There is also a progression in hobbies, careers, sports etc. I have always dipped my toes in and then waded into the hobby until i found my own point of comfort.
Example, my first handgun was a revolver, couple of hundred bucks and i slowly learned to shoot. By the time i got into pricier more exotic weapons systems costing thousands there was a progression of sorts, with education, skill set development and multiple levels of knowledge Learned until i was comfortable and confident enough in my own skills to warrant the expenditure of large sums of money for the more complex and exotic items i eventually educated myself about. I have done this my entire life in my careers and hobbies. Some folks are capable of going straight to the top or pinnacle from the beginning but there are few that actually succeed or maximize the particular skill set that way.
Imagine just learning to drive and immediately jumping into a professional race car. There is a higher probability than not that the initial outcome will be negative…
writing about music is like dancing about architecture
If that’s true, what are we doing in this forum? Talk about gear? We should just buy things and just experience them.
Serious now, I LOVE talking about the stuff I like. I’m passionate about it and I want to share with other people who also are. If you don’t like it, that’s cool, just stay by your side and I will talk with whoever wants it.
And I really like the music talk session, it helps me expand my horizons. Getting more music to either appreciate or to help understand my gear (coughcoughYosiHorikawacoughcough) is a part of this journey I appreciate it. 
I had the money to do it I 100% would just not even realy ask anyone and buy shit. But I don’t have the 3m in the bank doing that with audio would probabaly cost me
Humans are social animals. A forum is a social network.
Since we audiophiles are always looking for excuses to buy gear, consider this…
On Dec 21, 2020 we’re going to have a planetary alignment…Jupiter and Saturn will overlap:
Ancient cultures spent a lot of time looking up. In fact, there are seven “wandering stars,” celestial lights that move relatively quickly across our sky: the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. Many ancient cultures used these 7 wandering stars as the reason we have 7 day weeks and each one of the seven is a namesake for a day of the week (SUNday, MO(O)Nday, SATURday, various roots of the names in other languages for the others).
Why am I sharing this?
Because literally in a few days stars are aligning! So get your rationalization engines cranking and buy some gear! 
[WaveTheory and HiFiGuides Forum are not responsible for your lack of self control ]
On the contrary! I’ve been in a very selling-stuff mood, since I got this little drop from Heaven, the FH3, in my rapidly shrinking collection! 
Where’s the “dislike” button lol.
Plus I cant exactly whip out headphones in 5 minutes of downtime at work, but I can 100% bullshit on a forum
Unconscionable disclaimers do not protect you
NNNNNOOOMMMMMMAYBE(yes) 
I’ll take the HD800, the Focal headphone, that one gold cable(love those!! I have 4 so far), and you can keep the rest. 
I would say I get distracted from time to time, but I always refocus on music. Lately I’ve found it hard to want to spend more on cans or IEMs or other gear. Maybe its a case of pull up enough weeds and sooner or later you get a bouquet of flowers in the process. The only thing I got my eyes on is getting an over ear planer(again) to complete the driver comparisons etc. There is no NEED in that want tho, just a collector doing his thing.
I admit that i am a gear whore BUT, i have listened to more NEW to me music and opened my eyes to so many varieties, styles and genres that i had not ever bothered with for over 30 years of my life before. I also spend many more hours relaxing to music than ever before in my life. The rooms full of knobs, buttons, heatsinks, fancy woods, tubes, speakers and cables make me WANT to spend time with the gear. It’s an infinant loop…
The cookie tin wins!
After like a second on introspection on this topic again looking at myself I think the only thing that really pulls me out of this hobby and stop spending a stupid amount of cash looking for the cheapie unicorn and makes me appreciate what I have most currently is focusing my hobby money Into other hobbies whether it be pcs and peripherals, anime figures, or that random piece of fashion that catches my eye and I think I can rock with enough swag. Basically all I’m saying is you can easily learn to listen to music with your current gear and just sit and listen when you’re too broke to even think about upgrading or trying to think about trying something else
Looking through this thread, I may have misunderstood this hobby.
I thought this was all about the gear 
This is a joke
You know, I’ve been reflecting on this since I first posted it. Again, very interesting to hear other people’s perspectives. For me, gear is definitely a big part of the equation. However, I read the “Psychology of Collecting” article that was linked, and I don’t feel like that is me. I actually sell most of my gear to buy new gear.
For me, I feel like it is really trying to reach an understanding all the nuances different gear provides. I want those different perspectives to improve my knowledge base.
I always remember this quote from some dude the American Pickers (Iowa represent!) bought I think a Beatles album from. He said something to the effect of, “The goal isn’t to own all the toys in the world, but to get to play with them all.” That always stuck with me, and I think that is more my attitude towards the hobby, and my other hobbies in general.
Its real interesting for me. I absalutely have a collecting issue. Hell, I have ~500 rubicks cubes about 1/4 of which I still can’t solve because I’m taking a break from the hobby. But I look at my hobbies that take up quite a bit of physical space and I don’t have that issue at all. Simracing? 100% of the money I spend is on increasing immersion and I couldn’t give a shit about any of the gear I replace. Just gets sold on immediately. Cars? Maybe I would be a hoarder if I was a billionair and could afford a 3 car garage in my city, but as of right now I don’t realy have issues limiting myself to 3 cars concurrently regardless of the fact that I buy/sell/trade them at least 3 times a year (realy need to pick up a dealers license since insurance is cheaper than sales tax, but holy fuck is even a shithole qualified location expensive anywhere within 3 hours of my house). The swapping around for them is 100% about experiencing new things and keeping my “collection” diverse. Outside of a dedicated track car or something I realy don’t see myself owning the same model of car twice for the foreseeable future. Just way too much other shit out there to try.
Now audio? I’m honestly not sure since I’m pretty new. So far I don’t realt have any desire, but I can 1000% see myself falling down the vinyl collecting rabbit hole.
This makes a whole lot of sense to me. I’m enjoying experiencing as much as I can. Keeping the best and selling the rest. My “past gear” list keeps growing as my “current gear” list has shrunk. At this point I’ll probably keep a few core items that I love, and then have a revolving door of other new stuff to try just for the experience.