Why are flashlight owners and the flashlight hobby so cerebral?

I gotta say, I've been to a lot of forums online, for software, cars, sports, technical gadgets, etc. But I find CPF members to be some of the most articulate, intelligent, and intellectually stimulating people on the net.

I remember when I first got my Leatherman Monarch, did a google for reviews, and found this place. After reading a few reviews, classic threads like the Li-on battery going poof, and user instructions for lights which were far better than most manufacturer manuals, I was hooked.

Today's shining example is Orcinus, who has created an impressively simple manual for the complex LF5XT, and a simple set of instructions on how the Spartan II works. Many other members like him have some great insights and posts here so far.

I'm simply amazed at the amount of brain power here. I almost feel like I'm part of the Mensa International organization here. How is it that CPF and the flashlight nerds are so much smarter than the rest of the net / population out there?

:thinking::thinking: :twothumbs

cpf is full of enlightened members :thumbsup:

no mental lightweights on this site sir.

ain't no tellin'

I'd don't want to sound pompous, but I believe you really can't get into this hobby with normal thinking intelligents. I was attracted to flashlights in my quest for power. I had mostly spent my time doing mathematical equations for ballistic values. I enjoyed finding out what the limit for different cartridges were. How to amass the most velocity verses bullet weight, sectional density and how to limit recoil and the adverse amount of potential counter affects in the search for power and it's applications. Flashlights are a lot like ballistics. The same is not true if one was to say "guns are like flashlights" because they are not, if everyone one here just bought stock lights and did nothing to them than the saying would be true, but it's not. In order to be an affective modder one must understand multiple key components and what affect they will have on each other before ever sitting down and trying it for real. So like ballistic charts, there are destructive bulb tables, and percentage of efficiency throw lens and reflectors. Instead of using powdered we use batteries. Black powder is like Alkaline "you can get a lot of energy out of it but need to take your time, such as using a long barrel, they are even messy like each other. One leaks in your light, the other dirties up your gun. While Nihm batteries are like fast burning powders for short barrel pistols "you can get a lot of power out of it in a short amount of time. There is just so many similes: range=throw, flood=rate of fire, battery life=magazine capacity, regulation=high quality ammo, tube size=case capacity, Even the way a lithium Ion will explode when it is pushed to far=is like how if you put to much PSI in a case it will blow. For crying out load over working a cartridge reduces it's reloadable servious life, like how if you drain a rechargeable battery too fast it's capacity will not hold up as long down the road. So flashlights to me is a cheaper alternative to firearms:thumbsup:.

I think a big part of it is because flashlight "fashion" is not a highly valued criteria. Yes there are highly cosmetic designs and some DIY fabricators doing some incredible work... but for the most part the overall appearance is not more critical than the functional performance. Furthermore, flashlights are not seen as a fashion statement/accessory while in use.

So... the performance by default becomes the most frequently discussed item, and you can't really discuss that without going into technical stuff.

I came here several years ago looking for bargain batts. Developed a taste for reasonable priced well-performing and reasonably practical lights.

Soon, I began to appreciate the amazing diversity of the "congregation" and the way the members treated each other with such respect (the majority of the time!) for no reason than that it was just the "right" thing to do.

I've learned a LOT - about a lot of different stuff, not just lights and related things. I've made i'net friends -- something I would not have thought possible prior to becoming a part of this community. I can go to NYC, Phoenix, Fairbanks or S'Pore and be assured of a free cup of coffee.

I know my post sounds kind of sophmoric and corny, but I'm serious -- so please don't make light of my feelings.

I agree with BIGIRON.

I came here originally looking for information on the issues I was having with my rechargeable batteries.

I ventured outside of the battery sub-forum and became interested in flashlights and electronics again, after not thinking about them seriously for about 30 years.

I've learned so much in the few months that I've been here, it's an amazing community, probably the best "net" community I've been involved with.

I have noticed exactly the same thing, is it related to the fact that almost everyone here seems to exhibit OCD tendencies to a greater or lesser degree?

