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People: what do you do in life? Me: video games. that’s it, just videogames. A LOT of videogames
As a person with no diagnosis of any type, I too feel confused by people only having ‘a few’ interests and hobbies. If my time were not so finite, and I had the financial means, I’d be pursuing a lot of random things
Every night after after I just spent 5h with a new hobby, I really dislike the humans need to sleep.
I am aware this sentence is broken but I don’t wanna spend the time
If we needn’t sleep, capitalism would have made sure you have to work 20 hours per day.
I mean, I wouldn’t call it living. Maybe rather existing. :D
NT: “So what are your interests?”
Me, inside: “Software development, compression algorithms, binary file processing, scripting in Bash and Powershell, web development, networking, homelab/selfhosting, household automation, 3D graphics and modelling (and a particular fascination with Geometry Nodes), shader programming, video game development, video games…”
Me, outside: “… …I like computer? Like, all of computer?”
Huh. I used to write notes to myself a few years ago when I was still in school and would get super drunk. “Look up modular synths,” was one of my notes and I never went and actually did it. This is probably my calling to learn about them 🤔.
I’d really suggest fiddling around in VCV rack before committing yourself to building anything for real. It’s free too. Individual modules cost upwards of $300 at minimum and you need at least 10 of them to do the crazy generative stuff people are into.
Me, autistic: “Huh, what are modular synths? I wonder what Pickle Junior meant by that.”
Me, autistic, 9 months from now, probably:
Nonsense. I’ve had myself certified to be riddled with ADHD by 5 separate psychiatrists, and I’ve lost count of my hobbies/interests. And I have every intention of returning to leathercraft one day… just as soon as I dig my bed back out and get a good nights sleep.
Part of me really misses the certainty of the old school psychiatry. It seemed to hold the promise of answers and ultimately solutions. For if conclusions cold be reached problems could be identified and solved or otherwise compensated for.
Unfortunately this was never the case. It was just well meaning folks making it up as they went along. If they could convince their colleagues to buy in and do a bit of limited research… bingo, accepted theory.
Now we just get an endless wash of statistics and papers loaded with so much domain specific language they are practically indecipherable.
You misread it just like I did the first time!
The post says people without ADHD only have like 2 interests.
Which… is also baffling to me.
I read it like 4 times and still got it backwards, thank you friend.
Yeah… I’m not sure that’s accurate either, I certainly know plenty of people with more than 2 hobbies or interests.
Perhaps something you tell a new patient to make them feel better :-)
Can you imagine how specialized you would be if you only had one interest? Like the example non-ADD person just into politics… They must know the name of every representative at every level from city to country where they are living, know the detailed history of the political parties, and have a deep knowledge of political movements and their history.
It’s why most people are heavily propagandized and proselytized from a very early age to make sports their hobby. Indeed, these people tend to have deep knowledge of their team’s and their immediate opponent’s histories, with background going back to specific matches half a century ago and impressive retention of numbers and statistics thereof and so on.
All this knowledge of course is absolutely useless politically (and often, socially), which is precisely the point.
Ehm no? What person or institution or organisation do you imagine going “harrr let’s get kids into sports so that they don’t bother to learn about politics harr!” exactly? Because it’s for sure not schools that are doing that. Most schools even teach about how politics work even.
Err, yes? Family and friends and massive amounts of peer pressure to belong. And Massive spending by the state towards such sports ofc.
Just because a government subsidises sports (for example for health benefits) does not mean there is some nefarious plot to keep the populace from being involved in politics
The government building massive stadiums for people to watch sports is not for “health benefits”. Cmon now. This is typical “bread and circuses” stuff.
And it doesn’t have to be a “nyah nyah nyah” twirling mustache guy thing. Fact of the matter is that the rise of professional sports just so happened to correlate to the rise of the nation state.
You’ve crossed into conspiracy theory territory bud. It’s not entirely implausible but it is getting in the direction of “out there.”
Only historical materialism can placate their rabid curiosity now
real
My ADHD interests: intensely researching a topic that has no prospect of financial reward and wanting to talk about it to people who don’t care
What was your last one? I lately fell into the Esperanto rabbit hole.
Conlanging is great for this because you can make and abandon basic sketches of languages forever.
Not OP, but TTRPGs. Started after I finished BG3, and talked my friends into playing DnD, with me as a DM. Knew literally nothing, and hyperfocused for months learning as much as I could.
I’ve prepared a 70 page document for my players detailing every one of my 6 homebrew classes, 20 subclasses, 15 origins (races don’t make sense in the setting), and some lore about our ASOIAF campaign (I could keep going for hours about all I’ve homebrewed).
We’re all ready and rearing to go and I’m kind of… Already over it. I’m homebrewing vampire bloodlines ala dragonborn lineages and wild magic radiation and mutation systems on the side but those don’t make sense in this setting, and it hurts.
Edit: the worst thing is, I do have people that would be interested in those homebrews, but they’re my players and I don’t want to spoil them!
I think what bothers me most is having no one to talk about things with. Like, I just made this cool thing! Someone ask me about it!!
The only person I have to babble at has level 2 autism and can only process a finite (and very small) number of words per day before she combusts 😭
Don’t forget waking up a month or two later and realizing that you no longer care about the subject you’ve been hyperfocusing on and now have no idea what to do with yourself until the next hyperfixation shows up.
