It's peak consumerism. The cool thing about a project like this is the act of building it, not of having it. Learning how to work with different materials. Trying and failing different approaches. The joy of seeing it work and the excitement that comes with new ideas for improvements.
Saying "I want to throw money at it" is like taking a shortcut and cheating yourself out of the journey.
For me, owning something like this, handcrafted by an artisan, is to support that artisan and their future work. Just because I can make my own knife from scratch doesn't mean I want to do it, I would rather buy a nice knife from a blacksmith, for example, and just because I probably have the skills to build something like this doesn't mean I particularly want to. I just want to own and appreciate nice things and support the people who make those things. That's about as far from "consumerism" as possible, IMO.
It'd be paying someone a commission on custom art that they can't mass produce and commercialize because it's not a commodity. Doing so regularly from the same artist or artisan would be patronage, in the positive sense of the word.
> I just want to own and appreciate nice things and support the people who make those things.
If your appreciation is somehow connected with the ownership, then of course it is consumerism. If you think supporting someone talented is better justified by you getting something out of it, you are using that as a narcissistic rationalization for what you consume.
Hmm, well, I consider "consumerism" to be more like buying things you don't need, which require a ton of resources, at massive scale.
To me, what you and I are discussing (buying a custom-built computer at small scale) is more like the artisan culture of Japan, where they are very efficient, and appreciate fine things that last a long time.
Anyways, I think you and I are probably more similar in our beliefs about the waste of consumerism than you might think.
Edit: Also, art is certainly somewhat wasteful (who needs a crystal flute!?), but at small scale I think art is necessary to help make the world a place where humans aren't just big ants, working constantly for an unattainable goal.
I am talking less about waste and more about consumerism as "you are what you have". It's this idea of people defining their identities around the brands they value or (even worse imo) the idea that having "expensive tastes" or paying exorbitant amounts of money for exclusive items makes someone "special".
There is an old saying: "the only difference between boys and men is in the price of their toys". It's kind sad if you think about it, and sadder still that some people treat this as a virtue.
In this we can agree. I consider what I was talking about to be more like supporting individual humans in their quest to make something beautiful, or to make something useful, without having to have a corporate structure around it. I believe in purchasing goods which I can use or art that I can appreciate, personally, and also support individuals and small business.
The true waste from consumerism isn't just from the individuals who live in that world, but from the corporate and social behemoths that push the rampant consumption of goods that aren't made by individuals with care, but by machines who have been programmed to do so, whether electromechanical (robots) or biological (factory workers). We should all strive to support individuals and small businesses over corpos.
Is it really impossible to appreciate owning well-made objects without devolving into consumerism? I used to have a crappy kettle that brought me frustration. Now I have a nicer one that makes better coffee and I enjoy owning and using it. If you wanna call that consumerism, fine, but it certainly isn’t a big part of my identity.
For some of us, the cool thing about a project like this is the act of using it. I don't really want another hobby, but I'd much rather have an interesting computer than a boring one.
But perhaps that’s the point…