More Money Than Sense...

You know one of them, don't you? Those people who who want what they want and are willing to pay any price to get it.

Maybe it's a golfer who has the absolute latest, cutting-edge clubs and every golf accessory known to man to the point that his golf bag is bursting at the seams with technology and gizmos. Perhaps its a cook with four bookcases full of recipe books and every cupboard and drawer stuffed to exploding with special devices designed to create the perfect french fry, perfectly cook an egg to within a degree of perfection, or a suite of pans and pots, each one designed for use with one, specific food. It could be an obsessed stamp collector with three of everything (just in case).

To a certain degree, the individuals above can actually be forgiven. They have an interest, a hobby, a fascination... and they are obsessed with it, and have likely been so for a long time. Those things bring them pleasure and (hopefully) contribute to their enjoyment of life.

For the record, I don't have a problem with these people (unless they can't actually afford to be obsessive to that degree, in which case they're just irresponsible). I'm probably one of them in the strictest definition, actually. Shop tools are my weakness and I've got shelves full of tools I might use once a year at best, but when I do, it was all worth it.

No, I have no problem with them. The people I have problems with are the ones who, like the title has described, have more money than sense.

These people tend to drift aimlessly from one interest to another, throwing untold handfuls of cash at whatever passing fancy strikes them at the moment. They do so without knowing anything about it other than it's interesting, or cool, or that other people think so. They hope it will contribute to their enjoyment of life, but often they're very wrong, and it winds up being just one more thing to grow bored with quickly and then discard or sell in order to make way for the next thing.

In my hobby, I communicate with these people on a regular basis. They see my YouTube channel and all the great subs there and they decide that they need to have one. They have no idea how they work, how much they cost, or what's involved in operating and maintaining one. They just want it. And, unfortunately, they have the money to buy it.

All too often, in the occasions that I don't weed them out during my scoping conversations via email or phone, they get the sub delivered to their home, open the box, and then stare dumbly at it, wondering how it works. Then come the inevitable emails asking about the most general of information:

"How do I charge the batteries?"

"How do you get in it?"

"It won't turn on."

"I broke it."

In most cases, unwilling to admit their ignorance of the hobby of RC vehicles in general (which, by the way, is no crime whatsoever, it's only lying about it that is) and dance their way through my technical questions and the build scope. Congratulations, buddy. You win. You got me to build you a boat and now you have no idea how to run it, how to maintain it, and how to fix it when it breaks.

Part of my first conversations with potential new clients is feeling out their knowledge and background in RC technology, their mechanical aptitude, and whether they've done even a modicum of research before trying to initiate a commission. I like to think that I steer many of them down a better path, perhaps to a more toy like boat to get started with, or at the very minimum a few weeks of hardcore research into the hobby.

Many never get back with me again, and I consider those people a victory. Obviously they were never cut out for the hobby in the first place. They're happier for it, I guarantee it.

So, at the end of the day what I'm really saying is that anyone with the drive and interest to get into this hobby can do it. It takes time. It takes money. It takes patience. Buying your way into it is a dangerous path, and one that will, in many cases, end up in lost time, lost money, frustration and disappointment (and maybe death if the wife finds out how much that thing actually cost you).

Keep your sense, and save your money for the time that interest and determination intersect opportunity and resources.