I have a special plan for this world

[venta]

Recently, there was a non-ubiqutious sheep on the rounds which invited the reader to choose an interest from the writer's interest list, whereupon the writer would explain it.

To be honest, I'm not sure any of my interests really require any explanation (beyond, possibly, "bendy swords" which you should know all about by now). If I'm wrong, and any of my interests baffle you, do let me know. That's if you're baffled by their nature, of course, bafflement at why they interest me is your own problem.

It did remind me, though, that other people seem to regard interest lists in a different light to me.

Many people fill up their interest list to the maximum (150?), then complain that they have way more interests that will fit. When I glance at their user info pages, I see their interest list as "impenetrable block of text" and move on.

Now, I could come up with a list of 150 things that interest me. I'm interested in everything (and anything). The purpose of my interest list is to provide a quick-glance introduction to someone who doesn't know me, and is meant to present a spectrum of things which I like. It's a sketch of me and my life - details can be filled in later.

For anyone who hasn't memorised my user info, my interests are listed as:

alan moore, bendy swords, cityscapes, cooking, folk music, goth, grant morrisson, jack vettriano, john donne, magic, mayhem, music, new model army, northeast, pedantry, peter warlock, real ale, robert anton wilson, rosemary sutcliffe, sedition, thomas tallis, winter, words

When I first started this LJ, I jotted down a representative selection of interests, discovered I had 23 (a fine number) and left it at that. I hope it's a small enough number that it's readable if the reader is so inclined. If there's anything which you think is sufficiently significant about me that it ought to have been included in preference (or addition) to one of the others, I'd be curious to hear about it.

I'm not sure why people have huge lists of interests. Maybe they have so many interests that they can't be pared down to a shorter list. Maybe they want maximum hits from unknown LJers searching by interest (does anyone do this ? Does anyone meet interesting people by doing it ?). Maybe they're working on the same principle as me, but have a higher opinion of people's ability to read lists (is it just me that gets daunted by big blocks of text?).

How did you choose what went on your interest list, and why ?

Comments

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

I chose mine on a similar basis to you.

You will note that it's very, very short. This is because it's the most meaningful line that can be drawn. It tells the reader as much as possible, by actually saying as little as possible.

I like it that way.

[cuthbertcross.livejournal.com]

I just thought of some things that I like, and typed them in, adding a few more when I thought of them. As tea plays a disproportionately large part in my life, I decided it needed to count as more than one interest, and was surprised to discover that someone else has also put in "more tea" as an interest. Being infantile, I decided to add "yet more tea", and "toddler-baiting" (other people's).
No big deal, I agree with your use of the list, as there probably *are 150 things I could write, but I don't need to, ppl who know me know what I like, and those who don't can get a good idea from what's there.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Wow. I bow to your advanced sense of minimalism :)

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

My interest list is as it is because I was trying to get some useful results out of the "find people with similar interests" toy. The only thing I did that was really intended to be human-readable is that rather than try to specify musical genres, which often mean different things to different people, I listed the first few artists I thought of that I like.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

"Less is more" - Mies van der Rohe.

"More is even more than less" - onebyone.

Same as the rest

[wimble.livejournal.com]

A definitive list would be very long, tedious, and far to anal to compile (hey, should I list "Computer Games" separately from "Computers", and then, should I list the individual games?)

So I put down what occurred to me as being the important categories when I first created my account, and I've occasionally nicked interests from other people when I've thought "Good point! I forgot that!" (which is more an indication of too much curiosity and not enough memory, than it is a lack of interest).

[wimble.livejournal.com]

Less is ... damn slow to start on my firewall!

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Maybe they want maximum hits from unknown LJers searching by interest (does anyone do this ? Does anyone meet interesting people by doing it ?).

To all of the above, resoundingly yes.

Also, having lots of interests listed helps me to identify people who have things in common with me, and the extent of the commonality, when I visit their userinfo pages, since any interests we share are helpfully bolded.

And finally, creating a list of 150 interests helped me to understand myself better. Not in any deeply profound way, but, y'know, it was Quite Interesting.

[erming.livejournal.com]

Mine was minimal to.

Unlike the rest of my userinfo.

[ar-gemlad.livejournal.com]

I should get round to thinking of what my interests are...

[timeplease.livejournal.com]

My interest list grew too big because livejournal has a simple user interface for adding to it based on other people's - just tick the boxes!

I've now pruned it using the same user interface, removing authors, publishers, and so on. It's still large.

