Comment by bobloblaw45 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bobloblaw45 | Hacker News Reader

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There are philosophies in many hobbies that are pretty close to what you were getting at. With firearms when asked what the best gun is the answer is "the one you shoot well". With astronomy they say it's better to have a small cheap telescope you use all the time rather than a big expensive telescope you barely use. And with cars/motorcycles you hear how it's more fun to drive a slow vehicle fast than a fast vehicle slow.

Everywhere there's a fixation on expensive equipment. People use it to try to replace skill. Also it serves as a way to elevate their status within their hobbies community. And man it happens in every hobby I've seen. But in the end all it really does it weigh them down. Their equipment is too bulky to use all the time. So much more gizmos to keep track of. Things are so much more expensive that you don't really take it out as much and enjoy it out of fear of breaking it. Even if there's some sort of insurance in place to cover the cost of damage, you still don't want to risk scratching your new baby.

Anyways there's this series on youtube called "Pro Photographer, Cheap Camera Challenge" that I adore. I'm not even a photography buff but it's super interesting to see these professional photographers take the cheapest cameras available, in some cases they're actually toys, and turn out some amazing pictures.

Pointless digression:

"And with cars/motorcycles you hear how it's more fun to drive a slow vehicle fast than a fast vehicle slow."

I know this is just your third comparator in your statement, but I never thought I'd see it pop up on HN. :)

It's one of those clichés you see all the time in Jalopnik comment sections...I always want to say "but have actually done that, driven the slow car fast and the fast car slow?" Because...I've got a slow car and a very very fast car. The fast car is fun to drive even when you're going 0 miles an hour at a stoplight. The slow car is fun to drive slow but awful to drive fast.

Maybe this statement works if the "slow" car is an E30/Miata/Fiat or similar but in my book, fast car going any speed is always way more fun. :)

I haven't heard it about cars but it applies to motorcycles. Generalizing, a maintained bike with good brakes and tires is probably more capable than most riders and faster than public roads so a 1990's or later 400-600cc motorcycle ("slow"?) is more fun whirring the engine and stirring the gearbox than loping along in second gear on a liter-class bike.

One of the most fun rides I ever had was after swapping my bike for a riding buddy's 250 Ninja for the Friday lunch ride. I flogged that thing like a rented mule trying to keep up with the bigger bikes. Riding that thing close to the 14K redline in every gear. Give the handlebars the slightest nudge, and that <400lb. bike just lays on its side, hammer the throttle at the apex because that tiny engine isn't going to spin the rear tire up.

Try that on a ZX-1X on public roads, and they'll be pulling dental records to identify your body.

I was just going to say this!

I have a slower Mazda 3 (although its fairly peppy at low speeds, similar to a Prius) and a very fast Tesla -- the Mazda is most fun to drive around town under 45, while the Tesla is basically very fun to drive anywhere, anytime at any speed.

I don't even understand the original statement tbh..

That doesn't really make much sense. Are you really having a blast in stop and go traffic in your Tesla? It doesn't even make sound - so you can't say you're enjoying the sound of revving the engine.

I think the point of the saying is that if you're going the same speed in both cars, you're likely going to be at a different driving "x/10" effort in the slow car and "y/10" effort in the fast car. And the point is that x >> y. So, you'll be pushing yourself and the car much harder in the slow car than the fast car.

I've found that my enjoyment is somewhat correlated to how hard I am pushing myself and the car. The slower the car, the harder I have and it have to work to go the same speed. Thus, sometimes, the more enjoyment.

>Are you really having a blast in stop and go traffic in your Tesla?

For sure. For one thing, the car looks flashy and draws a decent amount of attention where I live, so it's fun just driving around town.

For another, I accelerate pretty fast at lights, so that never really gets old.

And in stop and go traffic on the freeway, it's fun because I just set autopilot on.

> For sure. For one thing, the car looks flashy and draws a decent amount of attention where I live, so it's fun just driving around town.

It doesn't really look like a flashy car to me unless you've wrapped it..? Where I live (SV) they're about as common as a toyota corolla. Maybe you've done something to it but I don't feel like it's flashy like a Viper ACR is flashy.

> For another, I accelerate pretty fast at lights, so that never really gets old.

I guess but that's, again, not really driving a fast car slow then is it?

> And in stop and go traffic on the freeway, it's fun because I just set autopilot on.

So, you're saying that not driving and watching someone/something else is.

For me, a camera with exchangeable lenses and controls for everything relevant, with buttons and dials that are mapped to functions 1:1 and can be committed to muscle memory and used blindly, and to a degree without thinking, while you look through the viewfinder or the screen, is to a smartphones what being a fish is to driving a giant boat where you have the steering wheel on one end, the engine controls on another, and the anchor controlled by a genie you have to beat in rock paper scissors three times every time you want to come to a halt.

> With astronomy they say it's better to have a small cheap telescope you use all the time rather than a big expensive telescope you barely use.

True, but a camera bag also holds a book and other things, to me it's like a purse but better.

> it's super interesting to see these professional photographers take the cheapest cameras available, in some cases they're actually toys, and turn out some amazing pictures.

Compare it to the quality and the rate at which they produce amazing photos with their preferred gear. You can make amazing photos with anything, especially if you only show the keepers, but that doesn't really tell us much.

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