Something occurred to me yesterday. When it comes to "gear enthusiasm"—sometimes called "gearheadism" except that seems like such an inelegant word—some things require associated skills and some do not.
What would you call this? Active and passive gear geekery maybe?
It struck me that wristwatch collecting is probably as close as you can come to a purely passive or undemanding form of gear enthusiasm. It really requires nothing of the collector except that he or she like watches and wants more than one. The only skill required is telling time. We'll make an exception for guys like Nick, who you met two days ago, because he can take them apart and put them back together again and it's what he does for a living. But I think you can be a watch geek without having much in the way of skills. (As I'm learning on YouTube.)
At the other end might be guitar connoisseurship. Does it make any sense at all to collect guitars if you can't play guitar and know nothing about music?
Although I'm sure there must be non-playing guitar geeks out there, because, well, because geekery.
Some skills and activities require equipment that's so utilitarian that I imagine it can't inspire much in the way of gear enthusiasm...I don't think, anyway. (I don't know.) Knitting, maybe. Do knitters argue over knitting needles? I have a friend who has become a late-in-life potter. He's quite good at it, in my opinion. He's certainly enjoying himself. But I've never heard of a potter who is a connoisseur of throwing wheels or kilns, and has to have just the perfect one, or has to have many alternatives at hand. Maybe I'm just not close enough to it to know. Do those people exist? It seems to me like it would be akin to collecting refrigerators. Surely some kilns are better than others. But if you have access to a kiln you're doing okay. I just can't imagine a potter poring obsessively over kiln catalogs and constantly upgrading to better and better kilns. Maybe once or twice as finances improve. At the very least, I'm going to venture the claim that there's no one who's vitally interested in pottery equipment who isn't a potter. There probably is (see above), but you've got to admit the notion is pretty absurd.
Sometimes gear geekery makes less sense the less you're fitted to practice what it requires. For example, bicycle gearheads certainly exist, but how good does your bike need to be if you're sixty pounds overweight and have the stamina of an 80-year-old couch potato? Surely your bike only needs to be so good and no better in that case...and might even be more difficult and inappropriate for you to use as it comes closer to being a specialized high-end ultralight racing machine. Can you be an archery geek if you don't have the strength to draw back a bow?
Rock-climbing requires gear, but I can't imagine being interested in the gear without being active as a climber. And being a climber is highly skill-based as well as fitness-based.
Some forms of gear enthusiasm might need associated skills only in certain ranges. For instance, surely it's possible to be a car nut without really having any special abilities as a driver. It's probably true that some of the middle-aged guys you see proudly piloting the latest Corvette can't drive any better than the average commuter. As "supercar fails" and "Nurburgring crash" videos attest, lots of guys own more car than they can actually handle. And yet at some level, driving ability surely comes to the forefront...for instance, if your focus is autocross.
Maybe that's one reason pickup trucks are so popular. There's no presumption that you should have any special skills as a driver. (Again, that I know of. Maybe I'm just an innocent.)
In some pursuits, knowledge is the most important thing. My brother collects gems, and you'd think that's a purely passive pursuit, except that the amount of knowledge he has about it would fill a book.
Would birdwatching qualify as a passion that's mainly knowledge-based? It certainly has an activity component, though. (My brother knows how to facet.) It's a form of non-invasive collecting, if you will. You collect sightings on a life-list, but you don't actually molest the birds. If you're doing it responsibly. The moral equivalent of hunting, to adapt William James's famous phrase? The other examples of mainly knowledge-centric hobbies I can think of fall mostly under the heading of collecting rather than gear enthusiasm per se, though.
And in other pursuits, wealth is a prerequisite. Consider Minnesotan John Allen's collection of antiquarian wooden speedboats. Gear geekery of a high order, but you can't collect antique boats without being rich, I wouldn't think. Luxury watch collecting certainly falls under this requirement. John McEnroe, the tennis player, is a devoted art collector, but once said his participation is severely limited because his net worth is only $100 million!
Poor guy....
Photography is flexible
On the spectrum of "active skills required" (guitar geekery) to purely passive (watch geekery), photography is remarkably flexible. At one end of the spectrum, being a photographer can require a great deal of dedication, visual aptitude, and skills. But on the other, well, anyone can take a photograph—just point it and shoot, as the phrase has it. You might not get a masterpiece, but you'll get something. Anyone can participate.