The people I have talked to both online and, now, in person have been kind, courteous, patient and friendly. In fact, I have been genuinely surprised what proportion of the membership here demonstrate such characteristics. It could be that the technical nature of the topics bring out both pragmatic and philanthropic sides of people and it is helped by the mode of communication, even if someone is hugely enthusiastic and subject to verbal diarrhoea about a topic it doesn't involve shouting anyone else down.

I am just disappointed that the types of people here are not representative of the population at large, as if it were the case, the World would be a more pleasant place to inhabit (albeit somewhat brighter).

Andrew

This is my first posting in THE CAFÉ. I'm surprised at the warm fuzzies this thread generates for me, like holding an HID against your heart. Or maybe like putting on a shirt that you've just gotten the wrinkles out of using a BIG IRON?

To answer the OP... well, I don't think flashlight owners are necessarily cerebral, but I know you meant owners/aficionados of more expensive, well-engineered, or custom lights.

Part of it might be Neophile tendencies. People drawn to new technologies and new products and new ways of engineering things tend to be highly intelligent, cerebral, etc. Unless you're a bit of a neophile, 99 cent incandescents are just fine.

I'm sure the incredible job all the administrators do helps keep it a smart, fun place for bright, cerebral sorts to be too.

I've been curious about Myers-Briggs personality types for a while... I would guess that a fairly high percentage of CPF members are Ts (Thinkers).

I wonder if any CPFers (here in THE CAFÉ) would be interested in taking a poll on their Myers-Briggs type? Would it be worthwhile to start a new poll thread, including a link to the online Myers Briggs personality type test?

Mostly said:

I wonder if any CPFers (here in THE CAFÉ) would be interested in taking a poll on their Myers-Briggs type? Would it be worthwhile to start a new poll thread, including a link to the online Myers Briggs personality type test?

Click to expand...

Actually, we had such a thread not long ago.

Link

There were quite a few INTJs.

jtr1962 said:

Actually, we had such a thread not long ago.

Link

There were quite a few INTJs.

Click to expand...

I will become another, I did it twice and was INTJ one time and INTP another.

Andrew

jtr1962 said:

Actually, we had such a thread not long ago.

Link

There were quite a few INTJs.

Click to expand...

Thanks jtr1962! As I said, my first visit to this subforum was yesterday, and my second visit (tonight) was a delight to be greeted with the thread you mentioned having been bumped back up onto page one so I saw it right away...

The only thing is that it isn't set up like an automated poll thread... that would be hard, though... could be different ways to do it other than listing all 16 types... (by four temperaments might be easier?)

cdosrun, you may be an INTP. I came out INTJ the first time, but INTP thereafter, once I realized some of the flaws of the test when it comes to INTP/J. The test sort of asks if you WANT to be more organized, not if you really are... and many INTPs want to be more organized... but just aren't naturally so, in many situations. There is a detailed essay page that explains this flaw in the online test better, but... being a bit disorganized, I left that link on my old computer and haven't been able to find it by googling yet...

(Edit: also, your username is humor a bit more typical of INTPs--though occasionally INTJs might play on words, it isn't their forte. INTPs tend to be SF fans in general and often are Douglas Adams fans (my name is Mostly because sometimes I've feel like I've "been mostly dead all day" (Princess Bride), though I'm mostly happy these days, and ultimately I can be categorized as mostly harmless (Earth's description in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy)).

INTPs also tend to stray off topic easily, seeing every possible topic as being interrelated somehow... I'll go dive into the Myers Briggs thread now.

But one more note on topic of cerebral CPFers... if there are a lot of INTJs, it is likely that some of them are actually INTPs, and Einstein was supposedly an INTP. How much more cerebral can you get than that?! But wait... as proud as I was to know I (probably) share a personality type in common with Einstein, I read further in the "famous INTP" list and learned that Andy Rooney is INTP too! On the scale of Einstein to Andy Rooney... I'm probably closer to... yeah... Rooney.

