[pimlottc]

I read somewhere once that for every community of hobbyists, there's 4 main types of activities enthusiasts engage in:

1. Doing the thing

2. Talking about doing the thing

3. Getting into the gear for doing the thing (collecting, building, customizing)

4. Talking about the gear for doing the thing

Very often, the first group is the smallest!

[swayvil]

There's a higher evolution of this seen in certain religious circles. Where any mention of "doing the thing" is reviled, called "impossible", "sinful" even. Any discussion of technique banned from the conversation.

So what they do is the other 3, and wait for a random bolt of lightning, or a favorable judgment from the inscrutable supreme authority, or even declare that the "doing" is in fact the "talking etc".

It's an interesting bit of psychology for sure.

[bigbluesax]

That's an interesting way of looking at it, it's not just different from person to person but also from hobby to hobby. For me climbing is mainly about 1, but on reflection I defnitely spend more time talking about competative games than actually playing. I can also think of a few people who have hobbies that focus around 3 and 4.