Now when you have all toys are you happier than when you were a broken student? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 19, 2023, 04:50:54 pm
content: I am not sure if I am... Something is missing inside me.Lets discuss.

author: artag
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 19, 2023, 08:22:55 pm
content: I am still poor, because I keep buying toys.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 19, 2023, 08:33:04 pm
content: Define happy.This is down to our human condition I think.When we want something and can't get it, we get frustrated, but that gives us motivation to get the thing we don't have.When getting what we want becomes much easier, we get instant gratification, but that wears off very quickly, and after that we feel "empty" again.Probably just all comes from our "hunter" nature.

author: Anthocyanina
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 19, 2023, 10:50:25 pm
content: i'm still a broke student, but very lucky to have some nice test instruments at home, better than the ones at my university. it's been a bit over a year since i got all that, and i still look at them on my desk ocasionally and it still brings me some joy. perhaps that will eventually fade and a home lab will just be a given, but i still treat those things like new and keep the dust off. i wouldn't say the things have made me happier in general, but they are still that still bring joy

author: retiredfeline
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 19, 2023, 11:48:41 pm
content: As one cynic said, money doesn't buy happiness, it just gives you more choice of distractions from misery.

author: xrunner
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 20, 2023, 12:01:19 am
content: Quote from: Bud on July 19, 2023, 04:50:54 pmSometimes I wish I could go back in time to those days in school. Seems like a simpler time and it was fun - yet I had nothing at all really.I didn't exactly say I was happier now did I?

author: Kim Christensen
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 20, 2023, 12:02:33 am
content: Quote from: Bud on July 19, 2023, 04:50:54 pmThis is what happens when a hobby becomes a job and then a career. Not sure if that's your situation.

author: Alex Eisenhut
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 20, 2023, 01:20:07 am
content: No, because I'm old, and the 1990s were much better than the present.

author: pqass
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 20, 2023, 01:21:00 am
content: Having been a broke student affects me to this day. My mind defaults to build vs. buy. Older me tries to be wiser. I spend far too much time researching a buying decision. Most of the time I just defer it indefinitely.Although the wall of test equipment I see on YouTube looks impressive, I don't want to be a trash collector. Quality and value are important to me and fortunately most of it was below CAD$200 delivered. Although, I did buy my HP DSO new. I don't want to be a "consumer" so I limit my hoard to what I can foreseeably use.Am I happier? Yes. I've curated a nice modest collection without any regrets. But It took some effort to get here.And as a hobbyist, using professional equipment furthered my knowledge immensely.

author: floobydust
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 20, 2023, 03:01:53 am
content: It was a happier time back then.School is easier in that you don't worry about life as much as making it to the next class on time and when assignments are due, exams start etc. It's kind of like living on autopilot according to your Daytimer. You don't have much time to tinker or use toys though.EE in university was gross- I had to laugh they try to teach students how a transistor works with math. Spend a few lectures on Ebers-Moll equations. Nobody had an intuitive feel or breadboarded like I had years before. I got an exemption from the labs - they were gross. 3 hrs and then write the report on... Ohm's law and your 4 resistors which nobody knew the colour codes, that is not taught in lectures because you learn the "hands on" in the labs.You don't study the 555 until 4th year. Unbelievable and then you see the professor with 1970 polyester slacks andShuroneyeglasses and you realize you are in a distorted space-time continuum.But, as a student you are broke. Tuition has gone up at least 10%/year I figure.Nowadays I see university students wearing nice fashionable clothes and I must have looked like a hobo in comparison. Looks were not so important back then.I made the mistake of loving EE and trying to make a career out of it. Ended up working for many assholes and failed/failing companies. Boom and bust economic cycles are brutal.Canada is a wasteland as far as EE and product development.Now that I have plenty of toys- the components are so small, goodbye through-hole and good-bye quality, everything is disposable and made in china.

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 20, 2023, 10:49:41 am
content: Quote from: Bud on July 19, 2023, 04:50:54 pmA checked goal only gives happiness for a moment.The fun is in the journey, not in the destination.Try a new goal, maybe get a new hobby.Something doable, but not trivial.

author: RAPo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 20, 2023, 10:56:28 am
content: I buy toys (prefer tools) that I couldn't afford then but can afford now. To own them gives a good feeling.That, however, is not related to happiness. When I was younger, I had more energy and dreams of accomplishing things.At sixty, I have less energy, less dreams, but the onlook of a few years to live.I want to fill those years with things that make me happy.

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 20, 2023, 11:18:57 am
content: Time but no money.ThenMoney but no time.

author: jonovid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 20, 2023, 11:57:34 am
content: QuoteQuoteif your seeking religious truth?

author: Siwastaja
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 20, 2023, 12:52:05 pm
content: I still don't have that many "toys". Electronic design (and software/firmware even more) requires surprisingly little physical tools, of course some. But what I have gained is a lot of knowledge and understanding how to design things and yes, that makes me happier. As a 5-year old kid my dream was to become a designer who can make those electronic circuit boards I teared apart from stuff my dad kept bringing in (thanks to him for understanding my traits and feeding them). That pretty much started to realize after age 25 or so.I don't believe in the ideology of having a lot of lab gear. Good tools make design work easier but still most of the work is in processing information in your brain. As for other, free-time "toys", pretty much the same ideology. I don't need a fancy car, I need one that works.

author: themadhippy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 20, 2023, 01:15:09 pm
content: I was loads better off as a student,living at home with me parents ,money and time to burn on my hobbies at the time,mainly drinking to much beer,trying to get me leg over or setting fire to some of moroccos finest.Then i finished collage,earnings went up but so did the financial commitments and in reality the quality of life declined.

author: armandine2
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 20, 2023, 01:49:21 pm
content: ... broke students don't take advantage of the access they have to software and journals and books. And, generally can't afford to replicate that access as adults

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 20, 2023, 02:21:14 pm
content: I am in general happier now than then, but it has nothing to do with the toys. Well almost nothing. Much more significant are a life companion, the ensuing children and much greater knowledge and understanding of life. I will say that those starving student days were the second happiest period of my life.

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 20, 2023, 09:13:58 pm
content: Quote from: armandine2 on July 20, 2023, 01:49:21 pm- Find it on sci-hub or lg- Go to a library- If somehow, in some rare case the first two don't have it, sign up for a part time class, and you can usually access all of the schools resources.There are very few people here that are doing research level electronics, most wouldn't make much use of journals. Maybe you are the exception?

author: Stray Electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 20, 2023, 11:47:18 pm
content: Quote from: artag on July 19, 2023, 08:22:55 pmI'm not AS BROKE as I was when I was a student but I still spend too much on TE. And yes, I would say that I'm happier now than when I was a student. I sure as hell don't worry as much about learning a skill, getting a job and making ends meet, etc, etc as I had to then. That's all behind me now.

author: Stray Electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 20, 2023, 11:50:05 pm
content: Quote from: Psi on July 20, 2023, 11:18:57 amQuoted for truth!

author: tautech
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 21, 2023, 03:28:04 am
content: I must be the exception.So so many toys....and in a position to offer such good ones at costs we once never thought possible.

author: Nominal Animal
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 21, 2023, 11:53:37 am
content: I used to afford to buy all the toys I wanted when I ran a business, and spent quite a coin on software too.. but it really wasn't for me.So, now I am piss poor again, and much happier. I did lose my ability to handle any kind of stress at all, though, and that's much, much worse.Money, toys.. nah. Do take care of your body and mind, people. You really don't want to lose those.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 21, 2023, 12:01:29 pm
content: Being a student didn't break it. It took pointless soul destroying work to do that. Then I got out of that kind of work, and things improved.

author: amir.razzaqi
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 21, 2023, 12:17:58 pm
content: Quote from: SiliconWizard on July 19, 2023, 08:33:04 pmThis is effect of dopaminehttps://www.amazon.co.uk/Molecule-More-Chemical-Creativity_and-Determine/dp/1946885118

author: hans
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 21, 2023, 03:43:36 pm
content: Anecdote from gaming scene with race/flight simulators..Young kids don't have money to buy a fancy PC and gear. They use their crusty old rig with a cheap wheel/flightstick, and make it work. They do have all the time available, and perhaps also the younger reflexes, and make the most out of it.Then there are the older folks. They are tied up in family and work obligations. That drains energy and time, but does yield disposable income to buy the fanciest toys. But does that make them win against these young folks? Quite often, no not really. To afford these toys, I don't have the time and energy to use them anymore!I think something similar goes with electronics or many other hobbies. I now have relatively fancy toys compared to when I was a student that make some things much easier to do (I took projects to school to build/scope them, then back home where I wrote firmware while basically "blind" to what was happening). But honestly, the thing I miss most are the days where I had all the time to in the world and little obligations, honestly.I also tend to think that anything thats "fancy" today, will become mainstream in a few toy-generations time. It depends on how early adopter you want to be and the willingness to keep upgrading. If not for the latter its maybe better to sit out and wait for the bang/buck killers. Example: finally we see a somewhat affordable generation of high-resolution DSOs enter the market by e.g. Rigol and Siglent. I'm now using one of those Siglent scopes at work. It's splendid, noise 70uVrms in 50R, 350MHz, 4ch+MSO, 12-bit ADC, large display.. such crisp and clear signals. I honestly thought digital signals had a lot more noise on them as I'm now seeing, e.g. because of high inductive ground leads or whatever. But it was probably quantization noise of my 8-bit 1054Z I got at home.So nice toy and all, but honestly as a hobbyist I will sit it out. It's a nice thing to have, but in my projects on mostly digital low power stuff I don't really need it. Besides, what is the point in spending 2k$+ on a similar 12-bit scope when perhaps in 5-10 years time this stuff will find its way into the new workhorses like we know as e.g. the Rigol 1052E or 1054Z scopes are?

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 22, 2023, 11:47:38 am
content: Quote from: artag on July 19, 2023, 08:22:55 pmI'm like the father of Marty McFly in the first Back to the Future film: I write my own tales in secretAnd I think I am still poor, because I haven't yet made a movie for Netflixbut! I already have the script!sort of cyberpunk version of the Aristotelian process behind the film by Gabriele Muccino,which was itself based on the book "The Pursuit of Happyness" by Chris Gardner.

author: Stray Electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 22, 2023, 01:40:23 pm
content: Quote from: tautech on July 21, 2023, 03:28:04 amX2! After Ebay came along, I've was able to bypass the over-priced used equipment dealers like Tucker and buy very sophisticated TE that I once could only dream of personally owning! For example, I never saw a professional quality spectrum analyzer before E-bay came along but now I own five of them!Unfortunately E-bay is now becoming an over-priced store front instead of the sell-it- at-any-price auction that it originally was. But it was GOOD while it lasted!

author: Wallace Gasiewicz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 22, 2023, 01:47:04 pm
content: I was never a poor student, so I have nothing to compare.I had a almost full time job with benefits while in college.I had a new Dodge Challenger. Hot Car. Bought with cash.But at that time the future looked pretty good, I do not think if I was a student today, that I would think the future looks good.