With photography, you pick where you want to be on the active <—> passive scale. You can just collect gear and rarely if ever use it. Or, your whole focus can be shooting and you can all but ignore the gear. As an example of the latter, at the magazine I used to edit we once got a very nice portfolio from a woman in the Midwest. When I asked her what camera she used, she said something like, "I don't know—a Pentax, maybe? My daughter got it for a photography class." She offered to check and get back to me. No gearhead she!
Photography as a passion is unusually generous and accommodating. As a shooter you can be what David Gilmour is as a guitarist*, but photography can be a very involving hobby without requiring that you take pictures at all. Quite remarkable, all things considered.
Mike
*And he collected guitars, as you might remember.
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Featured Comments from:
Nicholas Hartmann: "I can speak to gearheadism (as you define it) with regard to pottery and birdwatching. No, potters do not geek out over wheels. Some potters own a wheel, although I know many other very experienced and skillful potters who are happy to use any studio wheel that's available. I believe this is because there's no upside in terms of perceived quality or (much more importantly) conspicuous consumption. A potter's wheel that costs less than $700 is probably a piece of junk, but $1,500 gets you a wheel that will literally outlive the potter or withstand multiple generations of abusive students. Few potters own kilns, since even the small electric ones are expensive, hot, and power-hungry, and there is almost no skill or craft involved in using one—it's much more cost-effective to pay for space in somebody else's. Where potters geek out is with glazes, and with firing technologies like wood-firing. But in both cases, the reason to spend money on more glazes, or on a wood-fired kiln the size of a house, is not to be seen spending the money, but to get results that are unobtainable in any other way. That's not gearheadism; it's called 'art.'
"Birdwatching is actually a hotbed of gearheadism, focused (sorry) on optics: how much you are seen to have spent on your spotting scopes and binoculars helps establish your place in the pecking (sorry again) order. Another status signifier is how much you spent to get to where you use the optics: birds seen at or from the farthest West of the Aleutian Islands, for example, can be added to one's USA list, and the more expensive the trip to get there, and more lurid the tales of weather and other hardships endured, the higher one's status. All this is part of the sport of 'listing': what counts is how many birds are on your 'life list,' and vast sums are spent to spot just that one more species that will put you ahead of the other guy (and, as with most such hypercompetitive equipment-based pursuits, it is mostly guys). Most listers aren't actually interested in the birds themselves, except insofar as knowing about the bird helps them find it. But you can also (be seen to) pay a guide for that....
"My assumption is that ever since humans became humans, guys (yep) have been sitting around the campfire one-upping each other about this great flint deposit only they know about, or how the oak branches from over the next range of hills give your spear a much better grip and durability."
Geoff Wittig: "When it comes to bicycles, ironically it is the less fit cyclists who benefit the most from the high tech ultra-lightweight machines. The better your physical condition, the less help you need from technology to make that 40 mile ride, unless you're an actual racing competitor."
Sharon: "I disagree with some of your observations. If you are out of shape, then a good bike is vital or you won't keep exercising. A very good bike is lighter and easier to ride than a cheap clunker. When my son was young, I took him roller skating. I hated using their skates so I bought good skates for both of us. It was a different sport with good skates. The wheels rolled so smoothly—they were a pleasure to use. So I think, the worse you are in some endeavors, the more you need good equipment. Maybe I missed your point, though. :-) "
Mike replies: No, I take your point. When my son was eight or nine his guitar teacher said that it's appropriate for a beginner to have a good guitar because they are easier to play and to keep in tune. Of course he was teaching out of a local guitar store. And a grizzled old golf pro once told me that actually all duffers have it wrong with regard to fitted clubs. He said he was a scratch golfer and had the ability to adjust to any set of clubs, so he didn't mind playing with anything; but a set of fitted clubs greatly benefits a beginner who is just learning the swing, he told me, because they won't learn to swing while compensating for clubs that don't fit them. So I see your point about the bikes.
Ken Bennett: "Birdwatching can get quite competitive, and there is plenty of very expensive gear to buy and argue about. Most birders don't care, but some do. (Leica vs. Swarovski! 80mm versus 60mm scopes!! LOL)
"Knitters are less competitive, in my experience, but they tend to collect yarn. A knitter's 'stash' can take up a large room, or more. Yarn seems to me to be like buying a brick of film back in the day— you dream about what you can make with it. The collection of yarn can overtake the making of things.
"All the guitar nerds I know also play. Some of them are even pretty good."
