4 ms·

Sounds like he was neuro divergent and his wife made him keep his obsession in the basement.

specproc 1y ago
Is there anything particularly "neuro divergent" about having a hobby? Anyways, I doubt his wife's making him do anything. Totally normal domestic arrangement to have a space for one's thing(s), whatever it may be. Well-conducive to a happy marriage, IMHO. I'm not fortunate enough to have a whole basement to play with, but my study's piled high with my books, electronics, painting gear, art and models. I'm thankful to have a space that's mine. My SO didn't tell me to keep my shit here, I was like "dibs" on moving in.
- latentsea 1y ago
  > Is there anything particularly "neuro divergent" about having a hobby? Hyperfocus can make one take hobbies to fairly extreme levels.
  - rusk 1y ago
    Indeed. And such hobbies are a healthy and productive outlet for this kind of energy
    - latentsea 1y ago
      That depends on what the hobby is of course. Also, it's not necessarily healthy. Being unable to switch your attention away from your hobby tends to cause problems in other areas of your life like neglecting the housework, your partner, your children, your health etc. That's part of the reason why these things are classed as disabilities.
      - rusk 1y ago
        These days the language tends away from “disability” towards “differently abled” - we can accommodate people with special needs and they can outperform “norms” in many fields.
- perlgeek 1y ago
  > Is there anything particularly "neuro divergent" about having a hobby? No, but how obsessive the pursuit of that hobby is, that's the question. There are some model train enthusiasts that, over their life time, spend several millions of EUR on their hobby, so they basically work to finance their hobby.
  - stavros 1y ago
    I don't know why you're singling out model train enthusiasts. This describes many people I know, and an extremely large range of hobbies.
    - sokoloff 1y ago
      The "singling out" I read as because the topic of this article that we're discussing is model trains. If this article was about $OTHER_HOBBY, there would be a citation of someone who spent a ton of money on $OTHER_HOBBY.
  - nandomrumber 1y ago
    Could be worse. Could be working to barely scrape by, going to bed early to save on heating costs, unable to afford to save a deposit to buy a house, worry how you’ll afford the next dentist or mechanics bill. Being able to afford a hobby is a luxury. Welcome to Australia.
  - dkdbejwi383 1y ago
    Isn’t that just normal life? I know that I, and almost everyone I know, only works to finance the things we actually enjoy.
    - Cthulhu_ 1y ago
      I'll admit I don't know many people but nobody I know has that kind of expendable income. The "worst" case spends hundreds a year on merchandise / collectibles though.
  - _Algernon_ 1y ago
FirmwareBurner 1y ago
>Sounds like he was neuro divergent and his wife made him keep his obsession in the basement. Men do noting but chill: "They're losers, incels, etc". Men have cool hobbies that don't bother anyone: "They're neurodivergent". Men just can't catch a break these days.
- somewhereoutth 1y ago
  If Men have the time and opportunity to do nothing but chill, or to have cool hobbies, then they are very definitely catching a break.
  - FirmwareBurner 1y ago
    They why are they being berated for what they do with their private lives?
    - potato3732842 1y ago
      Because a certain subset of society feels entitled to tell other people what to do with their time and resources. "Nobody needs.." and all that.
  - em-bee 1y ago
    or maybe they are so overwhelmed that they are procrastinating. the problem here is expectations. you have the expectation that one should not chill or focus on a hobby when they should be looking for a job, or spend time with their children, or whatever else they could be doing when they don't chill or work on their hobby. i know that feeling. i have been there. more than a year out of work, i could not focus on anything, whatever i did felt wrong because i thought i should use that time to apply to jobs. it was exhausting, and i was procrastinating a lot. i had to remind myself that i could not be writing job applications all day, and i used my hobbies to relax and get energy. so no, chilling or having cool hobbies are not a sign of someone catching a break. not without knowing more about their actual circumstances.
    - 1y ago
nkrisc 1y ago
...where else are you going to put something like that in a home?
themadturk 1y ago
I've always looked at basements as a natural place for train layouts (no, I do not have one -- neither a basement nor a train layout). Trying to put such thing together among the usual furniture, people moving about, possibly toddlers found outside of the basement would be nigh impossible.