How I am is not a disorder. Other people just want to put me in line behind them.
What does it say about starting all those hobbies / projects and not finishing any?
You suck all the dopamine out of something and move on leaving the drained husk of your former hobby behind. Hopefully the dopamine runs out before you put money into it.
I swear as soon as I put money into a hobby, I lose interest. I got a guitar I can’t play, a hackRF I can’t be bothered to relearn, a box of half built eletronics, an unknown amount of Raspberry Pis and Arduinos with no purpose…
No wonder I have a ton of cleaning supplies and a dirty home.
yunohost is good at being set and forget for RPis that sit unused. I still haven’t got around to setting up paperless-ngx but I’ve done the rest and it is useful…
Now don’t ask me how long it’s been since I said I’d set up a NAS
as a linux enthusiast and server hosting nerd myself. I bought like 400 dollars of hardware, installed fedora on it, immediately proceeded to not like fedora very much. And then it sat for about six months. On a whim i heard about debian 12 releasing, which had a new enough kernel for proper QSV support on modern intel and i immediately set it up in about a week or two, now using containers and relatively well organized file structures.
This is why I setup proxmox, makes messing with different distros very easy when they’re VMs
proxmox seems cool, i’m more of a primitive guy myself though. Putting as little between me and my software running makes shit like the ESXI or EXSI whatever the fuck that stupid software is called a none problem.
It’s less of a problem with open source stuff, but it can still go dead, and have weird feature changes, so meh.
Yeah I got into lockpicking a few years ago, figured out how to pick all the random master locks i had lying around the house, and immediately after spending like 250 dollars on some specialty, hard-to-pick locks, I lost interest. Still keep my lockpicking set in my car in case anyone locks themselves out of the house or something, but the dopamine i got from picking those first few locks is gone. On to the next thing.
Same, I have a few locks I don’t have the keys for and even broke into my friends car for them once.
Im not good at it but I can atleast pop open cheap locks no problem.
This is something that has always interested me but I’ve never tried. Any recommendations on a set of picks to start with?
Congratulations on your new hobby that will be abandoned in a few months!
This is the way
I got a cheap set off of amazon at the time, which worked fine, and it looks like someone has already provided a link to a more reputable business. Most sets will have the same core of tools in them, which will be the most useful, plus maybe some obscure shapes in there that serve a niche purpose.
If you’re interested in getting into the hobby, there’s a discord server called Lock Pickers United that ranks basically every lock in existence on difficulty, and will hand out “belts” a la martial arts, when you can show proof that you’ve picked a lock from different tiers. I never got very far but it seemed fun.
But I got so much Warhammer that needs painting! I have to like it or Shame Mountain won’t erode.
This is one of the things my other ND things cancels out. Or maybe just the way my ADHD is more on hyper focusing than being totally unfocused? I only like, basically, 3 things. Video games, music, and language. Granted, “language,” covers a lot.
Video games can also be a lot. When normies play, they play one game or two. Say fifa and cod. My steam lib is 500+
I genuinely thought I was NT because I was comparing my quantity of interests to my brothers quantity of interests. He’s autistic, he has one interest.
Then I’d compare my quantity of interests to my best friends quantity of interests, he has ADHD hyperactive type, he has 700+ interests.
And I have like, 25 (and that’s if I split up larger interests into subcategories)
So I’m normal…except for all the sensory issues, executive dysfunction, impulsively, social difficulties, memory issues, communication deficits, learning difficulties, inability to establish routines, poor interoception resulting in medical complications from failing to attend to basic needs because I’m “in the zone” on something else.
Jokes on me, I have AuDHD.
Some of my “symptoms” cancel each other out in a way I’m very grateful for, and others conflict with each other in the most debilitating ways. That feeling when you are somehow catastrophically overstimulated and also your brain is tearing itself down the middle in desperate need for some dopamine through sensory input…
I consider video games to be multiple hobbies as each genre can scratch such a massively different brain itch. Sinking into a JRPG vs sinking into an RTS are very different levels of mental engagement.
I prefer the term “renaissance man”.
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
-Robert A. Heinlein
Yeah, this sounds about right. I think this is why other people (without ADHD) often identify me with only one or two of my special interests instead of the full variety of all those interests. The other day I had to introduce me in a certain setting to someone where everyone had to mention their hobbies as well. I was struggling at first how to cram so many hobbies in a short time or how to prioritize them. Then a friend, who was also there, said to me “Oh, you like to upload pictures on iNaturalist!” This is true, but I did not really feel seen because of all the other hobbies that seem similarly important!
I just say i’m into science and technology.
iNaturalist?! I wanna see these pics! Do you like Crime Pays But Botany Doesn’t?
Haha, username checks out I guess xD
Have not heard of this podcast yet, but will have a listen. Thanks! Usually I have problems paying attention to non-fiction podcasts. But I give it a try.
I can send you a dm regarding my iNat. Have my real name over there and don’t wanna dox myself…
It’s a good podcast, I recommend it to anyone who likes plants. The host is a non-traditional student who swears a lot, very
New Jersey/New YorkChicago.https://www.outsideonline.com/culture/books-media/botany-joey-santore-youtube-crime-pays/
Totally understandable, so do I.
Oh nice, I’m just listening to the first episode and yes, it is pretty easy to listen to :) Thanks again for the recommendation
