Member of my extended family is an audiophile. Audiophiles have an interesting image around the Internet. For
example, this particular specimen claimed to hear a difference between the same audio file played with a 32-bit build of
foobar2000 and a 64-bit one. On the same platform. With bit rate of 128 kbit/s. If there was a difference in perception,
I doubt it was a result of the build bitness.
Anyway, what we are interested in today is the ratio of the costs and what the activity gives back. I'd say that
costs are easier to identify and quantify. For example, money spent or time consumed. On the other hand, the "give
backs" are a bit more vague. Of course, we might sometimes get something quantifiable, like money, but usually it will
be something like satisfaction, social interaction, experience, skill, things of that sort.
For the sake of an example, let's say the audiophiles have this ratio disastrously biased towards the costs.
However, the ratio does not depend only on the domain. Consider playing computer games. You need to buy them,
sometimes even subscribe. They consume time and can get addictive, and result mainly in satisfaction after overcoming
challenges or serve as a medium to relax or escape. Depending on the certain game the ratio may tilt dynamically. For
instance, "whaling" is a known practice for MMO and/or gacha game companies, so some games may be designed to encourage
this kind of behaviour. There are also cheap or free games that people play solely to meet with their friends. There are
also games that accomplish both and even hold your social life as a hostage.
An individual approach may also change the ratio. Consider amateur radio operator that slowly expands their station.
Maybe they bought a cheap handheld, but they also put up a long-wire with an SDR, built 144 MHz and/or 435 MHz antennas
for amateur satellite communication, got in touch with local ham radio clubs, started learning more about electronics,
and maybe even built their first receiver or transmitter from scratch. Compare that to someone who just spends a
non-trivial amount of money buying a professional radio station. Similar behaviour can be observed with any other hobby,
e.g., photography.
There are also gadgets. What does a programmer need to work? A computer, keyboard, a screen. There is no need for
three ultra-wide screens and an RGB LED mechanical keyboard that reacts to the state of my lava lamp. Of course, have
some fun, we can spoil ourselves a bit. But did I really do enough to spoil myself? Will I ever use this Raspberry Pi,
or am I simply buying it to feel like doing something? Do not misunderstand and do not get discouraged. Trivial or even
pointless tasks, spur-of-the-moment decisions can make difference and may allow us to make the first step and grow. If
we never had chance in childhood or early adulthood, we might also discover new things that we enjoy.
Simply because of this possibility it might be worthwhile to try things. Or at least think about them. If we keep a
discovery approach in mind, we might be able to maximize the "give backs". And because of this, I may want to avoid
making (too much) fun of audiophiles because some of them may get into proper sound engineering or maybe the are
actually very passionate about music. Also because what others do and enjoy is not my business and I should focus on
judging myself.
With all of this being said, I really hope I won't feel bad about buying a new lens for my camera.