An analogy for what special interests are like

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It can be a big challenge for many of us not to talk about our special interests. I just came up with an analogy after reading another thread that would help many who aren't on the spectrum understand what these kinds of obsessions are like, and hopefully some of you can relate to this feeling. I thought about posting it there but I decided to give it its own thread.

Most people really like listening to music in general. In fact I don't know to many people who don't like sharing their musical tastes and asking for others to share theirs on a daily basis (as-long as you are not always talking about the specifics of music.) Music is beautiful after all. There are many NTs who need to listen to music constantly throughout the day.

Just for a moment, imagine living in a world where music was no big deal. Imagine only about 15% of the population has ever even listened to music. but you are sensitive to the beauty of music and whenever you bring up the subject of music like it's such an important thing, people are weirded out. They might know what a band is if you're very lucky but almost no one knows the name of any specific band or the name of any specific genre of music. They don't know what rock is or what rap is. They don't know what a guitar is or what a piano is. They have never seen these things and only have a basic idea of what an instrument is. The majority of them might not even understand what music is to begin with, and thus very little music is ever created. These things all have to do with a very narrow subject in that world. I would think this place would drive many normal people insane and they'd feel the need to explain music and what it was to everyone and share that beauty with others who seem unaffected. Sometimes I feel like I am from a world where my special interest was the "music." Just because something seems like such a narrow and esoteric subject doesn't mean it is for me.

I think it's like how some people are really into things like Harry Potter, Twilight, Start Trek, foot ball etc.... I think most NT's have things they are interested in more than others. IT's like that only... more. IT's liek a cross between one of those sorts of interests anda chocolate brownie you just CAN'T put down till it's gone only it's never gone!

That is a wonderful metaphor!

The real issue is that we have a big bucket for one color (special interest), and normal people have smaller buckets for lots of colors (many interests / less depth).

People with lots of buckets get stressed out if you try to overfill one of their colors (bucket fills = gets bored/annoyed).

Just say its like sex.

"Hey, pal, it's a lot like the way you cram that cell phone in your ear every 30 seconds."

I think that's a great analogy. I found it really interesting considering my main special interest -is- music.

But that actually makes things a lot like your analogy, for me. Not as bad as it is in your analogy, but still - I have some very specific special interest areas within music, such as jazz (which in itself is a whole set of genres) - and these days most people I run into do not like jazz. They don't hear the beauty in it. To me it has SO MUCH MORE to it than most modern music - especially pop. But the musically challenged prefer hearing music that is very predictable, which is why most pop music follows the same few chord progressions, or variants on them, although many of the musically challenged seem surprised when I point out and demonstrate how so many songs they like follow the same progression. Every now and then there's a gleaming diamond in the rough in modern music, but for the most part it's just boring to my ears - the equivalent of food that tastes like cardboard - no flavor - at the same time not making you want to violently vomit, but also not what you're going to go to when you want a snack.

There's also no improvisation, no dynamics, no variety, and most of the pop singers can't sing worth anything - they simply exist because of autotune. Just listen to them live - they usually suck (like not being able to sing in tune) or are lip syncing.

But so many do not see the beauty I see in jazz, not to mention many other musical genres.

Another common one (my sister is guilty of this) is that many people don't like instrumental music, simply because there's no singing in it... I just don't get it.