Infodumping your special interest!

Post Reply New Topic

The whole information retaining thing made me remember something.

In eighth grade in the car on the way home I was telling my mom a "funny" story about something that happened. I was talking about how the costume rack broke when it went over a bump. At first I said that the top part broke, but then no wait, it was actually the bottom, and the top fell afterward-- and then she cut me off mid sentence, saying "okay you just ruined it it's not funny anymore" and didn't let me finish the story.

I'm assuming that's part of attention to detail and information that trips us up? Whereas a NT person would have simply looked for the shortest answer: "the costume rack broke". As I typed that I had to remind myself not to type "the costume rack broke because it hit the bump in the doorway".

I infodump a lot, which is why try to keep silent the most I can. And it doesn't have to be about a special interest either, I just throw facts on the table.

This happens to me too. I end up saying something like: "Yeah, fishsticks sound good for lunch. Oh! speaking of fishsticks, in China the dragon that represented the emperor had five claws." To me this makes sense because fishsticks made me think of fish and fish have scales, which then triggered the thought of dragons.

This "spider web" thinking causes me to go on countless tangents. Most people zone out pretty quick, and I realise after the infodumping that I went on and on in what seemed to be a nonlinear mess of stuff, though it made sense to me. It just all spills out until I remember I didn't finish my original thought, which I often can't recall after such a long trail of tangents, or I finally realise the person is ignoring me.

I like to infodump sometimes but I'm more about "info binge eating". When I have a game for special interest even if I've completed it I'LL watch hundreads of reviews about it and read thousands of threads about it to see what others do with it and think about it and so I can know more than I already do at the same time.

I'm bad about infodumping - both general stuff I know and special interests. Over the years, I've gotten better about giving a succinct reply, but I'm only a second's hesitation from full-on monologue at any given moment.

I did a photo shoot with a model recently, some of which was shot on film, and she texted me the other day asking about the camera and type of film. I took her question literally, and proceeded to give the litany of camera model, specific lens, film type and speed.

Her response was "lol. So it was film then?"

Glad I resisted the temptation to tell her the developer (it was X-tol 1:1, for the record).

When you know your information is true and hurtful, how do you stop from saying it?

I do this too. I was watching a movie last night that started with some texture I noticed that eventually wound up with some reference to Easter and how it applies to this forum. I wish I'd taken note of it, but rewound the movie to that point again and started watching it from that point. I'd spaced out so long on the tangential excursions that I couldn't figure where I was in the movie. And, it was the third time I'd watched it (Deadpool).

Yeah, this is me too. If it's my special interest, forget it. I will consume every piece of information I can find. And, many times, it takes years to puzzle all the pieces together. And, something are just never ending while others can be closed.

Oh yes, infodumping I know it well and do it often. My infodumping mostly is with anything to do with horses, especially the horses on Assateague Island. Another bad one is if heaven forbid someone brings up the BLM mustang gathers and management program. The information is like a record in my head and once I start I physically can't stop till all the information I know has been said.

I was thinking last night and I realize I do that sort of association thing with my own special interest, Muse. Someone could say "you need to study" and I'll bring them up somehow because in my mind studying = learning difficult subjects; physics was very difficult for me, therefore bringing up Muse makes sense because a lot of their songs were inspired by physics concepts. I get accused so much of being "obsessive" and "selfish/self cenetered" when really I'm silently yelling at myself "shut up!!" Ask me one question about them and I'll never shut up. It's even worse when people are like "tell me about them" in hopes of receiving a short answer. Like whaaat there's so much to them?? I can't know what answer you're possibly looking for so I guess you gotta know every teeny tiny detail about them!