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  • Author Author: dougw
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Speculation in Absentia

No, not the TV series. This poll is speculation about why most technical people do not participate on element14. The absentia part is because by definition those people are not hanging out here to provide feedback. My motive for exploring this topic is I think the forum would be even more interesting and beneficial to everyone if there was more participation, and I definitely don't understand the main motivations and value systems at play here.

I'm sure their reasons are as varied or even more varied than the reasons why people do participate here. It could be anything from not wanting to endure the possibility of criticism to having more interesting things to do to simply not knowing about the forum. I know many more technical people who do not participate than the number I know who do. But I do not get a clear picture of why any of them do not participate. I will pose some poll options, but expect the comments will highlight many more motives than I can postulate.

First I want to explain something I noticed when I first visited England as a young boy. As a hint about how long ago that was, one leg of the trip was flown in a Vickers Viscount and one was a Stratocruiser. You can imagine how long that trip took - from Jamaica to London, but you would probably underestimate. Another hint about the era of the flight - the BOAC pilot let me sit on his knee for part of the flight. One final contrast with those times is something my Dad just related to me. He carried his handgun on the aircraft and asked the crew if he could clean it during the flight - and they let him. One of the crew came and chatted with him while he was doing it, but that was the extent of security. He wasn't a law enforcement official - he was an articulate engineer from a colony. But obviously a very trustworthy individual.

As  a youngster, many things about England impressed me (we were there for 3 months I think), but just to mention 5 of them:

  1. ice cream sandwiches - I had never had one before - now they are still a favorite of mine
  2. castles - we visited a bunch - I still like castles a lot
  3. penny arcades - they just blew mind - I'm obviously still interested in clever technology
  4. the blue whale at the Natural History Museum - I went back to see it a couple of years ago - it is still there, but surrounded by a bunch of other animals
  5. everybody in England seemed to have a hobby - miniature boats, miniature towns, miniature everything, models of everything, gardens everywhere, whatever, they all seemed to have interesting hobbies. Every park had people playing with hobby items. I didn't see this in any other country.

My question out of that long story is what motivated so many people to take up hobbies at that time? Is it similar to why members here do hobby electronics? Does it provide any insight about what type of people or what value systems or what circumstances to target for more members?

Poll question:

Which reason below do you think is the most prevalent reason why technical people do not participate in this forum?

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  • I voted for "other". I know a few people that would be great to have around on the forum, however, they have no spare time.

    It probably relates to the fact that they work in smaller engineering companies, everything they do should have been finished yesterday etc. After work (which is usually more than 8 hours a day) they usually spend the time with their families.

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  • I voted for "other". I know a few people that would be great to have around on the forum, however, they have no spare time.

    It probably relates to the fact that they work in smaller engineering companies, everything they do should have been finished yesterday etc. After work (which is usually more than 8 hours a day) they usually spend the time with their families.

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  • in reply to koudelad

    I'm sure your diagnosis is true for many people. We all have been in that position - not enough time. I don't think of it as spare time versus committed time though. I think of it as certain activities have priority for certain time slots. For example I play on several sports teams every week. Those sports have high priority in their time slots. Eating has a high priority, but not in those time slots. Hobby electronics will never have higher priority in those time slots. Lots of things have higher priority than hobby electronics. For me it boils down to: does hobby electronics have enough priority to find it a time slot? Obviously for most people the answer is no, but is this partly because of advertising? We are all influenced by advertising - would we rather see a movie than build something that works? Is this because of advertising bias? Would we assign higher priority to hobby electronics if it was advertised more effectively?

  • in reply to dougw

    You are right, Doug. The idea you mention is elaborated in this book: https://www.amazon.com/ONE-Thing-Surprisingly-Extraordinary-Results/dp/1885167776 . For those who doesn't know the book, it is all about dividing the tasks and wishes into several categories like "health", "family", "work", "hobby" and write them down. Then doing always the most import thing (only one in each category at a time). And regularly go through the items and sort them, of course.

    This way, you do more than doing all things at the same time.

    I don't say it the best book ever written, but I always try to take some inspiration from what I read and this simply fits all together for me. I try to do smaller things, one step at a time, but having a vision of some bigger picture. It is similar to the idea of incremental (agile) development.

     

    Before we had a baby, we had free evenings, weekends, no stress. I worked in a company where I was bored. Regarding e14, I was participating more and consumed more.

     

    Now, my #1 is our daughter and wife. I found a better job, which is quite a challenge for me. Suddenly, all the other things were scaled down. My free time begins when our daughter falls asleep and we do all the housekeeping image

     

    It is really good to think about (or even write down) list of the most important things and do them. The whole life is just a matter of priorities. The reason I am writing this post is that I also have electronics "on the list". And I have a wife that understands that I need some time for doing it.

     

    My guess is that many other people have different priorities, don't see the value in being in a community, or just haven't figured out the priorities in their lives yet image A lot of people I know do not plan the future at all. They don't see the value in participation: once you help someone else, later someone else helps you.

     

    I am really glad I can be part of e14, because I couldn't find similar people physically around me.

     

    David

  • in reply to koudelad

    I like everything you are saying here. Well put.