The whole process of recording is one big experiment in itself." - Alan Parsons

twic 2y ago

A flip side of GAS is that the market optimises for gear acquirers. A decent square taper bottom bracket is perfectly good for 99% of cyclists, and maintenance free for a decade or more. But gear acquirers are only interested in the latest and greatest ultra-stiff super-light external bearing BBs, so now square taper is dead except at the cheapest, shittiest grades. Which means that i, as someone who just wants my cranks to go round, am forced to enter their world.

sudosysgen 2y ago
I agree with you regarding press fit BBs, but aren't externally threaded BBs also better for casual cyclists and more reliable? I don't care in the slightest about BB stiffness and weight, but I would much rather have a BSA threaded external BB. That way if something happens and I need to change my cranks (or god forbid, bearings) I don't have to worry about needing a specialized crank puller or anything like that, an Allen key is enough, and I never have to worry about stripping my cranks, and I never have to worry about my cranks falling out and marring from the bolt getting loose. Something like an ISIS spline two/three piece crank that's either self extracting or bolted like Shimano MTB cranks is perfect. Simple, cheap, no specialized tools needed, and no risk of catastrophic failure. And I'll never need to repack the bearings ever again. Plus, as someone who lives in a place where they salt the roads, I'd much rather deal with a rusty threaded external bearing BB than a square taper that might never come out of the frame.
- twic 2y ago
  The bearings in external bottom brackets are much less well protected, and so more vulnerable to water and dust and so on. That means they need to be regreased or replaced more often. I see people talking about doing that monthly, annually, whatever. I have been riding the same square taper bottom bracket since 2012, and it's doing fine. The square taper per se may not be as good as a bolted spline or something. It is annoying to need a crank puller, but for me, it's been something i need once every five years or so, so not much of a problem in practice. So, compared to external bearing bottom brackets, a small disadvantage that buys you a big advantage. I have no opinion about the splined internal bottom brackets!

blackeyeblitzar 2y ago

I only learned of this phrase recently but now I see it mentioned everywhere. Isn’t there a word for this phenomenon? Or is it actually a new concept that is spreading virally or something?

aspenmayer 2y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion > The frequency illusion (also known as the Baader–Meinhof phenomenon) is a cognitive bias in which a person notices a specific concept, word, or product more frequently after recently becoming aware of it.

vincnetas 2y ago

i call this "gadget feever". Phones, computers, accesories etc. With age i recognise it within me better and better, but have spent lots of time and money for this.

Fomite 2y ago

This is all over my hobby, miniature wargaming. "If I just get this brush, or this new line of paints, I'll be good at painting..."

sandworm101 2y ago

Rock Climbing. Trad/aid climbing. Hundreds of pounds of gear. All manner of little twists of metal on loops of string or webbing. Ropes. Harnesses. Shoes. Bespoke ascender rigs. Bags of various belay devices. Some of it is expensive, costing hundred of dollars a piece. Other stuff is dirt cheap. Once you buy that second rurp, then you are an addict.

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flyinghamster 2y ago

It isn't limited to musicians. Go onto any bicycle-related forum and you will always find the N+1 crowd who are constantly buying new bikes.

kawera 2y ago
Amateur photographers too.

sandspar 2y ago

The recent meme of the unequipped Turkish Olympic shooter comes to mind. The other competitors in the shooting event had expensive specialized gear. The Turkish guy had no gear and he got silver. >Reflecting on his viral moment, [the shooter guy] said, "People sometimes say, 'It's so easy, you won a medal with your hands in your pockets.' But there's 24 years of work and effort behind that medal. I train six days a week for 4-5 hours a day. I wish it was gold, but we still achieved a lot."

MisterBastahrd 2y ago

Was doing this with food storage containers. I looked above my fridge one day and saw about 40 tupperware lids that I had never used and would likely never use. I went through them, saving the large containers for large meals (think Thanksgiving leftovers) and some moderate sized containers for eating for the week. Everything else got tossed and I instead purchased two sets of food service containers. They accomplish the same goal, they're all the same size, and they don't take up nearly as much space.

m3kw9 2y ago

There is also left end of the bell curve where one enjoys and tries to squeeze single big out of a product that they love and resisting upgrades.

solid_fuel 2y ago

From another angle, I think it's understandable that people like to have premium "signifiers" of their skill. A carpenter with a full set of well maintained chisels seems on first glance more likely to be a good carpenter than one who carves uses with a box cutter. So there may be a natural drive to collect and display things that indicate skill in our chosen areas of interest. Now, to twist this around a bit: is this "gear acquisition syndrome" a contributor to the constant churn of tools and frameworks in our field? Especially in programming, collecting and using new "gear" (libraries, frameworks, administrative tools) is essentially free - often the only cost is time.

