digitalBush

My poor wife knows all to well that I'm a member of the Hobby of the Month Club. Instead of having one particular hobby, I have several! It's a sickness, but I just can't help myself. I just want to learn about everything!

Courtesy of bucklava

Here's how it goes: I think I might be getting a new toy. This could be a piece of electronic equipment, power tool, gun, whatever. I'll research the hell out of that particular item on the Internet. Which one is the best? Which one is cheaper? What are the different features? And the most important of all: How much can I customize it? These are the questions that I will obsess agonize over for a month.

After I've made an analysis of my options, then I'll start to second guess myself.  Do I really need this?  Am I going to enjoy it?  Will I be completely satisfied with the product? I HATE having buyer's remorse.  I hate it so much in fact that half the time my research will lead me to not buying that particular item at all.  I just talk myself right out of buying/building it.  Ultimately I'll end up revisiting said product in a year and starting the whole process over again.

Then, here comes the part my wife has to hate.  If I actually commit to buying something, I will then spend the next month playing with it ad nauseum.   If I'm not playing with it, then I'm on a message forum reading about it. My only saving grace is that most of the time Ashley has to convince me to buy something for myself, so she's only doing this to herself. Really, I told you I was sick.

Eventually I'll get bored with giving said item my constant focus and will move onto another item to research, not buy, research, buy, obsess over briefly, and then use like normal.  It's a nasty cycle, but it's who I am.  I like to learn about things and all of the things I can do with said thing.  All I can offer is my deepest apologies to my loving wife who has to put up with this madness.

So, my question to you is: Am I alone here? Surely there are others like me with this same affinity towards learning everything there is to know about a lot of things.