Thor D.: "There is a certain element of owning gear that I find many cultures relate to value or ability signaling. So while some gear may not actually require specific knowledge or skill to enjoy as objects, owning that gear without a certain level of competence would be seen as posturing, which has always been interesting to me. Would a beginner guitarist be able to show off a fancy guitar collection with pride if not able to play well enough to do them justice?
"As for bikes, this is true too. I remember a neighborhood that I frequented was lousy with very wealthy folks who would ride around on $5,000++ mountain bikes that they never even rode off the sidewalk. There is no logic to that, but if you have the money then why not I suppose. As an avid biker I often drooled over the titanium frames and high end components, but after riding a few I realized the difference was so minimal compared to my $600 bike that my bike lust diminished almost instantly. I am just not a good enough rider to need them and fortunately some part of my brain accepted that."
Keith: "Some triathletes have gearheadism really bad, especially where bikes are concerned. They would rather spend many thousands of dollars on high tech carbon fibre bikes to cut wind and rolling resistance, and save a few grams of weight, all in the name of supposedly shaving a few seconds off their bike time. It's funny/sad, since the person on the bike is by far the least aerodynamic part of the system. They would be far better off to buy an OK-to-nice bike, and spend more time training to ride faster. But no, they think better gear is the answer. We call them posers. It's exactly like handing a Phase One camera to a beginner photographer."
John Krumm: "I had an economics 101 professor in college, a fun lecturer with a Greek accent. He was giving us a lesson about something, and mentioned that he collected camera lenses. He had used them when younger, but really just loved the lenses as objects, so now he kept them nicely arranged in a drawer and occasionally took them out for dusting and admiration."
Keith S: "Some of your examples describe collectors rather than gearheads. For a collector, collecting itself is the hobby or pursuit. A watch collector would be more comparable to a stamp collector than any gearhead. A gearhead is obsessed with acquiring the latest and greatest, or different types of, equipment and gear for his interest, usually in pursuit of finding that elusive 'last' camera, stereo system, or bicycle. The difference is that a gearhead intends to use, or at least try, every piece of gear he acquires. A person can be both a gearhead and a collector such as a photographer who has a plethora of digital cameras, tripods, bags, etc. he uses or have tried while also collecting vintage cameras and lenses he doesn’t intend to use."
Mike Plews: "One sign of gearhead syndrome is the desire for a piece of equipment thinking it will change your life, getting it, and then never using it. My Stanley #55 combination plane comes to mind."
Lesley T: "More about bikes. And gear. And guys (or at least the subset of bicycle gearheads).
"We cycle a lot, although at about 75 and 80, we don't cycle nearly as far, or as quickly, as we used to. My husband likes good gear, but it has to work and help to get the job done as efficiently and easily as possible. It infuriates him when we see a couple out riding and the guy is out in front on a (very) expensive lightweight road bike while his wife is lagging behind on a heavier and more cumbersome department-store machine. I have to restrain him from yelling out the window, 'If you want to ride together, and for her to like it...GET HER THE GOOD BIKE!!!' So yes, good tools can help to get the job done, and to make the experience more enjoyable."
James: "When it comes to bicycles. Sigh. Yes. Gearheadism is rife. But as for road racing bikes there is a put-up or shut-up moment. You go race. If Thom Hogan says 'your equipment is not holding you back, your form/fitness is,' there is no proof. With bikes, you can go and get proof any weekend in the summer (or for Cyclocross, fall) you like. Race fees are under $100. Go and race. You will see how much more it matters to be fit than it does to have a nicer bike.
"So, if you are a gearhead in bikes, you have to admit that you are in it for buying the bike, not for the added speed. But we do it for the joy of the thing."
Rob de Loe: "In a conversation about photography I once made the (naive) point that painters surely didn't obsess about gear the way photographers do. A person whose wife was a painter chimed in about the intense and boring technical debates he was subjected to when the painters showed up about brushes, paints, canvases, etc. I think Nicholas Hartmann nailed it: people like to differentiate themselves from others based on technical knowledge and gear. It's a status thing. I've seen people leave hobbies primarily because the gear improved to the point where "anyone" could do it, so it wasn't competitive enough anymore."
wts: "There's a hobby where gear is irrelevant because you can't buy it—railroad mileage collector. That's a person who may go to almost any length to ride a train over a given stretch of track, record it, and boast about it to his fellow mileage collectors who didn't or weren't able to 'get' that track. This is a very frustrating hobby for younger participants as tracks have been continually taken out of service over the lifetime of the older collectors. Walking or riding over a rail trail doesn't count."
cecelia: "As a professional knitter, I can assure you that there are genuine debates about different kinds of knitting needles. However, even very top-of-the-line knitting needles are affordable compared to cameras and watches. Knitting, unlike watch collecting or digital photography, has its major expense associated with a consumable: yarn. A knitter's yarn collection is called their 'stash' and many knitters have extensive and expensive stashes far bigger than they can use in a lifetime. Books have been written on stash."
