This last weekend I was listening to my friends talk about motorcycles. I’ve never been one to get involved in those types of conversations, but I started to really listen to how they were talking about their favorite hobby. This is where it came to my attention that when you are involved in a particular hobby or activity that other people call their own as well, you always get two types. The speaker will always refer to two sides in their current hobby. The first being the older people involved. They are either looked up to as teachers who you are always learning from, due to their experience, or scoffed at because they are old and been “doing it” too long to have any good sense in current trends a.k.a. “stuck in their ways”.


The second group of people, and my personal favorite, “the new guys”. They are also referred to as noobs/n00bs, newbies, new meat, youngin’s, and generally inexperienced. No matter what these people do, if they come into the hobby after you have already been involved for sometime, they will most assuredly be treated like they know nothing. As innocent as their ideas may be, they will always be baulked at by people who have “been in the business” longer then them. These types of people can only get out of the “noob league” if they submit themselves to the older generation as the teacher type mentioned before. Even then, they will always been seen as less knowledgeable. In case you need it, here is the urban dictionary’s definition of a noob and a newb:

Contrary to the belief of many, a noob/n00b and a newbie/newb are not the same thing. Newbs are those who are new to some task* and are very beginner at it, possibly a little overconfident about it, but they are willing to learn and fix their errors to move out of that stage. n00bs, on the other hand, know little and have no will to learn any more. They expect people to do the work for them and then expect to get praised about it, and make up a unique species of their own.

The amazing part in all this is while listening to others talk about their hobbies, they are never a part of either group. They will always make fun of the noobs/newbs, praise the teachers and condemn the stubborn. They will never put themselves into either of the main categories and will never admit their own shortcomings in front of others they feel are in the same league as them. I know I probably do the same thing when it comes to my own hobbies, but I at least have this piece of knowledge to try and curve these things. People are so oblivious sometimes. Oh well, someday when I rule the world...