Is there anything particularly "neuro divergent" about having a hobby? Anyways, I doubt his wife's making him do anything. Totally normal domestic arrangement to have a space for one's thing(s), whatever it may be. Well-conducive to a happy marriage, IMHO. I'm not fortunate enough to have a whole basement to play with, but my study's piled high with my books, electronics, painting gear, art and models. I'm thankful to have a space that's mine. My SO didn't tell me to keep my shit here, I was like "dibs" on moving in.

latentsea 1y ago
> Is there anything particularly "neuro divergent" about having a hobby? Hyperfocus can make one take hobbies to fairly extreme levels.
- rusk 1y ago
  Indeed. And such hobbies are a healthy and productive outlet for this kind of energy
  - latentsea 1y ago
    That depends on what the hobby is of course. Also, it's not necessarily healthy. Being unable to switch your attention away from your hobby tends to cause problems in other areas of your life like neglecting the housework, your partner, your children, your health etc. That's part of the reason why these things are classed as disabilities.
    - rusk 1y ago
      These days the language tends away from “disability” towards “differently abled” - we can accommodate people with special needs and they can outperform “norms” in many fields.
perlgeek 1y ago
> Is there anything particularly "neuro divergent" about having a hobby? No, but how obsessive the pursuit of that hobby is, that's the question. There are some model train enthusiasts that, over their life time, spend several millions of EUR on their hobby, so they basically work to finance their hobby.
- stavros 1y ago
  I don't know why you're singling out model train enthusiasts. This describes many people I know, and an extremely large range of hobbies.
  - sokoloff 1y ago
    The "singling out" I read as because the topic of this article that we're discussing is model trains. If this article was about $OTHER_HOBBY, there would be a citation of someone who spent a ton of money on $OTHER_HOBBY.
- nandomrumber 1y ago
  Could be worse. Could be working to barely scrape by, going to bed early to save on heating costs, unable to afford to save a deposit to buy a house, worry how you’ll afford the next dentist or mechanics bill. Being able to afford a hobby is a luxury. Welcome to Australia.
- dkdbejwi383 1y ago
  Isn’t that just normal life? I know that I, and almost everyone I know, only works to finance the things we actually enjoy.
  - Cthulhu_ 1y ago
    I'll admit I don't know many people but nobody I know has that kind of expendable income. The "worst" case spends hundreds a year on merchandise / collectibles though.
- _Algernon_ 1y ago

FirmwareBurner 1y ago

>Sounds like he was neuro divergent and his wife made him keep his obsession in the basement. Men do noting but chill: "They're losers, incels, etc". Men have cool hobbies that don't bother anyone: "They're neurodivergent". Men just can't catch a break these days.

somewhereoutth 1y ago
If Men have the time and opportunity to do nothing but chill, or to have cool hobbies, then they are very definitely catching a break.
- FirmwareBurner 1y ago
  They why are they being berated for what they do with their private lives?
  - potato3732842 1y ago
    Because a certain subset of society feels entitled to tell other people what to do with their time and resources. "Nobody needs.." and all that.
- em-bee 1y ago
  or maybe they are so overwhelmed that they are procrastinating. the problem here is expectations. you have the expectation that one should not chill or focus on a hobby when they should be looking for a job, or spend time with their children, or whatever else they could be doing when they don't chill or work on their hobby. i know that feeling. i have been there. more than a year out of work, i could not focus on anything, whatever i did felt wrong because i thought i should use that time to apply to jobs. it was exhausting, and i was procrastinating a lot. i had to remind myself that i could not be writing job applications all day, and i used my hobbies to relax and get energy. so no, chilling or having cool hobbies are not a sign of someone catching a break. not without knowing more about their actual circumstances.
  - 1y ago

nkrisc 1y ago

...where else are you going to put something like that in a home?

themadturk 1y ago

I've always looked at basements as a natural place for train layouts (no, I do not have one -- neither a basement nor a train layout). Trying to put such thing together among the usual furniture, people moving about, possibly toddlers found outside of the basement would be nigh impossible.