What do you do when your obsessions are worthless?

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Nonperson
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26 May 2013, 7:47 pm

kanashimoo wrote:
Unfortunately, again, its just a tertiary thing (you guys would probably know, obsession with a fringe section of a supertype). I'm just interested in assembling my own computer and benchmarks of hardware, that stuff. I saw my electrician friend's textbook and every page made my head explode. Inner workings, that kind of stuff.. too difficult to process. I feel like I should be very intelligent, but it never manifests. An analogy would be that my brain is an quad core CPU, but 2/4 of the cores are disabled. My entire family is either average to well above average, and all love learning. I don't.


Mastering anything doesn't come easy. The first steps might be easy and you might get a boost from an obsession, but turning an interest into a worthwhile skill takes work, not just talent and/or intelligence. I wish I'd realized that when I was your age, and actually put the work in instead of drifting around looking for the one magical thing I could do well with no effort. It wasn't even laziness: I was basically taught to expect things to come easily or else shrug and say "I guess I just don't have the talent". I read a book recently that really pointed out my error:
http://www.amazon.com/Talent-Overrated- ... pd_sim_b_4

I'm 34 years old and just beginning to put in the time to practice something I've wanted to be good at since I was a little kid. I never put much effort in before because I didn't want to be that stupid person beating her head against a brick wall. If I started at your age I'd probably be a pro by now. Don't make the same mistake I did.



kanashimoo
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30 May 2013, 4:34 pm

daydreamer84 wrote:
My interests are reading and my imaginary world and do NOT include the ability to write good original stories (which would not infringe on copy-write laws). My interests are WAY more worthless than yours! Knowledge of computer hardware could be useful.


Wow that's just like me! Same thing, I can't.carry a story through even a few pages. How do you get by?



Bubbles137
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31 May 2013, 2:41 am

My obsessions are running, fairy tales and Formula one- very random and useless mix! I'm doing a PhD in creative writing though and am writing a collection of short stories and poems looking at concepts of self and identity. The stories are retellings of traditional fairy tales and the poems are about running!