<story><title>An ode to that “coffee friend”</title><url>https://tiramisu.bearblog.dev/coffee-gift/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>fishtoaster</author><text>I thing I decided late in life is that being really into things is cool.&lt;p&gt;Something I&amp;#x27;m rather sad about is that highschool kinda beat that attitude out of me.  I was a classic nerd, including all the bad attributes that label comes with, but also one really good one: I was really into a number of things.  But I learned from hard experience that being super into stuff was lame - being disinterested and too cool for stuff was hip.  I internalized that attitude.&lt;p&gt;Even into adulthood, I occasionally find myself making fun of people for being into specific things.  I eventually made myself a rule: if someone really enjoys something that&amp;#x27;s not hurting anyone, that&amp;#x27;s an admirable trait.  It&amp;#x27;s easy to obey this rule for things I like: science fiction, fancy beer, programming.  It&amp;#x27;s not too hard to obey this rule for things that I&amp;#x27;m not personally into, but are culturally adjacent to me: classical music, literature, skiing, fancy coffee.  It&amp;#x27;s harder for things that are not as cool among my social group.  I sometimes have to remind myself that being super into football, nascar, or the bachelorette is just as admirable as being into my things.  Un-ironic enthusiasm is one of our best traits as humans, even when directed towards things I don&amp;#x27;t personally get that excited about.&lt;p&gt;And so I&amp;#x27;ll always appreciate that coffee friend.  They&amp;#x27;re lucky enough to have maintained the ability to nerd out about something and I&amp;#x27;m glad of it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>koonsolo</author><text>This &amp;quot;too cool for stuff&amp;quot; sounds like US culture. I never experienced that kind of thing in EU. We each had our own friend groups, and didn&amp;#x27;t really care what the other groups were into.&lt;p&gt;I once heard an artist say (can&amp;#x27;t remember which one), that they loved playing in Europe, since everyone at a festival is there to have fun. While in US, everyone is there to look cool.</text></comment>
<story><title>An ode to that “coffee friend”</title><url>https://tiramisu.bearblog.dev/coffee-gift/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>fishtoaster</author><text>I thing I decided late in life is that being really into things is cool.&lt;p&gt;Something I&amp;#x27;m rather sad about is that highschool kinda beat that attitude out of me.  I was a classic nerd, including all the bad attributes that label comes with, but also one really good one: I was really into a number of things.  But I learned from hard experience that being super into stuff was lame - being disinterested and too cool for stuff was hip.  I internalized that attitude.&lt;p&gt;Even into adulthood, I occasionally find myself making fun of people for being into specific things.  I eventually made myself a rule: if someone really enjoys something that&amp;#x27;s not hurting anyone, that&amp;#x27;s an admirable trait.  It&amp;#x27;s easy to obey this rule for things I like: science fiction, fancy beer, programming.  It&amp;#x27;s not too hard to obey this rule for things that I&amp;#x27;m not personally into, but are culturally adjacent to me: classical music, literature, skiing, fancy coffee.  It&amp;#x27;s harder for things that are not as cool among my social group.  I sometimes have to remind myself that being super into football, nascar, or the bachelorette is just as admirable as being into my things.  Un-ironic enthusiasm is one of our best traits as humans, even when directed towards things I don&amp;#x27;t personally get that excited about.&lt;p&gt;And so I&amp;#x27;ll always appreciate that coffee friend.  They&amp;#x27;re lucky enough to have maintained the ability to nerd out about something and I&amp;#x27;m glad of it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bliteben</author><text>I was recently struck by this tidbit about Cormac McCarthy:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; As a child, McCarthy saw no value in school, preferring to pursue his own interests. He described a moment when his teacher asked the class about their hobbies. McCarthy answered eagerly, as he later said, &amp;quot;I was the only one with any hobbies and I had every hobby there was ... name anything, no matter how esoteric. I could have given everyone a hobby and still had 40 or 50 to take home.&amp;quot;[15]</text></comment>