enjoying the obsession of others?

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Okay Here is the question:

I know most aspies have a couple of focused interests and the would much prefer to talk about their personal obsession than listen or talk about anything else.

Do you find people who have their own obsession interesting even if their obsession may differ from yours?

Example: I find people quite boring most of the time and feel little to no need to interact with them, but if I meet someone who goes on about something they are passionate about, such as their belief system or an obsession on a certain animal, I will shut up and listen to the intently.

anyone else?

Yes, if I ask my brother in law about his hobby (golf) he becomes visibly more animated and relaxed. I'm not into golf but I can identify with his state of mind when he is given the chance to talk about it.
I have another friend who talks to me about physics and I have quite a hard time hanging in there. Once he starts, he's liable to waffle on for half an hour at a time.

Depends on the interest, of course, and the angle. Rainsticks aren't an interesting topic in my mind, but if you were to talk about some broader aspect of it (mythology, for example) it might interest me (as opposed to talking about diameters and lengths - which would probably bore me to tears). This has been my experience talking about special interests with my NT family, too. If I want to talk to people about my obsessions, I need to come at it from an angle that they can appreciate, which means it should be broader, if not specific to their own interests.

It also depends on the person. I know of some members here whose interests are a far cry from my own and highly specific, but I still enjoy reading posts about their obsessions. That might be because of the way that they talk about a subject (enthusiasm, pedantism, etc.) or simply because I like them personally. Or both.

I've often thought that we need a "special interest" subforum, where we can make blockier posts about our obsessions and members can come in and engage with each other by talking about those interests. We've had a few such threads in Random Discussion, and frankly, I'd like to see more of them.

I am always interested when someone has a genuine interest in something. If their area of expertise is different from mine, I welcome the assistance. If I have trouble with my computer, I need someone who is an expert in fixing the problem.

I’ve found I can only be in a relationship with someone if they also have obsessive interests. Gifted men seem very compatible with me. Some of my boyfriend’s obsessions interest me and others don’t and I sort of tune him out when he gets excited and gets too detailed in our conversations. I love that he keeps himself occupied and doesn’t need attention from me when I’m into my own obsessions. Passionate people appeal to me more in general.

I don't know if my stepdad's autistic or not. I'm autistic. I have always been obsessed with football for 18 years now.

When mum isn't here, we can go for 3 days without talking about anything else. Constantly together just talking about football.

I wouldn't think about it that much but then he just brings something else up and sets me off again haha.

What I do know about him is he's obsessive. He used to be into brass rubbing to the point where he spent days doing it and once he saw a ghost because he was so tired after doing it and he'd been staring at medieval figures for so long.

Special interests/obsessions have always been my main autistic trait and the one thing you could never ABA me out of. My mom tried to limit me talking about meerkats but all it did was make me resentful of her...to this day. If she took away anything meerkat related from me, I would have attempted suicide.

I totally agree with AceofPens. I wish we had a long-term special interest thread/forum. Even if the posts were just us spamming info/pictures/videos/etc of our special interests. I love hearing about others' special interests and how they began. I think it's fascinating how person "X" has one special interest, but person "Y" has a totally different one. I wish there would be more research studies about the formation of special interests. I don't even know how to explain how my early, toddler-years special interests began. It's sad to me that special interest threads always seem to die off at some point. I think it would be awesome to have a special interest forum on here to always keep going!