RE: HOBBIES

Via Xiled's reply, I recently read benj's post about hobbies and 
community:
gopher://sdf.org:70/0/users/benj/phlogs/2020.09.28_About_Hobbies
gopher://sdf.org:70/1/users/xiled/phlog/2020/20201004_re_hobbies

In short, they stick with hobbies that allow them to participate in 
a group of people that share the interest. Regular readers may 
already suspect that I don't really share in that motive, and you'd 
be right. But it's facinating to get an answer to a question that I 
never asked, because I've wondered for years about the motive 
behind people who drift between hobbies, often spending lots of 
money and time on them just to eg. sell everything in a lot a few 
years later because they're not interested (yeah, the main reason I 
know is because I'm always sniffing for cheap deals on obscure 
stuff). It seemed completely unfathomable to me, and on an 
emotional level it still does a little bit, but I get the rational 
reason now - they just need to be involved in it with others.

I can't deny that I do find it nice to talk to someone with a 
shared interest, though generally after about half an hour talking 
I'm well satisfied, and anything more just gets tedious. It's not 
really enough to be a motivation. I certainly like talking _at_ 
people, which is basically what this phlog is all about (with the 
real benefit that I don't know when they've walked away), but the 
two-directional sort of thing is just more trouble than it's worth. 
I always ask myself the questions that I want to answer anyway :).

There's also a question of what is a hobby? Electronics started as 
a hobby, but I almost immediately latched onto it as a way of 
making money. Earlier I'd gone through the same thing with 
computers, enjoying setting them up and then taking that as my best 
option for employment, but by the time I'd left school I already 
realised that the industry, and indeed the rigidly constructed 
world of software itself (either running it or programming it), 
didn't really suit me at all. Now electronics has forced me back 
around to software and programming anyway, but the point is that I 
kept messing with computers all that time, and I still like to do 
non-commercial electronics projects for myself. But with computers 
I mainly just want to set them up so that I can do other things 
like designing electronics and typing this, and with electronics 
I'm making devices that I can't buy (possibly just because I can't 
afford them, and I can't find them cheap second-hand) to do other 
things. The question is do I enjoy the tasks themselves, or do I 
just like being able to do things the way that I want? If it's the 
latter, then maybe it's not really a hobby, just a pracicicality 
like unblocking a drain. A means to and end, one which I'm more 
determined to achieve than most.

In these terms electronics is probably more of a hobby than 
computers, even though it's the one that I also try to make money 
from. With electronics I'm much more inclined towards projects of 
pure academic interest, such as the "pure hardware gopher client" 
in the ideas section. With computers it's mainly just a set of 
practical needs that I want to achieve as efficiently as possible, 
and it's having them fulfilled that gives me joy rather than the 
actual process of configuring or developing the software to achieve 
them (with the possible exception of assembly language programming, 
but I don't enjoy that enough to put up with the headaches 
associated with using it in most contexts). Much the same with 
servicing and repairing my car, which routinely becomes much more 
of a pain in the neck than what I'd cope with just for a hobby.

But then there may be a contradiction because I do choose weird 
ways to do things. I like to be able to open the latest Firefox in 
a window on a Pentium 1 PC, and I want the other computer that 
actually runs Firefox to run Linux from a RAM disk, and to use 
bugger all power (yes my "internet client" is slowly getting set 
up, even though the Atomic Pi still hasn't arrived yet from 
America). Similarly with the car I didn't have to choose an 80s 
Jaguar as my first vehicle, and in spite of the pain I'm quite 
commited to keeping it. I mean, that _is_ the way I prefer those 
things, but then I'd prefer underpants that never wear out, yet 
I've never tried to make the invincible men's briefs.

Some things are definately hobbies though. Photography has to be 
the main one, and there can't be a community drive to that because 
of course I haven't even got any of my film photos developed in the 
many years since they stopped doing it locally. I think I would 
like developing too, based mainly on how I like etching my own 
circuit boards (at least when it works), but these "pure hobbies" 
are also the ones that I devote the least time to. Again I 
appreciate a little bit of admiration, but it's a very minor 
desire. I would like a pretty woman to take with me and pose in 
shots, but that's something quite different...

Then I guess my other "pure hobby" would be collecting. There's a 
real pleasure in just going through a collection of things that 
you're interested in and examining them, researching them. I like 
history and engineering so when I do give myself the time to really 
go through all of my old technology such as the cameras, it's just 
blissful (though it also tends to go on all day, irresistably, and 
leave me quite tired, so one has to choose one's moments - I'd like 
more time for it). Actually I would enjoy showing things off to 
others to some extent, again especially to a nice woman (who I'd 
definately be talking _at_ in that case), but actually nobody else 
has even been inside my house in years, so it's not the reason why 
I collect. I've only really started showing things off now with 
this Gopher hole - in the Photos and History Snippets parts. Though 
nobody has ever commented on any of that. History Snippets has been 
fun though, because it prompts me to research specific things on 
the internet and that can be very interesting. It is pretty stuck 
in about the 30s-60s era though, because that's roughly the period 
that I find most facinating. Most people are probably more into 
nostalgia, and I go back just a bit too far for many people to find 
that. But I don't care, it's what I like. I'll put up a picture of 
some mid-late 80s Motorola IC databooks for the next entry though - 
I think the cover graphics are quite pretty, and it will vary the 
date range a bit.

Yesterday I bought another radiation dosimeter for my collection 
too. That collection is a little more obscure than the old cameras, 
I'm sure I'll babble about it here some more one day.

 - The Free Thinker