Mike replies: Gem-cutters often have a stockpile of rough. When he was younger, a friend who is a cutter and dealer took out a very large bank loan—on the order of a home mortgage—to buy the stock of rough of a retiring cutter he knew. The guy gave him a fantastic deal and my friend was able to first cherry-pick the stock, then sell the rest of it piece-by-piece and pay back the entire loan. It gave him a great start on his own stock and was a wonderful gift from the older cutter.
Ian Hunter: "I have always been surprised by new watercolour painting students turning up with cheap paints and watercolour paper. I always advise that good rag paper and artist quality paint make it so much easier. Two good-quality brushes are always enough and better than a bunch of cheapo ones. Sometimes they listen!"
Gordon Buck: "Pocket knives...."
Malcolm Myers: "My wife has bought a couple of 'gearhead' Singer featherweight sewing machines, a 221k and an even more expensive 222k. But she hasn't got the one with the red S model which is even more expensive but is actually not any better. And then there are the wrinkle crinkle versions which literally go for thousands. For a sewing machine...."
Tex Andrews: "Well, I think geekery divides into two basic subsets: appreciation geekery (wine, cheese, jazz, sports stats, but also watches, cars, boats,paperweights, art, etc.), and tool geekery (anything that has to be used for a task to be appreciated—knives, saws, woodworking tools in general, etc.). Anything I don't make but am 'into' is appreciation geekery if I know much about it. But then I also make stuff, so there's maker's/usage geekery in there as well. With power tools, I'm a Makita guy, although there are some tools by other manufacturers I admire. You are correct in identifying photography gear as having a spectrum, and I think it's from appreciation through usage. That's why Leicas get collected, but then also have usage geekery."
Mike replies: That's an excellent distinction and one I never thought of.
Mikko Kalavainen: "Knitters definitely geek over the needles and the yarn. BIG time. And they usually have a whole closet of yarns that may go unused for a loooong time. Yours, Husband of a knitaholic. "
JH: "Mike, I think you greatly underestimate OCD!
"I could easily write a response longer than your post about the people I've known who are dedicated to collecting various things and sometimes using types of gear. From my experiences:
"People buy fancy watches as bling—they're jewelry, not timepieces.
"You don't have to be a musician to collect the guitars of famous people.
"Knitters obsess over yarn. They can own rooms full of it.
"The artist who bought our farm has three kilns she installed in our barn, each for different materials.
"My experience as a racing/track day instructor is that the ability of many drivers is inversely proportional to the ability of the car—it's a zero-sum. One of the best drivers I taught brought a Ford Fiesta to the track.
"Birdwatching is about collecting sightings (or in my case photos) and simply being outdoors. Birdwatchers tend to be conservationists, sometimes obsessively so.
"I know many people who collect cars and never drive them, they just look at them (maybe like their trophy wives?) I know some who are good drivers and they tend to have only a couple of cars which they exercise regularly.
"Many times I've been asked to help photographers who are loaded with high-end gear they have purchased but never bothered to use. Many bought it just before that fabulous trip they planned.
"Collectors are really interesting in what they choose to collect. Sometimes it's just the beauty of the items, sometimes it's memories of them. I had an Aunt who collected toothpick holders; another, plates from tourist spots. I know people with thousands of records—classical, jazz, rock, etc. I know people who have tens of thousands of books, some of a single category, like mysteries. An artist friend has thousands of cheap Mexican carved figures she picked up on trips there—and just finished cataloguing them. A prof in college collected Edison cylinders, then recorded them and manipulated the recordings to make them sound like HiFi. A friend collected electrical/electronic/scientific instruments. When he died he left three rooms of them which his widow still has not figured out what to do with. One of his sons has collected one of every Apple computer—but he makes his living writing about them. A cousin is married to a guy in the guitar pick business who collects them from famous players.
"I could go on, but won't. Enough is enough, especially in comments...."
