New Obsessions --- Opportunities and whimsy abound in stagnant economies

(Reading time: 2 – 3 minutes)

At each end of the economic spectrum there is a leisure class. The truly wealthy can pretty much do whatever they want having both time and money.

But at the other end, there is no money, only time.

Here’s a few things you could do with a lot of time and very little money.

Establish a new dog breed: The Huautla Cur

Go to Huautla de Jiminez and purchase a half dozen of the local cur. They breed true. They look a little like a terrier: small, energetic, territorial. The’re usually an attractive brindle color, or a white and black mix. Bring them back to the US. Establish the cur as a breed. Call it the Huautla Rat Terrier.

Exotic Tropical Milkweeds: Hoyas

Go to the high Himalaya or high altitude in Papua New Guinea, or Indonesia, and discover new species of genus hoya. There are bound to be many. Interview Kloppenberg and Greene beforehand for tips. Notify relevant conservation authorities. Attempt to export cuttings for herbarium preservation. Name it after your local guide’s eldest child.

Unscrew Microsoft name mangling

Microsoft has a spotty track record for publicly publishing accurate specifications, such that relevant information can be easily found on the internet. To be fair, they are much better than they used to be.

In any case, here is a nice project: Build out some test code for examining Microsoft’s name mangling schemes in C++. This whole procedure could be scripted to operate on an initial manually written code base composed of simple classes, methods, etc.

Backyard biology

Stake out 10 feet by 10 feet square in your backyard or neighborhood woodlot or closest state park or national park. Classify every living thing in that square. You will probably find a new species of something. Maybe a fungus, or an ant, maybe even a frog. Seriously, this is really how it happens. Name it after your great grandmother.

Is this for real?

Yes.

While all of these activities may seem rather tongue-in-cheek, the truth is that people everywhere are involved in some of the most outre activity you could possibly imagine. In fact, each one of these is something that I would find an attractive use of my time, given I had the time to spend on such projects!

And these kinds of in-depth activities – obsessions – are how we advance as a civilization. Balanced people don’t make history! It takes the truly obsessed to plow into unknown territory and keep plowing.

There is so much to do! What’s holding you back?