I have always been fascinated with flashlights. My first flashlight as a kid was a 2D Red maglight which was given to myself and my brother by our father. My dad had the 6 cell flashlight that looked monstrous to us kids. Moving on 30 years my first real flashlight was the Streamlight Stinger and I thought at the time that this was "THE" light. Then I found CPF and well the rest is history as they say. This a fantastic forum with so many people on here that have really taught me a LOT of stuff about lights. The members on this forum really try to help one another. Thanks to all here for what they do for the "Flashlight Community" here on CPF :thumbsup:

As a demographic slice, flashlight users are great doers of things. Many of them view lights as they view other tools. I think that puts a cerebral point on it, for openers. People who do things have to think about them and have to think about which tool is best for a given task. For many it's the same with lights. The tool thing is central to most of my thoughts about lights and I think it's apropos. A nail may be driven with a screw driver but most would rather use something else. It's kind of the same way with lights.

On another tack, CPFers are more into preparedness than most other 'sane' demographics that come to mind. Risk assessment is a very cerebral process. Even with preparedness much of it seems to come back to having the right tools for the right task at the right time. CPF has this in spades compared to the masses.

I don't know if I've expressed myself well enough for others to understand. People who do things need their tools and tend to be more cerebral than people who don't.

Juggernaut said:

I'd don't want to sound pompous, but I believe you really can't get into this hobby with normal thinking intelligents. I was attracted to flashlights in my quest for power. I had mostly spent my time doing mathematical equations for ballistic values. I enjoyed finding out what the limit for different cartridges were. How to amass the most velocity verses bullet weight, sectional density and how to limit recoil and the adverse amount of potential counter affects in the search for power and it's applications. Flashlights are a lot like ballistics. The same is not true if one was to say "guns are like flashlights" because they are not, if everyone one here just bought stock lights and did nothing to them than the saying would be true, but it's not. In order to be an affective modder one must understand multiple key components and what affect they will have on each other before ever sitting down and trying it for real. So like ballistic charts, there are destructive bulb tables, and percentage of efficiency throw lens and reflectors. Instead of using powdered we use batteries. Black powder is like Alkaline "you can get a lot of energy out of it but need to take your time, such as using a long barrel, they are even messy like each other. One leaks in your light, the other dirties up your gun. While Nihm batteries are like fast burning powders for short barrel pistols "you can get a lot of power out of it in a short amount of time. There is just so many similes: range=throw, flood=rate of fire, battery life=magazine capacity, regulation=high quality ammo, tube size=case capacity, Even the way a lithium Ion will explode when it is pushed to far=is like how if you put to much PSI in a case it will blow. For crying out load over working a cartridge reduces it's reloadable servious life, like how if you drain a rechargeable battery too fast it's capacity will not hold up as long down the road. So flashlights to me is a cheaper alternative to firearms:thumbsup:.

Click to expand...

I don't usually copy long posts to quote, but damn that is exactly how I feel. My hobby history started with an interest in shooting, and striving for the best accuracy, velocity, hitting power, etc. Reloading was my means to achieve some of that, and buying some of the better firearms to achieve that. Along the way I also became interested in flashlights, and I was started looking for better, more powerful, efficient, satisfying flashlights, and I noticed that my interest in firearms started diminishing, amazing!!! So here I am, an unabashed flashaholic. I will say one thing that though I reloaded ammo, using various components to do that, I have not gotten into seriious modding of flashlights for my use, and I sort of stand back a little, afraid to delve into that aspect, preferring to commission the services of our better modders, where possible. Maybe later........

Bill

Flashlight hobbyists are cerebral, eh? I need to find a new hobby...:sigh:

LED-holic said:

How is it that CPF and the flashlight nerds are so much smarter than the rest of the net / population out there?

Click to expand...

Having Galadriel as a patron saint can't hurt.

The ring, Nenya, also named the Ring of Adamant was wielded by Galadriel of Lothlórien. It's power was reservation, protection, and possibly concealment from evil because "there is a secret power here that holds evil from the land".

What does cerebral mean?

turkdc said:

What does cerebral mean?

Click to expand...

"Appealing to or requiring the use of the intellect; intellectual rather than emotional..."
--American Heritage Dictionary