Hi everyone, (By the way, I’m not late, I just forgot to tell you last week that for scheduling reasons I’m moving these to Tuesday mornings. So, now you know) In the spirit of complaining about things as a way of creating a shared understanding, I thought I’d complain about a problem that I’m pretty sure many of you share: I have (at least briefly) a lot of really niche interests, and I often don’t find people to share them with, and this makes it difficult to maintain those interests for an extended period of time.
I've had a lot of trouble keeping interests going and find myself "reignited" on them with a burst of fresh energy when I find a new paper or article on the subject, or have an insightful conversation on the subject. But often enough I am not reignited, and it's left me a trail of somewhat expensive hobby toys and half a hackerspace that I don't use often enough to justify the money I spent buying in. More than once, someone has expressed interest in an interest and were happy to pick up the loose threads I left, or a never-tested RC plane, or a radio kit I could never figure out how to tune.
I've had similar experiences in trying to manage habits, too -- in a depressive mood, my anxiety keeps me from my practice long enough that I stop meditating, or I stop my weight training regiment, or similar. The more I have to "fight" myself to do the thing, the harder it is to come back to.
I think you're right about the value of writing about it in public, because niche as it is, the time will eventually come when someone else is interested, and your ideas will then increase the number of places for their own interest to perch.
This is really insightful, thanks.
I've had a lot of trouble keeping interests going and find myself "reignited" on them with a burst of fresh energy when I find a new paper or article on the subject, or have an insightful conversation on the subject. But often enough I am not reignited, and it's left me a trail of somewhat expensive hobby toys and half a hackerspace that I don't use often enough to justify the money I spent buying in. More than once, someone has expressed interest in an interest and were happy to pick up the loose threads I left, or a never-tested RC plane, or a radio kit I could never figure out how to tune.
I've had similar experiences in trying to manage habits, too -- in a depressive mood, my anxiety keeps me from my practice long enough that I stop meditating, or I stop my weight training regiment, or similar. The more I have to "fight" myself to do the thing, the harder it is to come back to.
I think you're right about the value of writing about it in public, because niche as it is, the time will eventually come when someone else is interested, and your ideas will then increase the number of places for their own interest to perch.
I have absolutely no idea but boy am I glad that you're articulating this dilemma. I have it too.
Sorry my comment has no value other than "yes! me too! I am not alone!" and the value is mostly accrued to me 🤷🏻♂️