>>4155720all hobbies that have engineering aspects suffer a persistent infestation of gearheads, i think cameras, cars, guns and watches get it the worst out of them all however.
most other hobbies, even those that require an upfront investment in gear (say long range shooting or ham radio or learning an instrument) also have a sufficiently high enough 'floor' in terms of skill, that you going from 0 to 1 is dictated almost entirely by committing to practice and learning.
bird thread is chill because getting an expensive telephoto lens doesn't magically allow you to get good shots.