Productive Special Interests

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I was talking with my psychologist last week, and I kind of finally got it through my head what exactly my special interests are. I named them off for him, and he told me that they're all healthy, appropriate, productive things to be interested in, which is always a good thing to hear.

They are:

1. Writing - I seem to be an innate storyteller, and I always have been. I write both fiction and essays very well, I'm told. I've been encouraged to finish some work and have it published, but I don't know.
2. Filmmaking - Related to writing, it's another form of storytelling. I love writing scripts and working on-set, in particular. I'd probably make a good writer/director, being articulate and having a clear vision of my scripts.
3. Music - I like making music on the computer, and designing new synth patches and drum sounds to use in my music. I can spend hours working on just the right sounds before even getting into the song itself.
4. History - I have a head for facts, dates, and names, and I like learning about the past and all the different the stories it contains. I seem to have a good grasp of reasons behind historical events, as well.
5. Animal Care - I like animals, and I seem to have a certain way with them; especially companion animals. I've been told that with my intelligence and memory, I'd make an amazing vet.

Despite my hesitation to actually go out and do something productive with my life, I seem to know with a great degree of specificity, what exactly it is that I like doing, and am therefor good at (or maybe the other way around). Weird, isn't it?

What are your productive special interests?

dpost

Saving the world.

It is easier than it sounds, because the world is so irrational. You only need to trace problems to a simple cause, suggest a rational alternative, and show how it would benefit everybody. For example, a more rational concept of property would enable us to gain more property, so we would all be a lot richer.

It is also harder than it sounds (if that is possible!) for the same reason. People are irrational, so the concept of being rational is very hard. For example, economists show no interest in creating a rational foundation for their theories. Ask an economist why they believe in property and you get a bucketload of fallacies (appeal to authority, appeal to anecdote, etc.)

Morality is a similar case. We are all far more evil than we like to admit, but we don't actually want to be good. That's why I focus on the economic approach. The more rational concept of property that I mention would have the side effect of forcing us to cooperate and cause less pain.

Anyway, that is my obsession and has been since I was a child. I am on track to succeed.


On a related note, the same urges (to make everything perfect) lead me to find rational explanations for comics. I take the physics and sociology of superheroes more seriously than anybody I know.

My interests could be productive. Here they are:

Art - I like to draw and paint and my dream to make some money from this is starting to take off.

Health - more specifically epigenetics, population migrations and nutrition - I'm interested in how diet affects different people in different ways, depending on their genetics/ where the genes originated. I like research, but the theoretical side, not lab work - I'd leave the DNA analysis to someone else. I'm considering adding statistics to my biology degree, by doing some Open University courses.

Database & Spreadsheet Design - This was the best part of my job (when I worked before my daughter was born) and I could do this all day long and not get bored. I can see this tying in with the above quite neatly.

I'm interested in a lot of things. I like to keep informed about what is actually happening in the world. Human rights, the environment and wildlife are all very important to me. Financial injustice is a bugbear of mine and the answers to this one are just too obvious to mention.

Live Action Roleplaying and Semi-live
Building Lego models for excibitions (adult fan of Lego).
Gardening with my father.
Medieval reenactment cooking.
Cooking.
Development country advocacy and fundraising.
Social housing politics.
Folk music/Larp music/Medieval music.
Folk dancing.
Board gaming.

Most of these hobbies are based on a lot of equipment and envolvment, so I try to prioritize between them. At the moment LARP, social housing politics, folk music and development country advocacy are in focus. To me my special interests are healthy no matter what. It is where I find my friends, and where I have the best chance to flirt.

Writing and drawing. It's always been my life's dream to become a famous artist, and I have a natural talent for writing (or so I'm told). Maybe it would behoove me to write and illustrate my own books.

Lemme see...

Game Design: I've made a few games which are somewhat decent, expecially for a teenager who made everything from scratch and only worked on it in a few instances of free time. I might have had someone offer to buy one of my games for a significant amount of money, but I'm still not sure if he was trying to scam or spam or not. Bosses in video games are one of my lasting special interests.

Writing: Suppossivly I'm a good writer, both with essays and with other stuff, and I enjoy writing stories. I hate writing essays unless I can twist them so they are about a special interest, which I often figure out a way to do.

I have other interests that may be useful, but I don't think I'm interested/talented enough in them for them to be that useful. I'm also talented in other things, but they either aren't as useful or not I'm not that interested in them, or I just can't think of them right now.

Writing book 1 of my own sci-fi series Very closely hitting that 1 year mark and more than half way through. I'm completely focused on it I will exclude all us. Many apologies to my friends and family.

Drawing/Painting characters, technology and other such designs for the story. And working on my artistic skills for the cover.

Research for book: the air force, spies, Area 51, maps, physics, history, the internet and virtual technologies, even social encounters - it's all put down as research.

Writing my blog: help teach people about autism/ADHD and connect to others with those conditions. Also, I get some interest to write for certain sites. Also, gets a load off my mind.

Activism: productive in a deconstructive kind of way.

Music and going to concerts: My only means of a social life, helps to build skills.

Photography: Will get me employed. My sister is interested enough in my work to offer me a job at least. Actually a lot of people think I'm some prodigy but really I do it because I have the skills and like to experiment at times.

Astronomy (amateur): Able to locate objects in the sky especially around those once in 1400 years events. Actually I don't always see those, I'm more of a once a year type of person. It gives me something to talk to people about and maybe I'll discover some new mystery on Zoo Universe. It won't bother me if I don't.