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[mmcirvin]

There's a whole community of enthusiasts who like collecting information about roads and highway interchanges. That particular guy specializes in Connecticut roads, and American spur/connector/beltway interstates that have three-digit numbers.

I am not particularly a "roadgeek" myself, but I'm fascinated by this sort of thing when I stumble across it. There's a part of me that is drawn to vast, targeted collections of facts that I don't need to know about things I never thought about much. Other people seem to react violently negatively to this sort of thing; not only are they not interested, it seems to disturb them viscerally even to think that anybody is interested.

Comments

[sanspoof.livejournal.com]

Knowing enough to become a nerd about something has always seemed to be unattractive or unpleasant to people. I wish I knew why that was. I hope it's not as simple as 'people don't like being reminded they don't know everything.'

[triple-entendre.livejournal.com]

There's something of an anti-sympathetic pang of pain in that negative reaction: it's easy to put yourself in the enthusiast's shoes, but without the interest in the subject. Of course that would be awful! That's where we have to go to the next level of empathy: where you can celebrate how great something is for people who like that sort of thing.