Anyways, I doubt his wife's making him do anything. Totally normal domestic arrangement to have a space for one's thing(s), whatever it may be. Well-conducive to a happy marriage, IMHO.
I'm not fortunate enough to have a whole basement to play with, but my study's piled high with my books, electronics, painting gear, art and models. I'm thankful to have a space that's mine. My SO didn't tell me to keep my shit here, I was like "dibs" on moving in.
No, but how obsessive the pursuit of that hobby is, that's the question.
There are some model train enthusiasts that, over their life time, spend several millions of EUR on their hobby, so they basically work to finance their hobby.
The reason why I'm asking is that my impression seems to be that there is a lot more acceptance for obsession when the obsession is considered extroverted and conforming to society's expectation.
Could be, depending on how much they give up for traveling.
> The reason why I'm asking is that my impression seems to be that there is a lot more acceptance for obsession when the obsession is considered extroverted and conforming to society's expectation.
Maybe it's also related to the accumulation of things related to the hobby.
If you see somebody's collection of model trains and their tracks, it's pretty visceral that they must have spent lots of time and money on this. Same for basically any other hobby that involves collecting this (that aren't tiny, like postage stamps).
If, on the other hand, you hear that somebody has traveled a lot, that doesn't hit home to the same degree..
Maybe another factor is that we tend to associate at least some forms of neurodivergence (autism and AD(H)D at least) with hyperfocus on a few topics, whereas travel exposes one basically automatically to many new experiences. Haven't really thought that through yet...
Tons of people just travel to "destinations" that have resorts and beaches and are very sanitized to be completely not-new at all
Once you've been to one of these resorts you've been to all of them, it really doesn't matter which country they are in
If this article was about $OTHER_HOBBY, there would be a citation of someone who spent a ton of money on $OTHER_HOBBY.
and what is wrong with that?
Could be working to barely scrape by, going to bed early to save on heating costs, unable to afford to save a deposit to buy a house, worry how you’ll afford the next dentist or mechanics bill.
Being able to afford a hobby is a luxury.
Welcome to Australia.
Hyperfocus can make one take hobbies to fairly extreme levels.
Men do noting but chill: "They're losers, incels, etc".
Men have cool hobbies that don't bother anyone: "They're neurodivergent".
Men just can't catch a break these days.
i know that feeling. i have been there. more than a year out of work, i could not focus on anything, whatever i did felt wrong because i thought i should use that time to apply to jobs. it was exhausting, and i was procrastinating a lot. i had to remind myself that i could not be writing job applications all day, and i used my hobbies to relax and get energy. so no, chilling or having cool hobbies are not a sign of someone catching a break. not without knowing more about their actual circumstances.
the problem is the generalization. sure, when you catch a break then you can afford to slack off or do your hobbies. but the reverse conclusion is not true. not everyone who is slacking off is catching a break.
it's this judgement of people that when they do that it must be because they are well off that bothers me.
i faced this multiple times. when i grew up we lived on welfare but we could afford things that other people could not because we were thrifty and we saved money on other things we didn't need but were common otherwise, like a car and a TV. but because we were able to afford certain things people thought we were better off. i had time for my hobbies because i didn't spend time watching tv.
they were measuring my life through their perspective.
the same goes for hobbies and hence, your statement.
"Nobody needs.." and all that.