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How long do your special interests last?

Most of my interests are long term like my doll collecting,drawing cartoons and manga and also my interests in mythology especially Greek,Norse,Celtic and Egyptian but I sometimes do get new ones like for example silent movies and anything to do with the 1920s but mostly on whole my interests usually go for years.
 
Ylva said:
Until I tell the wrong people about it.
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:confused: Do your interests offend others...?

Even though my collection is 50% female, I usually frame it as a GI Joe collection.
sarcastic-joe_orig.gif
 
Autism for the past 10 years, I am compete and utter autism geek. I do some free lance training in addition to my university mentoring role, I should be paying them. I get to talk about my special interest for 5 hours straight and no one walks away or tells me to shut up....perfect. I have had lots of other during my 54 year on the planet.

I have been an astronomer since I was about 10 and it was my special interest for years, but now its just my hobby. I don't think having a hobby is a special interest in its own right, it's much more than than. A special interest occupies much of your waking hours, it's something you want to share with others, it's probably all you want to think or talk about. You can't choose a special interest, it chooses you, and once it does I don't think there is much you can do about it. A hobby may become a special interest, or then it might not.

When do special interests end? For me, usually when there is a deal breaker of some kind, perfection which can't be obtained, not being able to single mindedly peruse it. When a special interest canes to an end for me its often very sudden, and if it does there is no going back. It's like trying to rekindle a dead relationship.
 
Oh and I do like collection of things. So I am into a band called The Fall. Been really into them since 1980, they are still going and I still go and see them several times a year. I must have seen The Fall at least 150 times. I own over 70 vinyl albums, over a 100 mp3 recordings and well over 500 live bootleg recordings. Then there are the books, videos.....
 
Adora said:
Most of my interests are long term like my doll collecting,drawing cartoons and manga and also my interests in mythology especially Greek,Norse,Celtic and Egyptian but I sometimes do get new ones like for example silent movies and anything to do with the 1920s but mostly on whole my interests usually go for years.
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What kind of dolls do you collect? I collect them as well.
 
Voxsh said:
Autism for the past 10 years, I am compete and utter autism geek. I do some free lance training in addition to my university mentoring role, I should be paying them. I get to talk about my special interest for 5 hours straight and no one walks away or tells me to shut up....perfect. I have had lots of other during my 54 year on the planet.

I have been an astronomer since I was about 10 and it was my special interest for years, but now its just my hobby. I don't think having a hobby is a special interest in its own right, it's much more than than. A special interest occupies much of your waking hours, it's something you want to share with others, it's probably all you want to think or talk about. You can't choose a special interest, it chooses you, and once it does I don't think there is much you can do about it. A hobby may become a special interest, or then it might not.

When do special interests end? For me, usually when there is a deal breaker of some kind, perfection which can't be obtained, not being able to single mindedly peruse it. When a special interest canes to an end for me its often very sudden, and if it does there is no going back. It's like trying to rekindle a dead relationship.
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Very cool, I like astronomy, not as a special interest though. Exactly how you've described, all you can think or talk about and spend all your free time researching...that's how it is for every single one of mine and they change quickly and back to back. I often circle back around to it though, as if the spark never fully dies.
 
I am pretty sure that the interest is coded to your personality type. Some may change the interest, others stick to it forever... While I wasn't into Psychology initially, for an INTP it makes sense. I have read that that it isn't until 20 years of age before an INTP becomes interested in purpose and wisdom.

Will I ditch video games? No. It is a coping mechanism. Will I ditch Psychology? No. It is my purpose.
 
I have had a few interests over the years but my main special interest has been life long. Ever since I was a little kid I have been fascinated by machines. I was lucky enough to be able make my living working with my special interest. That is why I am still doing it in my seventies.
 
Plastic modelling as a hobby. Something I began in 1963. Took a 26 year hiatus around 1984 and picked right back up in 2009.

Began serious photography in 1986 and haven't let up much. Same with computers around 1989. Can't say I still collect foreign coins any more though.

Other things, yes...they may last weeks or months until I move on to something else. A search for a new car lasted five months, though not all of my own doing. Lately it's been creating and organizing MP3 files to be played in my new car's audio system. That's kept me busy, though I'm pretty much done with that other than to buy a few more CDs to rip.

And my quest to understand my own autism....that remains perhaps the ultimate work in progress. ;)
 
I've just realized my science interest has been around since my childhood, I don't know why I didn't think about it..All my favorite gifts were from my grandfather (a chemist) and he always ordered from Edmunds scientifics. I still have my first microsope!
 
celestialregale said:
Linguistics are my strength, or so says the tests. Not particularly marketable for me. Science is my passion, or rather the scope into which my passions fall. I don't work anyway and probably won't unless it's in the 'special interest' zone. I spend the majority of my time obsessing or daydreaming, there's no real in-between. I just need to learn how to focus, the hyperfocus. I think... I may be a bit idealistic..I'm an infp after all.XD
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Why not translation and/or interpretation then? If you learn seeked after languages, you will be marketable enough.
 
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