What if inflation isn’t about the money losing value, but you having access to more money and thus spending it more frivolously?

Selling my organs, or testing risky medical procedures.

Not in my country, maybe there’s something else going on in yours?

There’s definite anti-intellectualism, but what you’re describing is the loss of qualified/high innovation industry in the US.

The previous generation of higher education graduates cannot find gainful employment offsetting their student loans, not to mention qualified work at all. There isn’t enough employment or market to make use of that knowledge (there’s also a discussion to be had about the quality of that knowledge, but with the rest of the world managing – let’s set that aside for now), whereas there’s high demand for the trades.

The last few centuries have shown that economic growth is greatly accelerated with higher education, and that access to an educated workforce has been key to post-world-war growth. Meaning it might get rough for the next US generation…

It’s also a super common ND thing, you might have utility of looking up their strategies for dealing with it?

But from my own experience, I have those two weeks to find something satisfying to do with the hobby, as well as figure out where it will fit in my life for the next 6 weeks or so, before I get bored with it and can’t pick it up again for at least a year. I’ve had to become very proficient in finding just enough materials, as well as getting rid of them, to not ruin me or drown in hoarded materials.

I’m also prone to taking on too many projects at once, having a two week quarantine period saves me an embarassing lot of times.

Break a project down into two week sprints?

And/or adjust your tempo to account for making stuff sustainable in both amount of novelty, intensity and progression.

Finding ways to get past the two week inspiration high is much of what makes an interest different from a hobby.

The Divine Dungeon series scratched much of the same itch for me!

Board games have been nearly ruined by kickstarter.

Instead of buying a well reviewed and recommended game from a store, you have to back a hyped up sales pitch, and then wait 18 months for delivery, if the producers don’t just bail with your money or go “oops, we couldn’t finish what we promised, and we already spent all your money…”.

And if you don’t back it to later read the reviews, the game is out of print and still waiting for the first wave of deliveries, meaning a second print is still at least 1-2 years off.

Also, the ratings are heavily skewed by people rating on the hype or early/review copies, meaning the rankings are heavily amazonified.

EtA: Also games are heavily bloated with social media candy: heavy and fragile minis, box stands, blingy crap periferals (branded dice holding toucan) and still needing organisers, player aids and mods from third parties who’ve gotten review copies to make said supplements…

Oh, and the stretch goal extras (get another 150 vanity minis/3D printed scoring tokens) for only $250 and an 18 month wait!

Edit: updated with more recent time & cost estimates (even higher!)