Revolving interests?

[Dissident]

I realized that I dont usually make any threads, so here it goes nothing:

It says in most INTP type descriptions that we lose interest in things fast and we tend to leave thing half finished, etc. But it doesnt say if those projects/activities are left forever or resumed at some point.

I, for example, have several projects that I circle through, maybe I dedicate between 3 days - 2 weeks to one, leave it for months and resume it later. So I dont really abandon anything, but dont finish anything either since I usually rewrite/redo half of what previously did every time I resume it.

How do you manage your interests/projects?

 

[Eagle]

I usually start a lot of things at the same time and cycle through them unintentionally. Or I start a lot of things at the same time and then get really involved on one thing. I can keep working on something with outside motivation easily.

 

[Ogion]

Hm, yes, something like this i do too. I have some things, just ideas or what (like somday i wanted to design and calculate through a solar system with two similaraly big planets in orbit around each other, like Earth and Moon, just that the moon was nearly as big as the Earth). I actually calculated the mechanics (like the weight, Radius, Distance between the two, Encircling time and what not), but then i lost interest. Some other day i resumed, started with describing climate patterns on one of the planets, and left it again.
I have much more things like that. It start it, loose interest, but keep it, and some other day i resume it.

Ogion

 

[Decaf]

Same here. Right now I'm really working on refining my psychology model, hence the large posts I've been heaping on you all. A month from now I may be working on my video game project again (which I'm fairly certain is doomed, but the process of working on it is very enjoyable sometimes). I keep going back though. Coming back to an old project with a fresh mind is an exhilarating experience, which is sounds like you may agree. I often wish I could stick with a project to completion, but when I come down to it... I wish I could finish some of my less important ones, earn a bunch of money in order to support my continued work on the others that I don't want to "finish" for a long time. Haven't quite worked out the money making part of my plan yet ... I should have a talk with an NTJ

 

[zxc]

Yep! My interests, games, work, everything keeps revolving!

For instance, I'm usually reading at least 10 books at any one time, I just keep hopping around the place! That said, I usually finish them.

 

[loveofreason]

It is such a buzz to rediscover 'lost' projects! I've noticed myself returning to things, cycling.

And I rely utterly on momentum to complete things. If someone drains my momentum, like actually asking for the details on how I plan to complete something, it totally throws me and I tend to abandon things rather than struggle against inertia to complete them.

But left unhindered, I find a natural cycle accompanies the attention I pay to things that matter to me. Sometimes that means returning to things on a weekly or even more frequent basis, sometimes it's years or decades. (Right now I'm returning to a project well over twenty years old!)

 

[Jesin]

When I saw the title I thought, "That's me!"

 

[nooli4]

Yes, that is exactly what I do. One day, I'll just be intensely writing some story for four hours straight. The next day, I just won't feel like doing it anymore and will probably end up doing something else. Then, after a couple of months, I'll remember the story I was writing and spend another few hours on it.

But revolving interests can be very annoying when you need to revise for exams.

 

[Ermine]

Usually my many interests have to take turns. One day it's guitar, one reading, one art, etc. However, that's only during the summer when I am totally in charge of my day. During the school year, and now that I've got a job, I do the most pressing deadlines (art summer assignments at the moment), and take it from there. Sadly, I end up neglecting my other interests for extended periods of time. Last night, I was really concentrated on art, now it doesn't seem too interesting. Now I've got reading on the brain.

 

[orion119net]

I've realized that the few things that I've stuck with over the years are all things that I started back when I was really young(like, 5); drawing, origami, reading, etc. But everything else I tend to cycle through, usually on pretty short notice...

 

[motrhead]

Definitely! For me, it has usually been one subject for a few weeks or months, and then total disinterest in that subject for six months to a year, then it would come back. I have so many interests and hobbies, that it's a continual rotation with a random order. Now that I am older, I have exhausted some pastimes and moved on to other things, but many of the old interests and hobbies are still in the cycle.
I no longer seem to entirely lose interest in one subject when another moves to the fore. I can come back to the first subject if something piques my curiousity.
Maybe the wild fluctuations in my brain have smoothed out over the decades...

 

[PreAlgebra]

My interests and projects dont revolve they just burn up and die easily. I can never seem to finish any project that I am working on because once I figure it out, I totally loose interest and I am never to return to it again. This is a big problem for me and I really wish I wasnt like this.
Has anyone seen the movie Adaptation here and remember Chris Coopers character. In one scene he is talking about how into collecting sea fish he is and he keeps listing these extreme examples of what he does for that interest. Then he says one random day "Fuck fish, thats how much I hate fish" and that he has never stepped into the ocean again.
I feel like that with my interests.