[zotz]

I picked a load of things that I liked best, added some stuff from my friends' interest lists, and found I had approaching 150.

The nice thing about having loads is that you can look at somebody else's profile and see how many emboldened matches there are, getting a first impression of how much you have in common without actually having to read at all.

[j4.livejournal.com]

I don't think the interests lists serves any useful function for me. I suppose theoretically I could meet people through it, but it's never happened yet, and to be honest I don't really go hunting for new people to meet. If they happen across my path (or I across theirs [is there a difference?]) then that's great, but I barely manage to keep in touch with all the people I already know!

Besides, I'd rather meet people who have a similar outlook on life to me than "other people who like Tori Amos" or "other people who wear black". I've never got on well with interest-communities or label-communities because they always seem both narrow and arbitrary; they may provide an initial starting-point for conversation but, for me, little more. And I don't have much difficulty starting conversations with people. An overlap of interests (however small) is, I think, a necessary condition for friendship; but it's not a sufficient condition.

So why have an interests list at all? Partly the lazy reasons ("everybody else does", "it was there, it was a box I could type into") but mostly, I think, I see my interests list as being a bit like those "list all the things that are on your desk" or "what's in your handbag?" memes that do the rounds occasionally. It's interesting to see the piles of junk that accumulate around me in all their randomness and incoherence; they're a snapshot of one aspect of my life. Like any snapshot they don't capture everything important, they don't capture movement/change, and they aren't really intended as lasting monuments to, well, anything.

I change my interests list occasionally in the same way that I might move the posters around on my wall -- partly for reasons of identity ("I don't want to identify as a [whoever] fan any more so I'll take their poster down"), partly for aesthetic reasons ("hmm, I don't think that blue poster really harmonises well with the magnolia woodchip"), partly as change for change's sake ("my life may not feel so stagnant if I move my posters around"), and partly just out of boredom and procrastination ("hey, shuffling posters around is more interesting than doing the laundry").

Posting rambling comments on other people's journals is more interesting than changing my interests list, though. :-)

[elethiomel.livejournal.com]

Gosh. I've known you years but never knew you like Warlock, too!

[ebee.livejournal.com]

Big list so as to provide more hits to people with linked interests- and I've found some fantastic people that way, including several I've later met IRL. Really been worth doing for me.

I don't expect people to read the whole thing but may notice something random/unexpected sticks out at them and they think, 'ohh me too' or highlighted words for same matches.
I think I probably have a more varied list of interests than some others I've seen thus its more likely to be of interest to a wider group of people. And they are things that interest be so I'd like to know if they interest others.
Close friends I've known for years with an LJ, have on several occassions revealed a surprise interest via the interest list thats been a good talking point.

So, uh, yep, its worth it for the searchability.

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

OK.
Why 'grant morrisson'?

[cardinalsin.livejournal.com]

My interests list is based on hobbies (7 items), in-jokes (2 items) and facetious items designed to either amuse me, or provoke inquiry into the nature of the item, or both (3 items). I have specifically not listed things I am merely interested in, except where such things would fit one of the above categories.

I shall now go and add tea, more tea, and yet more tea. Thankyou cuthbertcross, and I look forward to the ensuing arms race.

[cardinalsin.livejournal.com]

Is that the girl out of inspector gadget? Penny was her name I think.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Now, did you read the rules ? You're allowed to ask what a grant morrison is, or how one works, but not why I like it :)

However... I first met Grant Morrison via Say You Want A Revolution , which still remains my all-time favourite graphic novel ever. I like graphic novels, I like things that make you think, I like things that twist the traditional up wit the new. Mostly, I like the effect you sometimes get from reading Grant Morrison or Robert Anton Wilson of a huge barrage of different ideas all being flung at you at once. Some of them are rubbish, some of them are immediately forgotten, but the experience of just being present with so much stuff all at once is very invigorating.

And that's why he's on my interest list but, say, Garth Ennis isn't, despite that fact that Ennis-era Hellblazer is also great.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Ditto :)

Surprisingly underrated composer, really.

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Yup, both her name and mine are Penny. I have many, many more icons on this theme...

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

See, you've just explained why 'grant morrison' would be on your list. Which I wouldn't, of course, have needed to query.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Er... confused now.

So you were just asking "Why Grant Morrison?", then. I don't know whether I'm cleared for that information. It's probably something to do with time-travelling nano-beasties.

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

No. I was asking why 'grant morrisson'.

[cuthbertcross.livejournal.com]

aaargh! I'll have to add an interest to end all interests.... (rushes to userinfo page..)