I will just quote this with a block quote in bold and italic, to see if this is more convincing:
it might be the last standalone groovebox I’ll ever buy…
Nah, it’s still 
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Maybe in a musical context with the text in diagonal with a drop shadow?
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so far no new gear for me and I think that I will pass the challenge this time. I had to fund some expensive home and auto repairs again this year and was unemployed for a few months after the tech firm laid 500+ people off including me. Fortunately, I bounced back with a new job but will need to replace my old 15 year old car next year so looks like I may actually do 2 years in a row of no new gear. I do want a full size ARP 2600, MS20, Buchla Music Easel, Erica Synths Techno modular system and an ESP Exhibition custom guitar with Diezel amp but these can wait.
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Lately I’ve been GASing for silly things.
I set me the goal to wait for a month before buying anything.
Works pretty well for the tired moments when my resolution weakens.
A month later, I have trouble understanding why I was so enthusiastic in the first place, and have most likely fell again in honeymoon with a piece of gear I already own that does the job and that I already know by heart.
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Yeah the month rule is great and has saved me from buying lots of stuff I no longer want. When you’ve been GASing for a half year though…
Got any tips?
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I’m out! Switched my focus back to guitar in June and bought some guitar stuff - good luck, everyone!
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I took a few months break from Elektronauts.
Tried to wean myself off of obsessively scrolling through this forum every day and succeeded in it. Logged out of Elektronauts on all of my devices except my phone, but I never use my phone for browsing anything.
I’ve visited Elektronauts maybe four times in the last few months when I’ve been bored sitting in a parking lot waiting for my girlfriend to come back from the grocery store. This has also had the effect of not needing to browse anything anymore. Facebook is shit, the news are shit, Pitchfork has gone to shit and taking a break from Elektronauts means that there’s nothing worth reading on the internet anymore. Which has been great. More time for books, comics, video games and vinyl. The things that make life worth living.
I failed my NGNY 2023 challenge at the start of the summer and that was what probably lead to my exit from Elektronauts. I felt ashamed having started the thread this year and having that extra pressure to succeed. Felt disappointed and also felt that the more time I spend on a gear forum the more I’d start lusting after gear.
I guess I’m more of a ”One new piece of gear per year type of guy”, because that’s what has happened both times I’ve taken part in this challenge. Participation has taught me a lot about my weaknesses and strengths and what drives people to buy more and more gear and never finish a piece of music. I’m older and wiser even though I failed both times.
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I reckon the overarching purpose of this NGNY is to make some space and learn something about yourself. Sounds like you succeeded. I’m not buying because spare money is going on other things, the challenge will be when I have some extra dough……
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In cases of chronic GAS for gear I don’t really need, my only cure is to just buy it. It’s not worth my time, at least if you’re like me, who obsessively watches every new review and forum post about it. I usually wait a bit more for a sale and sometimes I even lose interest in this time, but if not, at least I potentially save a bit of money.
But yeah, month rule is great and really helps. Impulse buying is the worst.
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Never a truer word spoken.
I’ve heard people talking about a depth year and I think I’ll try this in 2024. Pick kit, sell the rest to enforce commitment to what I have for a year. I also think I might buy a proper instructional course or even tuition for the pieces I decide on. This would help me stay away from the internet as you’ve talked about above.
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They make it pretty hard to leave facebook - when you have been on it many years it ends up being a library of memories, especially photo’s if you post a lot and get tagged a lot. This was a barrier to me leaving for ages, as I knew I would have to put in a bit of work into applying for de-registration and selecting everything I’d like to download and keep, and then wating weeks for the de-registration to through, and then downloading everything and backing up the files.
All that, and I haven’t thought about any of those files since!
Leaving facebook was one of my best decisions in years - absolutely zero regret, ever, at any point.
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I’m just like you I’m afraid. After almost 5 months, I still haven’t lost interest. But yes, I would definitely wait for a sale or (even better) to see if any of these would end up in the second hand market. None so far though. 
One good thing about finally deciding to buy it (but waiting for a sale) is, that it makes me stop overthinking it and watching reviews, which sometimes causes me to actually lose interest. Or sometimes instead of a sale price goes up, which has the same effect on me (this happened with Sub37 and I certainly also wouldn’t buy DN at current prices… DN it was a bit of an impulse buy though).
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Hello!
Yes, I’ve failed.
At this point in the year, 5 pieces of hardware I had are now gone (hoping to sell one more, the CDR-70). Two of them, I have replaced with something similar: the Hydra with the Peak (this was because I sent my Hydra for repairs in Spain, and after 4 months, I got it back with the same problem, and they offered to refund my money); and the SP-404SX with the MK2, which is likely to be gone soon.
The other three, I’ve gotten rid of them because I really didn’t use/like them, and as the prices went higher, I didn’t lose any money (I’ve even made some).
So, I’ve failed, but at the same time, I think I’m much better at knowing what I like and what’s for me, and getting rid of things I don’t use. I’ve always sold before buying as a rule.
I’ve not finished 12 ideas, but maybe 6. But I’ve learned a lot from the things I’m keeping and I’m trying to record everything more often to complete it later.
Let’s see what happens by the end of the year.
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If you’re going to start a “One New Piece Of Gear Per Year” thread I think I can get 100% behind that and have more hope of success.
That said, although I did pick up an M8 this year, definitely booting me out of the NGNY club, the philosophy here really makes me stop and think before buying and that has helped me avoid extreme GAS.
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That sounds like real progress. I have a similar experience. For 2-3 years, I was obsessively buying things without thinking through what I actually enjoy and what I dislike. I ended up buying and selling all sorts of things while trying to figure out what I actually needed: Minilogue XS, Hydrasynth, MC-101, JX-08, etc. All without realizing that I don’t even like hooking different gear together.
“It’s not the synth, it’s me.”
Another thing to consider framing, @rtme? 
Haven’t bought a new thing since January. Keep selling off the stuff I don’t use. It’s a good feeling.
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Still hanging in there. I’d like some stands for my monitors, but it’s OK, they’ll wait!
I’ve really enjoyed settling on an optimal way to link together my existing kit, inspired by Oora’s videos on the Syntakt and Octatrack. Keeping the setup consistent really helps me make the most of short opportunities to make patterns.
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Kudos to all of you who are still going at this point in the year, I’m impressed.
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Still going. October.
Feeling solid about it
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