Author Topic: Now when you have all toys are you happier than when you were a broken student?  (Read 2343 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline BudTopic starter

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 7276
  • Country: ca
I am not sure if I am... Something is missing inside me.
Lets discuss.
Facebook-free life and Rigol-free shack.
 

Offline artag

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 1284
  • Country: gb
I am still poor, because I keep buying toys.
 
The following users thanked this post: tooki, shakalnokturn, Nominal Animal, Exosia, Roehrenonkel

Online SiliconWizard

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 15800
  • Country: fr
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.
 
The following users thanked this post: RAPo, amir.razzaqi

Online Anthocyanina

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 395
  • Country: 00
  • The Sara
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
 

Offline retiredfeline

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 572
  • Country: au
As one cynic said, money doesn't buy happiness, it just gives you more choice of distractions from misery. :-DD
 

Online xrunner

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 7836
  • Country: us
  • hp>Agilent>Keysight>???
I am not sure if I am... Something is missing inside me.
Lets discuss.

Sometimes 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?  :palm:
I told my friends I could teach them to be funny, but they all just laughed at me.
 
The following users thanked this post: Bud

Offline Kim Christensen

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 1819
  • Country: ca
I am not sure if I am... Something is missing inside me.
Lets discuss.

This is what happens when a hobby becomes a job and then a career. Not sure if that's your situation.
 

Offline Alex Eisenhut

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 3550
  • Country: ca
  • Place text here.
No, because I'm old, and the 1990s were much better than the present.
Hoarder of 8-bit Commodore relics and 1960s Tektronix 500-series stuff. Unconventional interior decorator.
 

Offline pqass

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 945
  • Country: ca
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.
 
The following users thanked this post: Stray Electron, Bud, Exosia

Offline floobydust

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 7681
  • Country: ca
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 and Shuron eyeglasses 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.
 

Offline RoGeorge

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 7012
  • Country: ro
I am not sure if I am... Something is missing inside me.
Lets discuss.

A 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.
 
The following users thanked this post: shakalnokturn

Offline RAPo

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 858
  • Country: nl
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.
 
The following users thanked this post: hans

Offline Psi

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 10385
  • Country: nz
Time but no money.
Then
Money but no time.
Greek letter 'Psi' (not Pounds per Square Inch)
 
The following users thanked this post: hans

Offline jonovid

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 1546
  • Country: au
    • JONOVID
Quote
I am not sure if I am... Something is missing inside me.
Quote
our human condition I think.
if your seeking religious truth?
Hobbyist with a basic knowledge of electronics
 

Offline Siwastaja

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 9336
  • Country: fi
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.
 
The following users thanked this post: thm_w, Wolfram, Kim Christensen

Offline themadhippy

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 3266
  • Country: gb
 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.
 

Offline armandine2

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 750
  • Country: gb
... 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  :palm:
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught - Hunter S Thompson
 

Online CatalinaWOW

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 5571
  • Country: us
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.
 

Offline thm_w

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 7527
  • Country: ca
  • Non-expert
... 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  :palm:

- 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?
Profile -> Modify profile -> Look and Layout ->  Don't show users' signatures
 

Offline Stray Electron

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 2253
I am still poor, because I keep buying toys.

  I'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.
 

Offline Stray Electron

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 2253
Time but no money.
Then
Money but no time.


   Quoted for truth!
 

Online tautech

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 29812
  • Country: nz
  • Taupaki Technologies Ltd. Siglent Distributor NZ.
    • Taupaki Technologies Ltd.
I must be the exception.  ;D
So so many toys....and in a position to offer such good ones at costs we once never thought possible.
Avid Rabid Hobbyist.
Some stuff seen @ Siglent HQ cannot be shared.
 

Offline Nominal Animal

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 7198
  • Country: fi
    • My home page and email address
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.
 
The following users thanked this post: thm_w

Offline coppice

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 10035
  • Country: gb
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.
 
The following users thanked this post: Nominal Animal

Offline amir.razzaqi

  • Contributor
  • Posts: 31
  • Country: ir
  • Passion for learn everything
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.
This is effect of dopamine
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Molecule-More-Chemical-Creativity_and-Determine/dp/1946885118
 


Share me

Digg  Facebook  SlashDot  Delicious  Technorati  Twitter  Google  Yahoo
Smf