Capt. Rob wrote:

How can I take pride in something I bought?

By working very hard for it. If it came easily, then maybe you'd have
a point. Most people I know are proud of their hard work and what it
has brought them.

Then you're not proud of the boat, but of yourself for having put the work
in.


Especially when there is so much I've conceived, designed and
built myself. Unlike you.

Puhlease. No one here is buying.

Conceiving, designing and building something yourself is just another form
of work. For some, it might be more rewarding than cleaning toilets - you
get the buzz of creating something that didn't exist or was otherwise
unavailable to you, and, if the end result is something you want, you get
the buzz from that, too. You can still get a buzz from acquiring something
you want (self pride for effort) by cleaning toilets and using the earnings
to buy whatever that thing is, but there's always an extra buzz when you use
the thing and remind yourself that you invented and built it. Every
brushstroke of every painting on my walls was painted by me - you can't buy
that, it's not an acquisition trip, but the physical doing of painting was
still just time and effort - a form of work.


--
Capt Scumbalino