Research obsessions: Why are we pulled towards certain topics?
And a list of 15 of my research obsessions throughout the years.
I have always been the kind of person who gets into something, and needs to learn anything and everything there is to learn about it. I can even divide my life into different periods with their corresponding obsessions. I am infinitely curious, and I often go into rabbit holes looking for some information or another (sometimes daily).
A few years ago, I learned that some children develop something called “intense interests” at around 3 to 6 years old. It´s the first time they really want to learn about something, and they can become quite single-minded about it. They want all the toys, all the books, watch all the movies, they can´t stop talking about it…and sometimes adults can get quite tired of this.
However, showing annoyance can be detrimental for children. This is the first time a child feels “like an expert” at something, and they want to share their enthusiasm. If they get reprimanded, we risk them feeling embarrassed about their interests, or about showing passion for something. If your kid is going through one of these phases, hang in there, and listen.
The most fascinating thing about learning of these “intense interests" for me, is that I found a list where they said there are four or five topics that almost all children get obsessed about at these ages: dinosaurs, animals and nature, vehicles (cars, trucks, trains, planes...) and astronomy (the solar system, planets, stars, etc.).
It was so funny when I read the list, because that was me: the dinosaur kid. Dinosaurs were my first research obsession, but not the last. I realized I´ve never grown out of this “intense interest” phase. I just moved into other topics.
I know some people who are like that as adults, mostly artists and researchers. But I have found that most people have one or two big interests throughout their adult life, while I change my topics from time to time.
I don´t think that I could just stay in one topic forever, because there are so many things that I find fascinating, and I like to learn new things constantly. I am not the kind of person who likes to read the same books or watch the same movies over and over. I always have an eye looking towards the horizon, to new ideas, new art, and new interesting people.
These are some of my most intense interests over the years:
Dinosaurs, at about 4 o 5 years old (like all the children in my generation that watched Jurassic Park). I memorized all the scientific names, I knew many species and I watched Jurassic Park more times than I´d like to admit. I still think dinosaurs are the coolest thing, so I guess I didn´t completely grow out of it.
Ancient Egypt, another classic: mummies, pyramids, mysterious gods with jackal and crocodile heads…what´s not to love?
An Egyptian mural showing a domestic scene pulling a rope Mythology: I read many tales about gods and monsters when I was a kid, and I always enjoyed these stories. I still do. I read mythology all the time, and I think there are many fundamental truths about ourselves that we can learn from the Mayan, Greek or Viking gods.
I don´t remember much during my teenage years, but I seem to recall something about the Templars (this one was probably a consequence of reading The Da Vinci code).
Native American history and culture (mostly from North America, after reading Creek Mary´s Blood). This one is still ongoing, and I don´t think it will ever fade. I am actually considering a PhD position connected to this topic at the moment. I have always felt a pull towards America (the continent), and its native peoples. While all my friends wanted to go to Paris or London, I always wanted to go to Mexico and the US.
I was really into astronomy for a while, probably because I read Cosmos by Carl Sagan in high school.
And then I got into the relativity theory and Albert Einstein. It´s probably the only time I´ve been into hardcore science.
My favorite teacher ever was my Latin and Greek teacher. He made me love the classical period: ancient Rome and Greece, and made history and literature come alive for his students. After 18 years, I vividly remember his classes about the Roman army battle strategies vs. the battle strategies used by Alexander the Great. Even knowing Julius Caesar was a terrible tyrant, I still have a soft spot for him (I can´t help it).
In college, I got into art, obviously (art historian here) but I don´t remember a specific time or artist at the beginning, maybe Michelangelo and the Italian Renaissance.
Sandro Botticelli, The Spring (1477-1478) Then I got into one of the biggest research obsessions of my life: Latin American art and culture. I took all the classes, I went to Mexico for a semester, and then I got a master in Latin American Studies. I don´t remember exactly how I got into this, I think I had a class about pre-Hispanic art that I really, really loved (another amazing professor).
José Clemente Orozco, El hombre de fuego (1935) Museums! while being an au pair in the US, I volunteered at the De Young Museum, in San Francisco. It was such a cool experience, that I decided I wanted to work in museums from then on.
Art curation. It was the natural step after “museums”. I have a ton of books about art curation because I thought it was the coolest job in the world. Ultimately, I switched this one for museum education, that has been my job for the last years, and it´s a much better fit for me.
The history of colors. My longest, most intense research obsession to date, including this newsletter! I owe this to a random conversation with a co-worker and friend, and to Michel Pastoreau, a French historian specialized in color, symbols and heraldry (another topic I love).
A piece of lapis lazuli, the blue mineral used to make ultramarine blue Symbolic thinking, prehistory and human evolution. My current obsession, I read papers about the use of pigments in a South African cave 50ka years ago like it´s candy (brain candy). The thing that it´s really cool about human evolution is that I am always wondering about why things are the way they are, and why we are how we are. Many of the answers to these “whys” are in human evolution — finally a place where I could find all the answers.
A wall covered in rock art in Utah, USA Aesthetics. A consequence of the previous one. Why do we find some things beautiful? What is beauty? And when did we start interpreting the world this way? I really love looking at what cultures and times have put more effort into creating beauty around them. Think of ancient Egypt, 17th century Japan, Italian Renaissance, or the Middle Ages in certain Islamic kingdoms, like southern Spain, Syria, or Iraq.
Writing this post, I´ve realized I still enjoy most of these topics. It´s not exactly like I grew out of them, but more like I´ve been adding new items to the list. I don´t think about dinosaurs often, but I enjoy a good documentary from time to time. Maybe I don´t frequently engage with Renaissance art, but every time I see a sculpture by Michelangelo, even in pictures, I think is the most beautiful thing I´ve ever seen. Enjoying different hobbies makes life more exciting, and I am glad that I´ve had all these intense interests over the years.
What about you? Were you a kid with intense interests? Are you an adult who kept those interests as well? What´s the thing that really piques your curiosity?
As a fellow dinosaur kid, I loved this piece 😍✨
I love animals, the etymology behind every scientific and/or vernacular name (e.g., eponyms), life cycles, biodiversity in general, birds in particular, and so on.