What are you passionate about?

Irish_Tom

Irish_Tom

Irish_Tom

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These forums cover a wide variety of topics, and each sub-forum is home to at least a handful of people with deep knowledge and passion for that subject.

Although I have many interests and quite a few hobbies, my ability and understanding in each tend to be relatively superficial. I can get by talking to almost anyone about most subjects on a cursory level, but that’s as far as it goes.

I admire people who can turn their passion for their chosen subject into a viable living, but often there’s a lot of survivor bias when it comes to people who are famous for whatever it is they do, so I’m not just thinking of the top sports stars, celebrity chefs, actors and musicians.

I’m equally impressed by people who know every character and plot-line in a decades-old soap opera, for example. Or people who don’t just know the big-name players in the football team they support, but they know the entire squad going back 20 years and probably know more about the other teams in the Premier League (or whichever division) than most other fans.

So, is there anything you’re particularly passionate about, and if so, why?
 
Well, we have to end apartheid for one. And slow down the nuclear arms race, stop terrorism and world hunger. We have to provide food and shelter for the homeless, and oppose racial discrimination and promote civil rights, while also promoting equal rights for women. We have to encourage a return to traditional moral values. Most importantly, we have to promote general social concern and less materialism in young people.
 
Not sure if considered passionate, but I can talk at length about 90s music and specific years e.g. 1996 as my long term memory is better than short term. The history of Stafford too. I've only been here since 1998 but I got friends who have lived here all their lives and I find it interesting what's changed in the town over the years.

Also, Harry Potter and Disney, although they're fairly niche topics so I would need to be with other fans.
 
Athletics was my passion at school, i could talk about athletes and times from the 80s and 90s, sadly like many other things I gave up on these things when I left school. Making a comeback though.

At the moment it's trading, investing, crypto, making money.
 
Making fun of idiots in skinny jeans with ankles showing and oversized trainers.
Pretty much victims of pop culture without a shred of individuality. Just look at all the haircuts these days.
 
OP I think I'm similar to you in this respect - I have various interests and hobbies which I enjoy doing and learning about, but not sure I'm passionate about a lot really. Certainly care a great deal about my family etc, and have strong views on certain political issues, but guess that's not really what you're going for and I wouldn't call it being passionate as such.

Maybe the thing that comes closest for me is hill walking - basically just a hobby that I enjoy and feel a strong connection to. I find it rewarding, so I end up doing it reasonably often, thereby learning more about it and becoming more invested in it.

I imagine many of the 'passionate' people on TV might have started out the same way - positive experiences or connotations (maybe personal enjoyment, social success, financial reward etc) resulting in a positive feedback loop so they become more and more invested in a particular thing. After a while I guess it becomes a core part of your personality. Must be an element of chance in how things develop (eg do you have an influential mentor, social circle that likes the same thing, do you end up finding a particular book that sparks an interest in a particular topic etc) and I'm sure some people are naturally predisposed to become hyper focussed on one topic while others naturally float around a bit more.
 
Not really passionate about any one particular subject - I tend to get bored way before what some people seem to do of for instance knowing the names of the actors, director, etc. for every movie ever made and a broad depth of trivia about the directors most have never even heard of.

My knowledge and interests tend to be wide but shallow and I kind of like knowing just enough to be dangerous about a topic without being so familiar with it there is little mystery left.
 
Kings and Queens in the past. If someone says a random year, I can instantly say the monarch(s) that were on the throne. My main passion are the descendants of Queen Victoria. One interesting fact about haemophilia in her family is that it’s no longer around. As the only descendant of hers that had haemophilia and had children, was her youngest son, Leopold. Victoria’s grandsons and great grandsons that had it, all died without children. Including Nicholas II’s son. His wife, Alexandra was Prince Philip’s great aunt. He had his DNA extracted to test on the skeleton remains which turned out to be Nicholas and Alexandra plus their children.
 
cheesefest said:
Kings and Queens in the past. If someone says a random year, I can instantly say the monarch(s) that were on the throne. My main passion are the descendants of Queen Victoria. One interesting fact about haemophilia in her family is that it’s no longer around. As the only descendant of hers that had haemophilia and had children, was her youngest son, Leopold. Victoria’s grandsons and great grandsons that had it, all died without children. Including Nicholas II’s son. His wife, Alexandra was Prince Philip’s great aunt. He had his DNA extracted to test on the skeleton remains which turned out to be Nicholas and Alexandra plus their children.
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My wife, a staunch Royalist, tells me Boris Johnson is related to our royal family, is that correct and what's the exact relationship please? My royal history knowledge is embarrassingly sketchy!

My own "passions" are livestock guarding dog breeds and breeding, and car, (particularly race car), suspension design and development. Both subjects are ones I can bore people to tears on ;)
 
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I'm similar to @GreatAuk i think. I enjoy various activities like Running, Cycling and Paddle Boarding, along with DIY, investing and stuff. I could talk about all of them for hours with people but i'm not sure i'd say i was passionate about any of them/anything.

I find i sit on the surface of a great number of topics, delve a little deeper with others that specifically interest me but never get toodeep/obsessive about things.
 
I always had a passion for Ice Hockey, I used to play roller (inline) hockey as a teenager and went as far as trials for Yorkshire. Unfortunately as with most kids, my passion to actually play reduced and I just wished I'd have followed two of my team meats on to the ice, they eventually played for the Sheffield Steelers.

Others passions I have are aircraft and trains, I used to go to Manchester Airport viewing park to take photographs of them, I wasn't into taking the reg of aircraft, just getting shots of them. These interests then pushed me into playing Flight Simulator and Train Simulator.

I also take an interest in maps & transport infrastructure, I guess these stem from my love of trains and aircraft. I don't collect maps or anything, though if I had my own office I'd have a few hung for decoration.
 
[FnG]magnolia said:
Most importantly, we have to promote general social concern <snip> in young people.
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You're joking right? Born a socialist, become a conservative? We need to untie retirement wealth from human rights such as housing and environmentally disastrous products such as fossil fuels. It is only the young I hear shouting about this.
 
dLockers said:
You're joking right? Born a socialist, become a conservative? We need to untie retirement wealth from human rights such as housing and environmentally disastrous products such as fossil fuels. It is only the young I hear shouting about this.
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It's a quote from American Psycho.
 
Posting in GD.

On a more serious note, cars are probably the closest I get to being passionate about something. I would certainly say I used to be passionate about them and I'm still into them to some extent, but these days I find it hard to get truly excited about anything.
 
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