Anyone else have fleeting special interests? Mine's been air traffic control.

[Megamegablahblah]

I have been watching You Tube videos of interactions between Air Traffic Controllers and Pilots on repeat, some funny ones. Also sad ones. I practically feel like I have learnt how to fly a plane. Clearly I haven't!

The ones I like best are where the ATC puts the Pilots through their paces. They are so good at their jobs. They also have some amusing interactions. I also just really like, I mean love, the sound of a voice over a radio frequency.

I'm not sure but I think historical disasters could become a special interest. There's something so all encompassing about learning everything about a past event from perspectives of different people and also through the lens of technologies.

I wonder how the 'smart phone age' will be studied in future centuries, it's been a mixed bag so far 😂

I enjoyed reading this and I am joining the thread purely to see if anyone replies.

Yes I had an obsession with tower cranes for a while of all things lol

Shipping containers...

For ages I was fascinated about what a prison was like inside. Then I got a job that involved visiting prisons. Still find it all really interesting.

Also really huge machines, there are factories that are basically one enormous machine that pretty much fill a concert hall sized building. How on earth would you start designing and building something so massive?

My job is basically a combination of How it's Made, urban exploration and when shit goes really really wrong. Which is probably why I've stuck at it so long.

Theme parks for a while.
Started with one article about the economics of Disney Land.
Then for about 3 weeks I was all about themeing design, different queuing systems, the development of roller coaster breaking systems.
Love a good side quest.

On big machines (room sized), I have been lucky to have visited some factories where they make parts for them and seen the house sized machines they use.

Oh I love this thread. Flight radar, stars and space, physics, ancient history, the biblical histories when I’m absolutely not religious, fish tanks, bricklaying videos… I’m a YouTube and learning fiend 😂

My current one is light and frequency, been learning how it codes information etc I get far too obsessed and need to know everything! The frequency one has just reminded me I’m obsessed with hand pan videos and may or may not have one or two sitting in my basket for later deliberation

Hmmm … yep, our local dump. I’d love a job in charge of it (the reality of it is probably that I wouldn’t!). But I love the idea of reorganising how it all works to make it more efficient - the traffic flow, moving the waste from A to B, how I would redesign it, everything to try and make it operate more efficiently, in the most optimal way. I’m full of ideas every time I go, which seems to be quite frequently atm! Any excuse!

I used to listen to ATC stuff a lot. I take it you’ve come across Kennedy Steve?

OP if historic disasters are your think you’ll enjoy the Cautionary Tales podcast, and for other people’s niche special interests The Boring Talks (although sadly they don’t make it anymore).

Some of the Cautionary Tales episodes have fascinated me and sparked lengthy deep dives to find out more.

Yes. Truman Capote, at the moment!
yours also sounds fascinating.

How long is fleeting? I started learning about a period of British history about a month ago and I’ve still got 200 years to go. 😂

I get obsessed with history, especially of places I am familiar with or have lived. I particularly love fairly recent history e.g. 1900s onwards, or within my early lifetime (1970s and 80s). Again, not particularly fleeting though.

Oh yes! I love my local recycling Centre & how it works.
I get my “retail therapy” in the re-use shop. I’d love a job in there, rearranging things, tidying it up. Sales would soar.

I go through phases of watching flight radar and How It's Made ( who knew watching bic lighters been made would be interesting)

If something breaks I will look up a YouTube video, fix the issue, then look up alsorts of other things that could go wrong with it .
Then look up how to fix or how it's made the tools I may need to use.
A five minute video can lead me to a two hr vidiothon.

Me a procrastinator? Noooo never 🫣

My ex partner is a tower crane operator. I work in supply chain and get sadly excited about shipping so I feel like I've found my people. 😂

At the moment I'm reading a gun recognition book and trying to learn all the manufacturers, countries of origin, how to identify different weapons etc.

Last year it was Paganism.

Most recently how being a school librarian works. I’ve moved on to ice hockey now.

I’ve had the same obsession before, then not watched anything for a couple of years and then got really into it again - I found it fascinating!

It's places for me, often places I will never go to, most recently West Virginia, currently medieval almshouses (I do plan to visit a few of these). I spend hours on Google Streetview.

If you get into the historic disasters I can recommend When It Goes Wrong, I really enjoy the host's matter of fact delivery.

The tower crane has made me smile - my ND dd with lots of mh issues got really excited when we had lunch in view of one and said she wished she could work in one. She rarely gets excited or enthusiastic about anything so this was touching for me.

DH is obsessed with commodity prices.

This thread is making me feel like I don't actuallt have ADHD