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ADVICE REQUEST - will my passion for electronics disappear?
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mcinque:
I guess this can be too OT, if yes, I ask you to forgive me and if it's needed, just close this thread.

I have always been a nerd, obsessed with electronics, computers and telecommunications.
when I was a child I had my own "laboratory" to play at being an inventor, probably like most of you.

during adolescence I have always pursued this passion. a nerd. so much that this nerdiness has kept me away from relationships with women. I've never been a playboy: the classic good guy (who finishes last).
once I grew up, I found a job other than electronics, but I continued to cultivate my passion: once I got home I always continued with my nerdiness.

despite this "not being a playboy" (I was always in my cave tinkering), I found a woman who loves me and with whom I have lived together for 20 years.
a few years ago, I managed to turn my nerdiness into my main job and I quit my old job.

now I do what I've always wanted to do. I feel fulfilled in my work. and despite my full-time job, I've always continued, once home, to work in my cave.

today I'm 50 years old and recently something has changed in my mind. this has been going on for about 3 months. I come home and I don't feel like tinkering anymore.

I think about other things, relationships, women. It's as if my mind has awakened from something: I feel like I've thrown away my adolescence, that I've missed all the part of partying with friends, of picking up women.
I could miss my whole home lab now and it wouldn't be a problem (a few years ago I would have gone crazy over something like that!).

I've started to change: I go to the gym, I use perfume, I've revamped my wardrobe...I start teasing around with every actractive woman I meet. It's just not me anymore.

I would like some advice from you: has this happened to you before? Is this something that resolves itself? It seems a midlife crisis.
Tell me this is not the prelude to abandon my cave, my electronic instruments and and/or my woman...
armandine2:
OTT - so what

you could have a medical - to be safe

you do meet people though who make big changes in their life - consciously. Reject long standing work patterns. Not sure it is very common for people to change much their personal time and ways - unless through hobbies, I guess.
PaulAm:
Classic midlife crisis.  You are fully in control of what you do and where you go with your llfe.  If you're happy with your relationship, ask yourself if you want to risk destroying it?  It's all up to you, some things you can't undo.

Had a long time friend go through one.  Divorced his wife (with 1 kid), married one of his students, got a wierdo religion and two more kids.  Continues to work at a dead end university job and looked like a refuge  from a homeless shelter the last time I saw him.  He's no longer a friend.  He won't be able to afford to retire until he's in his eighties, if he lives that long.  Don't be that guy.
free_electron:
turning hobby into work is potential danger....

that being said there are other factors.
i find myself drifting away more and more and i don't mind. i got a fulfilling job and the urge to tinker has shifted from electronics to home improvement. My wife and i bought a second home during the covid mess and we have been camping out here for the last two years,workign from home and away from the big city. i got half an acre of land and i'm more busy building a new kitchen , putting in new doors , redo the airco and electrics, plant trees and all kinds of veggies and be outside. if i decide to tinker with something its doing some small stuff for the house ( home automation , sprinkler controller etc ).

I was diagnosed with Afib last november and this has seriously hacked in to me mentally. I had so many plans to go diving the great barrier reef, french polynesia, fiji, palau and many other places. Dreams vaporised. No way back. Diving is an impossibility now due to the risk of gas bubbles forming arterial / pulmonary embolisms. Covid has stolen not only two years of my life it has stolen the ability to travel. I cannot see myself sitting on an airplane for 10+ hours with a diaper across my mouth.
So i shifted to cultivating all kinds of fruit trees, berries, grapes and setting up a backyard that can emulate a 5 star resort. barbeque island, firepit, seating area , pool . the whole shebang. i'll vacation home, far away from all the covid , mouthmask denying , antivaxx assholes.

So there could be all kinds of reasons you are drifting away from the urge to tinker. Interests change over time.
mcinque:

--- Quote from: PaulAm on March 20, 2022, 05:54:34 pm ---If you're happy with your relationship, ask yourself if you want to risk destroying it?

--- End quote ---

Yes, I think about it constantly.
The "problem" seems started few months I began working with young and cute women about half of my age.
I started noticing them and my mind is changed. I've always worked with men or on my own before.

it would be a reassuring thing to know that it has happened to others and that their passion for electronics has returned after a few months
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