Gear Over Skills
There's a visceral appeal to acquisition.
And I mean that in the sense of buying things—the dopamine hit a purchase will sometimes net us—but also in the sense of being given something, inheriting something, or otherwise coming to own something that we didn't previously possess.
This acquisition is sometimes blended with the process of building out one's capabilities and capacity: learning, growing, reinforcing our sense of security, improving our social and economic status, and so on.
That entanglement is demonstrated in the common tendency to focus on the tools or other goods we require to learn or do or experience something, rather than the intended outcome of those learnings, doings, and experiences.
I think of this as the "gear over skills" problem, and you can see it, for instance, in someone who wants to learn how to cook but who then spends all their time and effort researching the best knives, the best blender, the best everything—all before they have any real sense of how to use even cheap, intro-level, versions of these tools, much less the pricy, high-end options they’re drooling over.
Focusing on gear allows us to feel productive without having to exert the time, energy, and frustration required to actually learn and grow.
Consequently, rather than practicing our slicing and dicing abilities with whatever knife we have on hand, we spend hours watching YouTube videos, reading Reddit forums, delving into gear guides, and generally focusing on the consumptive aspect of learning something new, rather than the growth aspect.
This is not to say the tools we use are not important: there are many stages between our most introductory learnings and late-stage expertise when we may outgrow our kit and want to take some time to figure out what next-step investment makes sense for our skill/knowledge-level and budget.
There will also be a point, far later in our educational journey, when our skills are honed to such a degree that the minute differences between high-end equipment (which wouldn't even be appreciable by a neophyte) will matter greatly.
Beyond those rare moments though, our time, attention, and resources are better spent on craft and understanding; a focus on "gear" is often a covert fixation on "stuff," similar to any other acquisitionary drive (though it can be easier to justify unnecessary splurges if tell ourselves it's in pursuit of our craft, rather than just the wanton accumulation of things because it's pleasurable to accumulate).
Reads
How food companies sweetened the world
Why so many brands use sound to make you buy stuff
The Barbie merch explosion is ‘heaven’ for collectors of the iconic doll