This post really strikes a chord with me. I’m endlessly worried about appearing dilletantish, or worse, hypocritical. How do you distinguish between those things that are cornerstones of your personality and those things that are passing interests? And what do you do when something you thought was a cornerstone starts to feel like a passing fancy? These are questions I struggle with. Example: I’ve been a bicycle commuter for about 16 years. I used to be quite militant about cars and abuse of fossil fuels. But that militance, I’m learning, had a lot to do with the people I associated with in the bike community. Gradually a lot of those people have moved on, and almost ALL of them now own vehicles they use occasionally. So here I am, still struggling through the wind and rain every day, resenting the hell out of it, starting to hate my bike, and why? Well, because I’m the bike guy! Right? Ugh. I could go on and on, but maybe I should put together my own post about this.
Anyway, you seem to have reached a comfort level with letting things go. I hope to get there someday.
P.S. I read Merlin Mann too, and I’m enjoying his sudden departure from nuts-and-bolts GTD towards a Robert M. Pirsig-esque consideration of QUALITY.
I don’t think this is dilettantism, or at least I hope not, since I’m guilty of the same sort of thing. I joined both FPN and DIY Planner, and hung out there regularly… for a while, at least. With DIY, once I had my solution, I really didn’t need to keep discussing the finding of the solution, and with FPN, I realized that I’m perfectly happy with cheap pens, though I now know quite a bit more about papers and inks, something that has served me well now. I still maintain my memberships, but I don’t post nearly as often to either site, because I don’t really need to.
My own blog reflects my changing tastes, I think. I keep ping-ponging among typewriters, cameras, writing, parenting, organization, and (now) knitting. I’m trying to not let it bother me, though. I figure: I’m a complex, evolving kind of guy, I can choose to join or not join groups as I see fit.
I think that everyone will agree that it is not the people you surround yourself that define you, nor the groups that you choose to ally yourself with. That being said, it would be more irresponsible of you to identify with a group you feel no camaraderie with than to just move on to a group more aligned with your evolving interests. If you do stick with something you’re no longer interested in, you’re just cheating yourself out of time.
Thanks, guys! It’s reassuring to know that I’m not the only one who feels this way sometimes, and that moving on can be the normal thing to do.
One of the things that triggers my “gotta go” flag is when I start sensing a sort of “us vs. them” attitude. For fountain pen people, Parker people argue with Sheaffer people, everyone looks down on the kit-pen people, and Mont Blanc users look down on, well, the world. Rollerball users are apostates in the FP world, but find solace in the notebook community, which is seen as a bunch of quaint luddites by the gizmo crowd. And so on and on.
When I find myself in a virtual roomful of people who define themselves by all the things they disdain in common, or by the values that separate them from others, I’m usually out the door without ever taking my coat off. It should be enough for everyone to believe what they believe, know what they know, without having to use that as the basis for deciding whether someone else is in or out of the club.
Hey, Mike C — a shameless plug here, but if you’re into both knitting and DIY Planners, you might find these knitting cards I designed of interest: go here, then “Hipster PDA Templates” –> “See the Templates” –> “For Crafters.” I made them for my wife, who’s a knitter.
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This post really strikes a chord with me. I’m endlessly worried about appearing dilletantish, or worse, hypocritical. How do you distinguish between those things that are cornerstones of your personality and those things that are passing interests? And what do you do when something you thought was a cornerstone starts to feel like a passing fancy? These are questions I struggle with. Example: I’ve been a bicycle commuter for about 16 years. I used to be quite militant about cars and abuse of fossil fuels. But that militance, I’m learning, had a lot to do with the people I associated with in the bike community. Gradually a lot of those people have moved on, and almost ALL of them now own vehicles they use occasionally. So here I am, still struggling through the wind and rain every day, resenting the hell out of it, starting to hate my bike, and why? Well, because I’m the bike guy! Right? Ugh. I could go on and on, but maybe I should put together my own post about this.
Anyway, you seem to have reached a comfort level with letting things go. I hope to get there someday.
P.S. I read Merlin Mann too, and I’m enjoying his sudden departure from nuts-and-bolts GTD towards a Robert M. Pirsig-esque consideration of QUALITY.
I don’t think this is dilettantism, or at least I hope not, since I’m guilty of the same sort of thing. I joined both FPN and DIY Planner, and hung out there regularly… for a while, at least. With DIY, once I had my solution, I really didn’t need to keep discussing the finding of the solution, and with FPN, I realized that I’m perfectly happy with cheap pens, though I now know quite a bit more about papers and inks, something that has served me well now. I still maintain my memberships, but I don’t post nearly as often to either site, because I don’t really need to.
My own blog reflects my changing tastes, I think. I keep ping-ponging among typewriters, cameras, writing, parenting, organization, and (now) knitting. I’m trying to not let it bother me, though. I figure: I’m a complex, evolving kind of guy, I can choose to join or not join groups as I see fit.
I think that everyone will agree that it is not the people you surround yourself that define you, nor the groups that you choose to ally yourself with. That being said, it would be more irresponsible of you to identify with a group you feel no camaraderie with than to just move on to a group more aligned with your evolving interests. If you do stick with something you’re no longer interested in, you’re just cheating yourself out of time.
Thanks, guys! It’s reassuring to know that I’m not the only one who feels this way sometimes, and that moving on can be the normal thing to do.
One of the things that triggers my “gotta go” flag is when I start sensing a sort of “us vs. them” attitude. For fountain pen people, Parker people argue with Sheaffer people, everyone looks down on the kit-pen people, and Mont Blanc users look down on, well, the world. Rollerball users are apostates in the FP world, but find solace in the notebook community, which is seen as a bunch of quaint luddites by the gizmo crowd. And so on and on.
When I find myself in a virtual roomful of people who define themselves by all the things they disdain in common, or by the values that separate them from others, I’m usually out the door without ever taking my coat off. It should be enough for everyone to believe what they believe, know what they know, without having to use that as the basis for deciding whether someone else is in or out of the club.
Hey, Mike C — a shameless plug here, but if you’re into both knitting and DIY Planners, you might find these knitting cards I designed of interest: go here, then “Hipster PDA Templates” –> “See the Templates” –> “For Crafters.” I made them for my wife, who’s a knitter.