Having passion about your interests is a great thing, but it's important to be able to relate to other people, and monomania is often pretty insulating. Steve B

Having passion about your interests is a great thing, but it's important to be able to relate to other people, and monomania is often pretty insulating. Steve Buscemi's character Seymour in the movie Ghost World comes to mind: Enid asks him what his interests are, and after a bunch of buzzwords about musical categories that I don't remember, she says, "Ok, let's just say, 'music'. What else?" I'm very interested in programming, but I also really like to cook, bicycling, and several other things, and find those are usually easier for people to relate to. Maybe you like to write, or skateboard, or you love paintball, or have a growing interest in photography, or something. An interest in programming and being able to have a social life are in no way contradictory. (Seemingly unrelated interests also tend to cross-pollinate.) Also, let's please not fill up the front page with rebuttals to rebuttals to rebuttals.