He spent his life building a $1 million stereo. The real cost was unfathomable.

@posbwp55 

Congratulations on that whitewash, but I think that it was made clear that his passion was far from solitary, and if you think that it's ok to make your children literal slaves to your hobby, then I'm not sure what behavior you would consider to be obsessive. 

Reflection in order and compassion… and a better plan for my eventual passing….

Aside - I attended a nice music listening event last evening to honor the life and memory of a music club co-founder. Bit of a fund raiser for his favorite charities…. 

I had dealings with him. He was a creep. He backed out of a long-planned deal (months in the making) we had for the sale of one of his pieces of equipment the day before I was to drive to Richmond to pick it up.  This was after I had verified with him that the deal was still on and after I rented a vehicle for pickup of the gear.  He said he changed his mind and in another interaction with him a year later, he bragged at how he sold the equipment for a much higher price.  Others had similar stories, mostly on the sell-side.  If he was buying, however, he was the nicest guy to ensure he got what he wanted to feed his obsession. 

My perspective based on The Post story: this was a monomaniacal obsession with serious consequences for his family and for himself as well. 

Of course, it's difficult to comment on his psyche not knowing him (and maybe it would be presumptuous anyway), but presumably a lot of the information came from people who knew him well and/or were related. Many of them came across as disliking the guy and his hobby due to his fixation on that project.

So, the facts are that he spent a lot of money (most of it lost to his hiers) and appears to have alienated and offended in equal amounts. A sad story, in some ways...

The real story here is about caring for your loved ones.