Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

"What are you excessively curious about — curious to a degree that would bore most other people? That's what you're looking for."

I'm trying to make sense of this question. Usually people think about boredom as a matter of kind, not degree. X subject is either boring or not to most people, to any degree, small or large.

Conceiving of boredom as a matter of degree is counter intuitive. Is this meant to be an insightful nuanced point or am I just high?



Thinking about boredom as a "matter of kind" is just a special case of "matter of degree." The degree is just zero or not zero.

There are lots of subjects that I have a cursory interest in, but then I'm done exploring once I've read the Wikipedia page.


Everyone likes movies, but that doesn’t mean they want to discuss cinematography all night.


That's a difference in kind, not degree. People find watching movies interesting, not making them. They're two completely different experiences.


Interests don’t stay in boxes. They grow tentacles that reach up and down the chain of production. They bump up against adjacent fields and they make the whole world look a little different. A single curiosity will evolve and change form over time. The beginning of it might not be boring to others, but if you take it far enough the end probably will be.


I'd imagine that a lot of people who are interested in taking photographs might zone out once I start talking about content-based interpretation and the renewal of artistic language.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: