For the sake of gatekeeping the interest/hobby of flashlights versus that of consumerism, upon philosophy and analysis

Same here.

Back in the day, lights generally sucked. Unavoidable blinkies in the main cycle, hateful Angry Blue™ emitters, you name it. You’d buy a complete ’501 or ’502 only for use as a host, not as a complete light, because the innards sucked so bad, but everything else was pretty decent (body, pill, reflector, switch).

(But even then, whole lights started getting crappier and crappier, so that no longer applied anymore.)

Now? You got some kick-ass lights right off the rack, with good UIs, good emitters, and so on, and can pick’n’choose what you want. No doubt BLF was a big push in that direction, as well as mfrs like Sofirn and Convoy who listened and raised the bar.

While I know I still can mod a light, it’s quite nice and refreshing to not have to.

I can’t and won’t waste my time on picking up a garbage light to try to “fix it up”.

aka “Retail Therapy”.

Now you got it!! I love Anduril BTW... best thing that ever happened to lights.

Quote snip: "...Some people simply buy lights, but obsessively so. It is a materialism problem, ..."

I like to collect lights. They are not free, so I have to buy them So, I simply buy lights.So, people who like to collect lights, but have to buy them, have a materialism problem?

What if people collect lights, but have to buy them, and it is not a "materialism problem"?

Please see: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/59761/159

As far as hobbies go, flashlights are usually somewhat low on the scale for overall expense and impact. They’re typically pretty small, not expensive (unless you get into custom premiums), and last a long time. It still ties into the problem of consumerism and waste, but many other hobbies are a lot worse.

Of course, some are also a lot better… lower cost per hour and less effect on the planet. Knitting, for example. Or reading. Gardening. Writing.

So there are definitely some points to be made about the larger problems involved, but this particular hobby doesn’t really stand out in the big picture.

For the sake of gatekeeping the interest/hobby of flashlights versus that of consumerism, upon philosophy and analysis…

My you have a purty mouth. I wish I could put my brain in gear like that again. This has got to be one of the most intelligent, intellectual topics to ever surface here. The respondents are all of equal intelligence, and BRAVERY, stating their difficulties and overcoming them. I don’t believe them for one second that they suffer from their stated , for a lack of a better word, handicaps. The respondents are eloquent and thoughtful. After working in an environment of challenged people for over 30 years, I can’t see why those people couldn’t overcome the same way those of you have. Maybe the key is flashlights.

I’ve been a little ocd/adhd since getting shot in the head. I had different collections since the injury but it seems I would phase one out to make room for the next. I’d keep the collection in one spot to avoid losing pieces. And the house is fairly empty so there’s no hoarding component. I’m probably a little maniacally depressed since I love the reward of getting that package in the mail then I sink into a funk when I realize I didn’t pay the bills first. Then I buy something to make me happy again, and the cycle starts again.

Thanks to everyone here. It helped understanding what’s going on in my head

This.
I had to explain to my ex-wife why I needed a few more lights and why they were good for this and that.

Then the lights went out and she suddenly never questioned why, but if I needed another one and did it do something that the others did not. When she left she took 3 lights with her. I am sure I got the better end of that deal. :smiley:

I have to agree that flash lights is rather low on the over all price scale of hobbies. Take a look at Photography, Cars, Firearms, Watches, those are some spendy hobbies/collectors things. Each one starts out as just a little from the wallet, after a while some of you could retire off what is spent on these hobbies. Now Excuse me I need to go start up the 63 Corvette 327 split window and and get some pictures of it in a snowy pass with a bear in the background before 2:30 PM because of the sun location.

Haruki Murakami quote:
Spend your money on things money can buy. Spend your time on things money cannot buy.

Wow is all I really have to say. I can’t possibly imagine how that would change a person. Physically and mentally. I think that would be a challenge. Not to lessen to any degree the seriousness of a traumatic incident like that, I have always thought that people who compulsively collect may have had not so good things happen in their life. Collecting something to occupy ones time and energy could be therapeutic possibly??

I had something change my life as well. I had lights and gadgets before but never to an extreme. Items were bought out of necessity and not for pleasure. I have learned to pace myself but, it isn’t easy.

Thank you for sharing a little of your story.

