I have developed a terrible habit over the years, which is tied directly to why I end up picking up and putting down hobbies on the regular. My focus is always on the wrong darn thing.
My interests are varied, and very frequently technical in nature. Even when the topic of a new hobby isn't directly tech-driven, I tend to gravitate towards the aspects which are. I'm plagued by wanting to identify the best possible minimal starting point. The cleanest and most efficient setup to operate within. It's complete nonsense, but I cannot help myself.
This blog is a perfect example. I almost never have anything that's really worth saying, but I've spent an inordinate amount of time working on pelican-inelegant because I wanted to produce what I imagined was the cleanest minial setup for writing my version of a blog.
My teleconferencing setup is overcomplicated, because for a while I was drawn down the path of thinking about streaming video games that I played with my daughter. So multiple cameras, an OBS configuration, lighting, a MIDI controller to handle scene changes and overlays, and a medium-quality introductory microphone on a boom arm with a shock filter. I didn't need any of this nonsense, but the idea of setting up that environment was more tantalizing than the actual streaming ever was. And now I just have a relatively nice configuration for conference calls.
My home network has absolutely no reason to be as complicated as it is, but of course I've got PoE managed switches, multiple subnets, firewall rules out the wazoo, locally hosted services and NAS, containers for home assistant and octoprint. None of it needed to be this convoluted, I could have just used a single access point and maybe two repeaters. Don't even get me started about the fiber run out to the garage. Or the NVR and cameras.
I don't need any of these things, but I'm in love with creating the setup. Fascinated with identifying the details of a new, niche, specialized configuration.
Do I need a cycling stand? Do I need a metal lathe? Do I need an entire garage of tools with dedicated air lines? How about the kiln and the pottery wheel?
No! Or maybe.
I get a certain happiness and psychological pleasure from being knee-deep in something new. I tend to get everything second-hand, so it's not even as expensive as it sounds. It's mostly an annoyance of space and clutter, if anything, and that's just an organizational problem. Oh hey, I wonder if there's an ideal home inventory tooling setup that I could implement...
But it's a shame. While I have a way and means to make so many things, I don't actually have anything I want to make. I can publish my thoughts, but rarely have thoughts worth publishing. My little project code is sometimes interesting in the moment, but then what? It very rarely fixes someone's genuine needs.
I guess that I must want to do things for the sake of doing them. Or to feel enabled. Maybe that's my real guilty pleasure.
In any case, it's going to be one hell of an estate sale one day.