 

[Agent Intellect]

My interests and projects dont revolve they just burn up and die easily. I can never seem to finish any project that I am working on because once I figure it out, I totally loose interest and I am never to return to it again. This is a big problem for me and I really wish I wasnt like this.
Has anyone seen the movie Adaptation here and remember Chris Coopers character. In one scene he is talking about how into collecting sea fish he is and he keeps listing these extreme examples of what he does for that interest. Then he says one random day "Fuck fish, thats how much I hate fish" and that he has never stepped into the ocean again.
I feel like that with my interests.

i feel this way often times. i used to really be into rapping, i wrote rap songs all day during school and had other people from school come over (i had even gone so far as to buy a microphone and download a mixing program) then one day i just decided i didn't want to do it anymore. i have a friend that i got into it who still does it and he just doesn't understand why i'm not anymore, but i just can't pull myself to do it.

the same thing happened with weight lifting. i used to excorsize constantly, then one day i just stopped and haven't been able to get back into it (now and then i do, but never the same as before).

reading with me happens in cycles too. for a few weeks, i'll just read like 20 books, then for a few weeks i'll read nothing.

by the way, i'm new here and i feel like kind of a douche just talking about myself all the time, but it is nice to read that there are other people who have the same tendencies as me lol.

 

[Ogion]

Hi and welcome to the forum. It is fully ok to speak about yourself. I mean, the bigger part of this forum is about personalyties and we can compare and search for similarities only by everyone telling of him/herself.

(I find it too very comforting to find other people who think in mayn ways similar than me )

Ogion

 

[sumO1]

ha. i do the SAME exact thing. at first i thought it was neat, i thought to myself, i am flexible, instead of inconsistent. but one of my taglines when i introduce myself is that i am consistently inconsistent. I will pick up something, like, painting, i will paint paint paint, well, start a painting, get a new idea for another one, start it, discover something else, start it...i was in this serious painting mode for like 5 months, have all the materials and supplies to start a freakin store. out of the 6 or so painting i started, guess how many i completed? 1. lol. and i was proud of myself for doing that. and this nitch was maybe about a year ago, and i havent had the urge to do it since. then i picked up jewelry making, was really passionate about that. thought i wanted to go into that business and sell my design. NOPE. that died after about 3 months. then skateboarding, then studying philosophy/psychology, then going back to school. it goes on and on. now, i am outright annoyed with this trait of mine. it is not stable. and i sometimes wonder do i want stability because it is socially acceptable and i am subconsciously trying to conform, or am i am really becoming annoyed with myself. thats kind of a expensive habit. atleast for me. so yeah, i COMPLETELY know where you are coming from. how i am dealing now is......i am not.....i have recently frozen. i have gotten to where i am kinda afraid to start something because i dont wanna waste any more money. but i know that wont last long. thats probably my new vice for the time being. ugh. but if i figure it out i will be sure to say something

 

[Ogion]

Perhaps for the next time you get yourself something with low moeny requirements (Like getting into Linux, or other things for which you need a computer, but don't have to regularly update to high-end).

Another aspect of the revolving interests is, how quickly one falls into a new thing. I mean, i can go from not knowing about a thing to be 100% interested in just an hour or so. That can be annoying, especially because that too can kill the old project, which didn't really have to be dead that time, but afterwards i am totally in the new thing.^

Ogion

 

[Dissident]

Yes, its something similar to falling in love, when I discover a totally new interesting thing to get into the rest of the world disapears, its like looking out of a window that was always closed and suddenly opens, you see all this stuff outside that you never seen before, like a whole new world. Thats the best way I can explain the feeling.

So we have many revolving and some not revolving, seems like its not the rule but still significant.

 

[Jesin]

I just realized, I actually talked about cycling through my interests in a post I made a couple of months ago, well before this thread was even started.

 

[fullerene]

Another aspect of the revolving interests is, how quickly one falls into a new thing. I mean, i can go from not knowing about a thing to be 100% interested in just an hour or so.

yes. that's pretty close to me. my intj friend just doesn't take me seriously when I saw I want to do something when I get more time over the summer, because ill be thrilled with it in march, but not have the time to get really into it, then lose interest by may.


Also in the way of low-cost interests, reflection works quite well. Searching out why you do the things you do, making sure you're ok with them, and then analyzing your reasons for being ok with them, and making sure you're ok with those. Then start asking around other people and get their inputs into themselves and stuff... if you have stuff to talk about they generally open up too.

 

[Dissident]

I just realized, I actually talked about cycling through my interests in a post I made a couple of months ago, well before this thread was even started.

I swear I didnt steal the idea

 

[SJ77]

I'm the same...

I used to play this RPG (Diablo2) where one could gain experience with a character and get from level 1 to lvl 99. There I always stopped at about lvl30 to start a new character. I hated myself for it

And otherwise it's like suddenly I'm interested in something that I used to hate.

Need lots of motivation from others to do something for a long time (and maybe actually finish it).

I read books, but finish them only 50% of the time...

 

[Wisp]

Haha, I think I just did that with diablo II, played a sorceress, and then "tried" a necromancer... still going...

 

[Apathy]

I use to play Diablo II. I would only ever get 1/2 way through the second difficulaty to like lvl 45 before quitting... Now I want to play it again

 

[Leafknight]

Boy we really ARE birds of a feather aren't we?

Yes, the old, "Gee if only I could finish ANYTHING" dilemma. Drives me mad. I WANT so much to accomplish all these things...but I get so damned BORED with them after a time.

I have long lamented (and my INFP wife teases me) how anything really cool is too much effort to FINISH!

I thought I was just lazy but then I found out I was an INTP so it's ok.