Hobbies I geek out on gear: fountain pens, coffee, backpacking, tools (especially fine woodworking or cabinet making). Hobbies where my skills have reached a p

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.