OnUnderstanding

Quora Answer : I find most conversations boring unless tech/programming is involved. Is feeling this way right or wrong?

Aug 28, 2015

As everyone says "right or wrong" isn't an issue. It's subjective.

But what it's probably a symptom of is that you have developed a more mature and sophisticated understanding of tech. / programming. But you haven't developed any equivalently sophisticated understanding of anything else.

When you hear people talk about tech. you can immediately slot it into some kind of context and make connections. You see how it fits into the big-picture. You see how events in tech. manage to advance some kind of narrative. That's exciting. You hear that a company in Silicon Valley or China has come up with an X-widget and it's immediately obvious how the competitive landscape has changed. Or how this points to further developments in the future.

It's pleasurable to think all these thoughts, because you have a sense of mastery, of knowing how it all fits together, the tingle of all those neurons firing and associations being made.

OTOH, you have no such context, or depth of understanding of other fields. When you hear about events or developments in those areas, they are just disconnected "factoids" to you. A new play by X, a new piece of music, a politician's rise or fall, a football team's win or a friend of a friend's break-up. They don't stimulate anything further. They aren't evidence for or against your theories of politics, economics, art, sports strategy or the human heart. They have no pleasurable resonance.

Now whether you think it's worth the effort getting enough of a context that these things become pleasurable is another question. I've never had an interest in sports and don't feel the slightest obligation to try to get enough of an appreciation to actually start enjoying it. Though I'm sure if I knew enough I would. OTOH, when I married an artist, I did start to pick up enough about art that I can now understand a lot more of the how and why of contemporary art. And visiting a gallery is far more fascinating to me than it used to be.

Life is more rewarding when you understand more about it. And the more areas you understand, the more areas you'll enjoy. But you can't go deep in everything.