[Milsurplus] [ARC5] Item 300447369243

[Nick England]

On the bright side of things - think of your pack-ratting as just a
side effect of a beneficial affliction.

There is some interesting research saying that the mental
characteristics that make good engineers, designers, technicians, etc
are related to some compulsion to acquire and organize complete
collections of stuff. The beneficial mental characteristics (ability
to organize lots of complicated stuff, keep a mental model of complex
interactions, relate schematics & drawings to actual systems, etc.)
has some relation to a form of really mild autism, evidently.

So I figure that my ability to have made a good living designing
really complex digital systems with 1000's of chips is directly
related to my having filled up the basement with 480 Heathkits,
Knightkits, Johnson kits, etc. OK, I think that's a perfectly
reasonable tradeoff. Would I rather be some guy with 2 radios and no
ability to troubleshoot anything? Hell no.

Not surprisingly, once I had accumulated one of every ham radio kit, I
got interested in something *really* complicated - Navy radio and TTY
gear. Now all the Heathkits and Knightkits are gone (mostly to a
couple of locals who took away truckloads to flog on ebay) and the
basement is full of stuff like a triple diversity receiver with 420
tubes - sweet!
http://www.navy-radio.com/misc/shack.htm

Guess what? - There really is existential pleasure in being a
technology nut. It is just flat out fun, interesting, and enjoyable to
learn all about some facet of technology and to indulge yourself in
acquiring, understanding, restoring, etc. And its a side effect of
having an engineering brain - cool!

So I say sit back and embrace your inner geek. The world has way too
many people who can chatter 24/7 about celebrities - and haven't got a
clue what happens when they hit the ON button on their "magic"
technology.

Yeah sure, make some plan so your poor spouse doesn't have to deal
with all your stuff when you kick off - that's what "friends" are for
- heh, heh.
Have Fun,
Nick K4NYW