nuemtol that is possible. I think it would be a great program to have flashlight meetups, but it would also need environments to use them in, perhaps an ikea or a home depot in the US would be helpful. The overexposed pictures from China don't help either.
toddcshoe,
G0OSE that was the time before marketing took over to convince people to buy things they did not need, and to market it. your life does not have to have material goods to be rich, which is my point. I made this topic because I did not think that buying many flashlights made people happy. It may help them feel better temporarily but it doesn't seem to make anyone happier in the long term. If you are interested in this topic, I really suggest you check out this exquisite documentary, and you too TK. https://invidiou.sh/watch?v=Yd1tx8v-wHs
ecotack do you want to go beyond flashlights? maybe your interest is in lighting in general, electronics, or retrofiiting. does it stop at flashlights?
richbuff I agree that collecting is not always materialistic, in the original post I made the point that collecting is different from clicking buy or forking over money. It is more than buying, consumerism is to obsessively purchase beyond the satisfaction of utility. How often do you use them? To make a point, do you consider this consumerism? https://i.redd.it/1t4843firz741.jpg
nydude that was my point, I hope to implant the idea that buying less may make you happier. at your leisure. :)
Unheard I think a hobby is something you do, that may involve purchases but has a reason for being. I can see the appeal of making your own mechanical keyboard for instance, but imagine the difference between having one and 14 mechanical keyboards. I wish they included flashlights, massdrop now has flashlights as well now, no guns though. Heres some examples of consumption for consumption, but also the change in american culture. https://i.redd.it/hylkcxc0dlx31.jpg https://i.redd.it/u63694qq7js01.jpg https://i.redd.it/dx0yacazu1941.jpg ironically he has buddha with his collection of mechanical keyboards. https://i.redd.it/1t4843firz741.jpg
Pavlo I believer hemp clothing will help that. I am glad you like the topic! It is also notable that flashlights occupy a strange part where they are usually not disposable, frail and can be used for a long time. I think that even people who are like you may fall into buying flashlights. The most important thing for me was when I had lost my favorite light and then realized that it was really nice but the crappier AAA light did most of the stuff I needed the nicer one for.
aginthelaw Thank you, I feel like I was rambling too much, it brings me joy to see that my topic is drawing the right kind of attention. I am sorry to hear about that problem. Have you looked into tDCS or maybe a TENS device for the brain? I use a cheap TENS on my left vagus nerve, I heard it is helpful. For my ADHD, I found that drinking kombucha helps more than adderall or any sort of medication, it is the brain gut connection for me. Do you want to fix it or would you rather keep it to flashlights? I sometimes buy cheap stuff on ebay I forget about, then get them, they're $1 things like a phone case and I just got some stickers for my keyboard for a different layout, I need these things somewhat, moreso than a flashlight, they will have a purpose. Do you think you can buy things that are helpful to you but also long enough to make you forget about them? The last thing I got in the mail were earrings and power tools which I use all the time. Do you think there may be other things that you might need? With flashlights its strange because you usually want to get them new. TK makes special firmware for our community and buying them at a garage sale would give inferior lights,
TK, I thank you greatly for your work. I agree that flashlights are less disposable than many goods, but I noticed a pattern of buying them beyond the point of utility. That is not for me to decide, that is for everyone to decide on their own. What I mean is not the impact on the environment but also the impact it has on us as people to solve things by buying things. If you do not think it is a problem, it is not a problem to you. But for me and I think many others it is the recognition of its inability to make us happy, temporarily it may give you the "new feeling". I realized this with more than one aspect of my life, I would pirate video games and try every one of them and never commit, be a serial dater, buy multiple phones in a year or less constantly and it was a source of never being content. Something like having multiple plants is different though because you have to care for all of them, and they are all something you "do" whereas many flashlights you just buy. I also regard you as an exception because so many of us rely on you for firmware or your participation in our addiction, I mean interest hehe. I may be wrong about this but you have been the nexus of many BLF projects or mainly the ones I was interested in. Thank you so much. How many people would have made free firmware modes and helped design all these flashlights? You've also worked very hard on many things which I think changed the flashlight industry. I would say a lot of the stuff I say applies to you the least because you did all this stuff for free, without asking for pretty much anything aside from crediting your work or posting the firmware from the sales sites. This is a hobby for you most of all isn't it? This is a question for you most of all, but what do you think the flashlights are lacking in most of all right now? You solved many of the most importing things, I don't know if it was because of you that moonlight, ramping, different mode groupings, no blinkies, and generally sane modes are around as much, but you certainly popularized them for cheaper lights. What do you think firmwares or flashlights are lacking in now?
Sorry I didn't get to everyone, I either didn't know what to say or it may have been posted to answer someone else

The question is : What is the alternative of a ‘’bugman’‘? And what should humans do? A return to a more ’‘traditional’’ lifestyle? The past was clearly worst in almost every-way. The world in the last 50 years has changed more than all of human history, thanks to all the divine power of technology. We literally have more powers than ancient gods.

Bugmen are despicable because they worship companies like gods but without a more meaningful and elaborate story, without a clear goal and universal project for the future. Only infinite direct animal pleasure. This will change when there will be a political project in the near future. And I think trans-humanism is the way.

Hence the joke earlier. :wink:

Dark humor for a light forum:

The reader’s intended response goes something like this…

As much as I’d like to take credit, I really can’t. That boat has been sailing since before I got onboard, and it’ll keep going after I’m gone. I’m just one of the people who has helped steer it and keep the engines running.

Mostly, yes. I just have a hard time not fixing things when they’re broken. It’s a bad habit. So I’m probably best regarded as a cautionary tale. Like… Be careful kids, about how deep you dive into your hobbies — or you, too, could turn your leisure activities into responsibilities! :stuck_out_tongue:

Writing an embedded microkernel was never my plan. I mostly just like shiny things and chatting with people. But here I am, debugging ADC interrupt code and rewriting thermal regulation algorithms for the nth time, trying to figure out WTF broke and how to fix it in 58 bytes or less. There are more enjoyable ways to spend a night off.

