For me it’s driving while under the influence. If you couldn’t tell, I like me some ganja. However I have long since held the belief that it is utterly insane to drive while under the influence of most substances, with maybe nicotine and caffeine being the exception. All too often I see other stoners smoking and driving, which I simply can’t fathom. I’ve only operated a vehicle once under the influence and it was just to move a U-Haul around the block to a different parking spot, which was such a scary experience while high that I refuse to even consider getting behind the wheel again while high.
“All the gear, no idea”.
This applies to pretty much every hobby or interest I’ve had. It describes people who start a new thing, and immediately go out and buy “the best” equipment, which they do not have the aptitude to use.
For example, a few years ago I started kayaking, and joined a local club which has kit hire available for most kit, especially the expensive bits (kayaks, paddles, helmets, paddles). Kit hire is insanely cheap, literally £1 an item per day, so you’d need to hire a kayak hundreds or thousands of times for it to be cheaper to buy your own boat. Hiring also allows you to play around with loads of different makes, models, and shapes of boat to find what works for you.
When new people join the club they have two intro sessions, in which, in a purposefully stable boat, best case scenario, they do a mile on calm, slowly moving, water, some figure 8s, and don’t capsize.
Context for people who have never kayaked before, at this stage literally no one can paddle in a straight line. Hell, most people end up spinning around 180 degrees after 3-5 stokes as their dominate side overpowers. Trying to turn the kayak is scary because you have to lean over (like a bike) but you don’t want to go for a swim in the river, so you don’t lean far enough, which makes the kayak feel less stable. Overall for most people starting out it’s an enjoyable time, but with a lot of nervousness and trepidation.
The club provide a list of kit recommendations for people starting out, all of which is related to clothing to keep you dry-ish, and costs max £100. Both the club officials, and the members, continuously tell people to not go out and buy loads of stuff immediately and how the majority of members hire the boats.
But every year one or two of the newbies decide they absolutely love it and next week come back having spent a few grand on their own kayak, paddle, and high-spec clothing (dry suits, etc), and proceed to spend the next 2 months absolutely hating their lives because they don’t have the skill to paddle the kayak they’ve bought, continually capsize because it’s “so unstable”, and ultimately quit through frustration.
The record for this is when someone bought three boats - whitewater / river, sea, and playboat - each of which require different skills, some of which are mutually exclusive (in a river kayak you lean left to turn left, in a sea kayak you lean right to turn left). To their credit, they’ve stuck at it, and were either very lucky in buying boats which fit their style, or are just sticking with them and learning how to paddle them through sheer insistence. Either way, fair play.
Some people are just like that. I knew the words Taschentuch and Gesundheit when I set my major to German, and I’m now getting my master’s in German instruction, married to a German, and I’ve lived here for several years.
I’ve thought about what on earth caused me to choose German so thoroughly and unpredictably, but it’s not actually abnormal for me. A friend took me to a community folk dance and within two months I was dancing 14 hours a week. I, uh, really commit.
That said, I’m not in a financial position to spend that kind of money, so it’s pretty low stakes for me
Edit: I am also autistic and have ADHD, so I’m not suggesting this is standard behavior, but there’s a bunch of us
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with throwing yourself fully in to something, especially if you enjoy it.
A different example would be cooking. Most people starting out will benefit from using Teflon-coated pans to stop food sticking and burning. But highly skilled cooks do not use Teflon, and will have pans with very different attributes (thicker or thinner bottoms, stainless steel, copper, ceramic, etc) and choose the best pan for the task. The newbie doesn’t know how to get the benefits, and ultimately performs worse.
I guess what I’m describing are hobbies where your interaction with that activity is through the equipment. In these you have to learn two things simultaneously, how to do the thing, and how to do the thing using this particular thing.
High-level equipment requires you to already be able to do the thing. Entry-level equipment helps you learn how to do the thing.
To be clear, I’m not taking price here.
Lastly, I also have adhd, and really wanted to buy a kayak after my first session too, but knowing that impulse is due to my ND I’m able to stop myself (having learnt the hard way a good few times). I appreciate not everyone can do this. Fwiw, I don’t think this is the only cause of this behaviour.
Definitely not the only cause of the behavior, no. Excitement, just hitting a nerve in a good way, and lots of other things can make people commit.
But I did miss that the pro gear made things harder for them. I have experience with that too, and I can finally do nail stamping, but shot my self in a foot a little by getting the “nice” set. I’m much happier making that mistake with a $30 stamper than several thousand dollars of kayaking equipment.
Buying a ton of gear to replace skill, or just because all the YouTubers are pushing it is so common.
I’ve made a conscious effort in all my hobbies to push as far as I can with entry level gear. Only upgrade when I’ve worn it out or I can articulate why I personally need better. Helps from ending up with a bloated collection of useless expensive things.
damn that’s wild. for hobbies i have experience in and am returning to, like climbing, i tend to rent gear one or two times and see if i wanna get back into it and then buy gear. i prefer to rent but for some things you just want your own gear. im not the most consistent with a lot of things, but when i buy gear i tend to keep returning stuff because i get reminded about a hobby when i see that i have it and then im more likely to do it.
something like your kayaking club though sounds absolutely perfect and i couldn’t fathom dropping thousands on a kayak when you haven’t even tried a bunch of stuff that’s available for you to try for damn near free.
My take on this is that it’s a predominately “rich person problem”.
Like pretty much all hobbies kayaking can absolutely be done cheaply, with some sensible ways of saving money and some rather dangerous ways.
Because the best kit is expensive, and status kit is even more expensive, rich people presume that because Awesome Person X uses Y, and they can afford to buy Y, they should also use Y.
What they forget is they are not APX, they are a newbie who cannot even get in the kayak without capsizing, and is now resorting to dragging their 3k carbonfibreglass composite beauty over gravel and rocks. We all start here, but most of us are in scratched up plastic boats where 1 more scratch doesn’t matter.
This tickled me.
A decade ago, I lived by a little lake. Bought essentially the cheapest single -piece kayak I could find. Fucking loved it. I don’t have that one any more but lately since I live so close to a national park it’s tempting to get one I can hike with. It never even crossed my mind that there’s enthusiast gear, aside from a super cozy pfd, sun protection, and maybe an anchor lol. Maybe it’s because I fish, too. I mean, why wouldn’t you? You can reach the best spots from the water!