Hi All, I was surprised at how many posts were about people feeling they had too many Macs and some people wondering if it was some sort of addiction.
I have this problem myself. I'm a psychology professor and one of my areas of expertise is drug addiction. I've completed several government funded research studies in this area and published in scientific journals, etc. Years ago a patient in group therapy once asked me if I had any "addictive behaviors" and I said that I didn't think I did. He was very bothered by that, and repeatedly questioned me about it, until other patients told him to back off. I've always remembered that incident, and recently, I've wondered if my Mac collecting is my addiction. In some ways it is. An addiction is when a person spends more time and money on something than he or she can afford. I think I tend to do that. For example, I should have stopped collecting Macs when I reached my initial goal of getting all of the 68030 machines, but then I went on to collect all compact Macs, then Apple II machines, and started to collect about five of the Quadra machines. I've also started collecting 603 and 604 machines. My wife sometimes complains that I spend a lot of free time working on old Macs, when I should be writing my journal articles or preparing to teach my classes. She is probably right. What are the roots of the my addiction to collecting Macs? At first it was just like a drug. I would see an old Mac for $100 and want to see what it could do. It was a new toy, and I wanted to see what it could do. There was an anticipation of finding something new, the happiness of working on a machine that I couldn't afford to buy new. But, one vintage Mac is just like another vintage Mac, if you think about it, since they are so old that they really don't compare with the speed of the latest Mac. So, the good feelings don't last long; you always need to find a better machine, or make the machine work better with more RAM and a new hard drive. That's what the experience of an addiction is like. One is only temporarily satisfied. Part of the reason for my addiction concerns how poor I was during the 80s and early 90s. I was in graduate school and didn't have any money. But, I needed those new Macs back then to do my work. When those Macs from my grad school days came down in price years later, I saw my chance to own something for which I had longed, for very little money, and bought it. It's like reliving the past. But, seriously, I think for some, Mac collecting can be a problem. I think it's starting to become a problem for me. I've actually started thinking about monitoring the amount of time I spend on my vintage Mac hobby and limiting it. It's like the difference between social drinking and alcoholic drinking. Psychologists used to try teaching alcoholics to drink socially, but that went out of fashion. Anyway, I think we may be able to reform if we put limits on the collecting, and limits on the time we spend on it. Just my reaction, Paul -- Quadlist is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Enter To Win A | -- Canon PowerShot Digital Cameras start at $299 | Free iBook! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Quadlist info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/quadlist.shtml> The FAQ: <http://macfaq.org/> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/quadlist%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