p3rls 2y ago
I know a tradesman who works out of a bucket with a ripped up tool organizer inside that's held together with duct tape and zip ties. His tools are all falling apart and often doesn't have the correct tool and is one of the types you'll see using a wrench as a hammer non-recreationally. But still he's one of the cleverest there is, has seen every issue in the field 10,000 times and knows exactly how to handle it... but the immediate lack of respect he gets when he walks into a building is stunning. It adds so much friction to encounter.

neilv 2y ago

For photography (Canon DSLR, photojournalism and studio), there was a pursuit of the right gear, but I was usually as much as I was buying. For example, the ordinary reasonable thought, I could make such great images with that 50mm f/0.9 prime, I might use it for everything, is usually a fantasy. Try it, then sell it before its resale value drops, then find a better use for the money and the space and weight in your backpack.) A bit similar for homelab servers&networking gear. I've sold many times more rack units' worth of stuff than I currently own. (And currently there's a silent K3s server that's nearing the chopping block, since I haven't been using it.)

layer8 2y ago

This is not too different from book/movies/music acquisition syndrome. In particular for books, you continue even if you know you’ll never read them all, or even a significant fraction.

fudged71 2y ago

As someone who's battled Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS), I've learned that fixating on the latest tech often hinders progress. Instead, I've found success by embracing effectuation principles: 1. Use what you have: Start with your existing tools and resources. 2. Take action: Begin immediately, rather than waiting for the "perfect" setup. 3. Adapt and learn: Iterate based on real-world feedback. This mindset shift can lead to more meaningful progress and innovation. When you catch yourself obsessing over new gear, try this: 1. Pause and reflect: Is this acquisition essential for immediate progress? 2. Reevaluate: Can you achieve your current goals with what you already have? 3. Focus on action: Use your existing means to take concrete steps today.

moth-fuzz 2y ago

Honestly my GAS subsided when I realized most of my favorite records were made with affordable or off the shelf gear. So many guitarists on the 80s used JCM800s because that was what Marshall was putting out. Eric Clapton’s Stratocaster wasn’t vintage when he bought it, it was just an off the shelf guitar! Same with most amps, instruments, keyboards, synths, drum machines, even samplers which are hailed as legendary because they have higher bass and a lower bitrate (an effect you can get with a one-knob EQ and a bit crusher, respectively). The artists were just using the tools available to them because… they were available. I have simplified my recording and production setup to mainly just a computer, 10 channel audio interface, a 90s mackie mixer because it’s big and fun and sums neatly to the 10 channels (8 busses + master 2 buss), and whatever bits of quirky and fun gear I can find. My GAS left when I realized I don’t need any of it. I could make music on just a laptop if I wanted to, I could just play my guitar and resample it for synth sounds if I wanted to. Plenty of iPhone producers out there who just make weird sounds with their mouth. It’s all relative. People will say you’ve Got to have at LEAST one analog mono, one poly, a digi, a sampler, and an endless supply of grooveboxes, but computers are truly more than capable. “Analog sound” is just an EQ away. Just focus on the creative aspect and the gear aspect diminishes and becomes yet another source of creativity - find quirky pawn shop stuff that makes you smile when you play it. Even if you don’t record it, you don’t feel like it’s GAS because it brings joy.

mrexroad 2y ago

Hobbies I geek out on gear: fountain pens, coffee, backpacking, tools (especially fine woodworking or cabinet making). Hobbies where my skills have reached a point of equilibrium with my gear: bikes, photography, electronics, knives, auto detailing, cars. For me it has a lot to do with disparity between my current ability level and being able to recognize whatever a realistic upper end is to my potential (80th percentile). Basically, if there's a skill-gap, I'm more likely to fall prey to "better gear" rather than gear that solves a specific problem. When I recognize my skills have reached ~80% of my potential, I lose interest in new gear and either work around specific gear limitations or understand what is possible within the limitations and embrace the constraint. Beyond that, I only acquire new gear to solve hyper-specific problems w/o reasonable workarounds, or if there's some super-specific niche/quirky/vintage thing that I have an emotional attachment to or otherwise identify with. Conversely, if I have an unrealistic perception of my potential, then, well... there's probably lists of shiny things to show for it.

siva7 2y ago

If you have the money and the gear makes you happy then by all means go for it. I'm not buying a Rolex to read the time either. For that i have my phone. Sometimes it's just nice to enjoy the expensive gear you have and play it occasionally and there is no ambition to master the instrument on a competitive level.

makz 2y ago

I’ve been an amateur bass player since 2008. My GAS stopped when I took a year of lessons from professional player. I learned that most of the sound comes from good playing technique.

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