Three Questions to Help laplantain

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Well, since in the Non-interests post people seemed to be posting their interests, I figured I'd help out a bit and also have some of my own questions answered:

Question One: Do you have any special interests?

Question Two: Is this a life-long interest or do you switch frequently between topics?

Question Three: If you do change frequently between topics, how often does a single cycle last on average? Now? As a child?

For me:

1. poetry, psychology, (those are the two bigs one currently), and also obsessively being on the computer

2. poetry and psychology and also art have been the most consistent topics to cycle back round again; however, I am not CONSTANTLY into all three of them. I take consistent breaks between each particular cycle.

3. with the larger subjects, my interest can last up to maybe two years without cycling. Shorter interests, like a collection or something, can last as short as a week or even a little less. I have always been like this, now and as a child. But with psychology and poetry, these days they follow more of a cycle lasting a couple months.

(PS- I envy those Aspies with a consistent all-consuming, life-long interest. Makes career decisions so much easier, I'd imagine.)

1. Lifelong- Cats, art
Current variable- The anime Neon Genesis Evangelion (esp Ayanami Rei, a character), Asperger's Syndrome

2. I believe I answered that in the first question.

3. My cycle for topics that are variable is about two years, though I seem to be stretching it with the current two possibly beyond that point. Sometimes interests overlap, sometimes they inform eachother, and if that happens, they may fuel interest in eachother even further (for example, I first became interested in autism and Asperger's because of Ayanami Rei, who is very aspie-like, and who I see a lot of myself in).

As a child, I think my cycles were more rapid, though I don't remember very well.

1. Music, maps, computers, reading. These cycle in intensity but are generally there.
2.Music, reading and maps are lifelong. Computing,gaming, internet etc since 1997 but was less dominant for a couple of years until around 18 months ago. Current fixations are Linux and Joy Division.
3. Varies - the major ones peak alternately every few months though sometimes of longer duration. I also have fairly frequent short term obsessions related in some way to my main interests.

I do too I guess, but if you have a particularly obscure all consuming passion actually finding a way to turn that into employment might be a bit of a bugger.

Dunc

right now, I guess it would be WP and AS. . . .over the years I have had specific interests in but not limited to guiness world record (my first) gas/steam turbines, asteroid mining, reformed theology, Robert Caro (his books), and Drafting. Oh, and star wars was one of the longer ones. . .oy vey!



I do switch specific topics, but my interests primarilly reside in the general area of History and Mechanics/engineering. For example, I was more interested in how reformed theology would present the bible than actually going to a reformed protestent church service, and that was indicative that I wanted to learn the history of the bible?



Not really. most interests last for about 1.5 years on average, but I was a starwars nut from 10 to about 16; a six year cycle. Now, I don't really care much for it, although I know pratically everything there is to know about starwars. . . .scary.

Interest: Politics
Same throughout my life.

1) Yes I have several special interests (usually 2-3) at any one time.

2) I wouldn't say that any of them was a lifelong interest, except maybe flight. When I was a small child I used to do little except watch aeroplanes and helicopters (I lived next to a military airfield), then when I was older this transformed into a fascination with birds, although I will still go out of my way to watch a helicopter take-off or land given the opportunity. I don't know much about aircraft though, it's the process of flight that interests me - air pressure, lift etc, and in birds how the feather length, distribution, and structure varies between short sprinters and migratory birds, different habitats etc, although I am also interested in taxonomy, behaviour, health and feeding habits. I have also always been interested in science and health/medicine, although the subject of my fascination will vary over time (eg. quantum physics, particle physics, psychology, Asperger's). My interest in ancient civilisations and history comes and goes, maybe lasting a couple of years at a time then fading for a while before returning.

3) The cycle varies, anything from a couple of months to a few years, I've mostly answered this in point 2). When I was younger it was horses for maybe 7 years, although other interests came and went - usually the 'learning lists' type of interest in this latter group (popes, grand national winners, prime ministers etc).