Useful special interests and hyperfixations.

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Does anyone else have any special interests or hyperfixations that have been useful in their life.
For me.

Special interests.
Personal finance
Cooking
Programming

Hyperfixations
Female led relationships. ( Help with my marriage)

I have a very keen interest in doing arts & crafts.

they are all useful (to me at least)

Well, I guess my fascination with mental disorders helped me research autism before my diagnosis

Ham radio
Electronics
Computers
Lasers
Camping
Boating
All but the boating, camping, and Ham radio have made me money. The Ham radio keeps awake while driving. The boating and camping keep me sane

My interests in illicit substances and psychology turned into a career pathway in drug and alcohol treatment.

It did however also clash with my interest in not having to talk to people...

Oh yes, they're useful:
Music - helps make me popular, opens doors, sometimes it even pays.
Efficient, scientific cooking and food preparation - keeps me fed cheaply with the minimum of fuss and bother.
My special interests are rather broad-range, I suppose you could call it the application of science to whatever practical problems come my way, a bit like MacGyver but without the proficiency in foreign languages and not quite so good:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGyver
Also the problems I solve are mostly to do with my own life and chosen circle of friends and family, as I seem to lack the political will to be much of an activist or to save the world. But it's mostly practical, useful stuff. The only impractical aspect I know of is that I might spend days solving a problem for zero financial cost when I could have either ignored it or gone to WalMart and bought something cheap to solve it. I'm hyper-frugal in some ways but my time management and prioritising skills are often very poor.

Programming (could get me in the video game industry)
Singing (could get me in the music industry)
Romantic dreams about fictional characters (could get me to the point of marriage)

Special interest?
Definitely crafting.
If I had the time, I could make a business out of it -- and I did sold stuff a few times.
It also can double as a stim in more ways than one. It's also an ice breaker...


Hyperfixations?
I'm not sure -- It's this hate fueled obsession with humanity in every aspect of it. It's a double edged sword.
The positives so far;
Maybe it saved my life at some point.
Maybe it might be why I never fallen into toxic groups in the first place.
Maybe it might be why I don't have social anxiety because of knowing how meaningless it can be.
Maybe it's the reason why I can pierce the veil whenever I'm too emotional or overwhelmed -- though, somewhat helpless.
... Maybe it's the reason why I know what and where I want to be.

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Money is a good interest to have. I'd spend less of it.

interest in horses and other animals led to certification as riding instructor and stable manager, ran 2 stables, did rescue rehabs, humane investigation, etc for several humane societies for both small animals and larger domestic animals, did that for about 50 years along with other jobs... now I am interested in rocks and fossils (don't keep animals any more, too old) and have made friends through those interests to the point that i can usually find somebody to hunt rocks and fossils with and we have lots of social interactions on line. This works good for all of us because most of us are socially awkward. Its nice to find others with the same interests and they tend to be more tolerant of social struggles, the settings are not formal and are usually just parallel play situations themed around something about the interests we share. Yes, you may be able to apply your intense interests to areas of your life in ways you never dreamed of!

The violin is (one of) my autistic special interests. I view my autistic special interests as those interests that are no longer a means to an end but become an end in itself. I started taking violin lessons at age 61 two years ago. I've never really played for anybody and I doubt I will. In other words, I don't learn the violin to play music. I learn the violin to learn the violin. I belong to a support group which includes a number of autistic people who are very good at guitar, bass, and piano and who love to play for people. That's not me.

I have one or two other similar special interests, things I turn to on an almost daily basis, things that my family and friends would view as empty knowledge but are very important to me to learn everything I can.

I have pretty much no useful special interests. I have a lot that are almost useful, but something in me resists getting into anything truly useful. I enjoy learning languages, but only fun impractical languages like Finnish. I tried making myself learn a bit of French, but I quickly got annoyed. I even found a “fun” method to learn French. With zero studying I could listen to the podcast InnerFrench and understand it pretty well. It even had a lot of interesting topics.

Sure I can “find” a practical use for Finnish, but that just ruins any joy Finnish gave me. It also doesn’t help that I don’t really learn languages to speak them. So there’s really no practical use for Finnish.

I’m also interested in topics like AI. That could be very practical and lucrative. Too bad I’m not STEMy enough. Sure there’s a “Women in STEM” movement, but I think that’s just a bunch of BS. I just want to learn to enjoy STEM without being instantly put in the Women in STEM box. It doesn’t help that they ask what I’m interested in. A lot of my interests aren’t STEMy enough. I enjoy art and I guess I have a chaotic artist vibe. That’s not too good for getting into STEM.

If I was a man, language learning would be a good interest to mention. Since I’m not a man, mentioning language learning only adds to my chaotic artist vibe. When men learn languages they’re seen as systematic and hard working.

My one “practical” interest is business and marketing. I don’t think I’d ever survive a corporate or sales job. That only makes it more interesting to me. I guess I can “combine” this interest with language learning by listening to business and marketing podcasts in other languages. That way I can learn about “boring” topics without being bored to death. Right now I’m taking a marketing class. I’m not sure I’m doing the best because of my low willpower/undiagnosed ADHD. I refuse to get accommodations, especially for something as vague as autism. It will kill any motivation I have, so it won’t be worth it.

It’s only a continuing studies class, so getting a lower grade won’t be a big deal. I guess it’s a safe place to practice time management and improving my willpower.

They're both useful to me in the sense that they bring me joy, but I think my special interest in art has also been useful to me in the sense that it helps people respect me more.

I've been good at making art ever since I was a kid, and it's a skill that a lot of people can appreciate and admire. I think it's easier to "get away with" being weird and dysfunctional in other aspects of your life if you have a skill that people value. I don't think this is good or fair, but it seems to be true. If my main special interest happened to be something like memorizing TV show scripts or something, I probably wouldn't have been treated as well throughout my life.