TBH, I’m pretty happy with what I’ve got. I haven’t bought a light in … a long time. There are always things to be improved, of course… but with most of the easy stuff already done, the rest is subject to diminishing returns.

There is a small line between hobby and obsession.
I promise myself buy only if I really need.

The description of a “bug man” in the original post is really a description of a proverbial “boogeyman” to someone who doesn’t much like “big left-leaning city-dwellers.”

Different people buy things for different reasons. Yes, buying the latest flashlights repeatedly can be a hobby, and no, doing that doesn’t make a person “materialist” in the sense that phrase is used lately to label someone as wasteful or careless in spending money for illegitimate purposes.

A hobby is in the eye of the beholder. I get a chuckle out of reading posts in this thread such as the post candidly and admirably describing that person’s frequency of flashlight purchases being reduced to “…only four or five lights in the last three or four months.” I have family members who can’t imagine why I would buy more than one every ten years.

NorthernHarrier, I don't know if you are the target of these attacks but it is absolutely not a boogeyman. There is a depth to it that is pointed to in the revelations of Professor Kaczynski.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_The_Future_Doesn%27t_Need_Us
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kaczynski#Industrial_Society_and_Its_Future
Throughout the document, Kaczynski addresses left-wing politics as a movement. He defines leftists as "mainly socialists, collectivists, 'politically correct' types, feminists, gay and disability activists, animal rights activists and the like", states that leftism is driven primarily by "feelings of inferiority" and "oversocialization", and derides leftism as "one of the most widespread manifestations of the craziness of our world". He additionally states that "a movement that exalts nature and opposes technology must take a resolutely anti-leftist stance and must avoid all collaboration with leftists", as in his view "leftism is in the long run inconsistent with wild nature, with human freedom and with the elimination of modern technology".
He also criticizes conservatives, describing them as "fools" who "whine about the decay of traditional values, yet they enthusiastically support technological progress and economic growth.
Basically it is not a political hatred of the left but one that must exclude left wing politics, yet it does not have to be right wing although they can be included, many of their ideas cannot be accepted either.
Getting into this, I am not sure if its the correct topic but memes have the power to change the world, and the staying power of wojak and pepe creates a world where we identify with them, and use the to project hatred at ourselves and topics as well as those of people who we disagree with. Trump started with a pepe meme, he announced it with him as pepe as the president. I think that topics like mine are part of a movement, the anti consumer meme, or jokes about the "coomsumer" similar to the anti masturbation "coomer". What in your opinion is the definition of materialism?

I collected a few lights a few years ago. A few years later, they became technologically obsolete when they were superseded by newer, more technologically advanced lights. I bought some of the new lights, to keep my collection up to date.

A few years after that..... ... ... ...

Anyway, oh well, whatever, nevermind.

TL;DR

I probably should have clarified that while I bought those 4 or 5 lights, they were replacing 4 or 5 that got almost no use for one reason or another. They were given away to family or friends. I never profit from any flashlight. I have in the past sold a few to finance one.

I too have family and friends that look at me like I have two heads if I mention a flashlight or some other object I carry on a daily basis. That is, until they need one. Then I get the phone call. I happily give them whatever it is they need. What I give them is all they think they need. They will never think about another flashlight as long as the one I gave them keeps working.

I have, in general cut the cord on many things I use to think important. Mostly technology based. All the social networking sites no longer have what I ate for breakfast posted on them. I still answer my emails, read news, check in here, and look up solutions to problems I may run into along the way. I have a smart phone only because my wife said I needed one. I use maybe 10% of it’s capability. It’s more of a inconvenience to me as it is helpful. I don’t even use the GPS in my truck. I am planning on really getting rid of the smartphone if I can find a phone that will still work on my network. Haven’t researched that yet.

Anyway, I don’t have a vast collection of lights. I only keep lights that actually get used. I don’t collect just so I can look at them and smile. I don’t really collect anything. I have guns, but they aren’t safe queens that only come out to impress. They are used and used hard. Not a single one still looks brand new. Come to think of it, nothing I own looks brand new. I use stuff pretty hard. If it doesn’t hold up, then it finds a new home.

I love this thread. I love the differing views on the same topic being discussed like adults. No name calling or belittling. True conversation is very hard to come by in these times.

Ted Kaczynski brought us no revelations I am aware of. He murdered three people and injured many more, with his bombs. He had a severe psychiatric illness, possibly some form of paranoid schizophrenia, and was keen on writing long, rambling dissertations that had a lot of nonsense in them and often made no rational sense at all. He stopped being a math professor in 1969 to devote his life to terrorism and wasting large amounts of paper.

There have been people warning us about the dangers of technology, and the unforeseen consequences of making new things, for hundreds of years. This is nothing original or new. See the novels of H.G. Wells, Mary Shelley, Karel Capek, etc. As long as there are people seeking to exploit new technologies for profit, there will be unforeseen consequences that could be catastrophic. Yes, this is a serious problem. No, Ted Kaczynski had no new or even rational insights on this problem.

Simplistic and broad stereotypes of anyone, including “liberals” and “conservatives,” are by definition incorrect and useless, except for winning the votes of gullible or unintelligent people.