Do you not have any special interests?

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I notice many on here have them, but I don't, not since I was a kid.
Another question, what's the difference between a special interest and a hobby? Other than extreme obsessions obviously.

In a special interest, you typically do not do anything except obsess, look for information or news on, or compile a database on the subject.

In a hobby you take an active role in the subject. IE if you had trains as a special interest you may look up info on trains, maybe watch them, read about them on the internet. If you had model railroad as a hobby, you would purchase and assemble models, often meet with others of similar interests, and actually do something.

In essence, special interest is in the knowing, hobby is in the doing.

Would you consider my interest in The Kinks a special interest, or a hobby? I make a lot of avatars, related to them, and in particular, my favourite member, out of the original line-up of the group.

It seems that with special interests, the interest is knowing about a particular subject, but not necessarily applying that knowledge for any purpose that others find useful. And thoughts about the subject are all-encompassing, meaning that you may be able to do something else, but you would almost always be thinking about the subject.

I developed my strongest interest about 15 years ago. I would read about that subject, watch television shows about that subject, and spend countless hours working with the subject to make sure that I knew every aspect about that subject. But it wasn't that I was interested in using my knowledge for some application; I was just interested in knowing every detail about that subject. I have been called an expert in that subject, and except for the first few days learning about the subject, I am self-taught.

Sometimes an interest would be so intense that I would spend months doing nothing productive but just learning about a particular interest which I had discovered. Every day I would get up and read about the subject until I understood every aspect about it. For example, there were several months where I spent over 90% of my day reading this site.

Another one of my interests was HTML. But I didn't actually care about building or designing web pages(although years later I did develop web pages). I just cared about the elements and the beautiful ordered structure of the code. I would get up in the morning and write HTML for hours to see what could be done and would keep doing it until it was much later than the time I should have gone to bed.

I don't talk to many people, but if anyone asks me questions about a subject I'm interested in, I will talk about it for a long long time, longer than they want me to talk, but now that I am conscious that I do that, I sometimes realize that I've been talking for a long time and so shut up.

I think the difference is that a special interest is sort of an obsession or fixation. An NT might be really passionate about their hobby, but they are generally going to be able to balance that with the rest of their life. They aren't going to always try to steer conversations toward that thing, and they don't keep thinking about it over and over again. They'll learn about it and start doing something that involves whatever the hobby is.. An autistic, on the other hand, is more likely to fixate on it. A special interest can pretty much take over one's thoughts at times. We may or may not actually do something related to our special interest,

One of my big special interests is, obviously, reptiles. I own some and i plan on breeding sometime in the future, so i am actually doing something, so i guess it could be a "hobby." There are a lot of NTs who are into reptiles, too. What makes it different is how much of my life it takes up. My reptile interest is one of the first things people are usually going to find out about me, because i keep bringing up my reptiles in conversation. My special interest is a big part of my identity.