Mechanical diggers

By john | March 17, 2009

Passion, lust, addiction, and obsession are often maligned, relegated to the vices (as if they haven’t suffered enough bad press already), objurgated by the puritanical, sidelined by the apathetic. But a world devoid of, for example, obsession, would be a very dull world indeed. Obsession is frequently the principal ingredient of success, the primordial spirit that inspires the creation of exceptional things.

I suggest (implore, perhaps) that if you do not have an obsession, that you go out and get one, quickly. Just about anything will do, so long as it’s authentic. The object of your obsession is of little consequence. Some are obsessed with collecting and cataloging postage stamps, others with birdwatching, or even, some say, type. I once knew a chap who was completely obsessed with mechanical diggers; yes, mechanical diggers. He could ID virtually any mechanical digger, even from a partial photo. He’d know the year it was produced, where it was exported, how many they produced, the engine capacity,…

I have no interest in mechanical diggers. However, his obsession drove him to study, to remember, to learn; and transformed him from a shy, softly-spoken young man, into an impassioned and articulate savant. I recall very little of what he used to say about them, but it was his passion, the product of his obsession that was contagious, and it was that that left an indelible impression on me.

Just a thought.

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7 Comments

  1. Fred Yates
    Posted March 17, 2009 at 10:43 am | Permalink

    interesting post. my obsession is golf :)

    a good friend of mine’s obsession is actually type (similar to yours i’m sure) and he’s starting a blog soon, aptly named obsessive type.

    love the digger in the background but this comment form needs a little css love <3

  2. Able Parris
    Posted March 17, 2009 at 10:44 am | Permalink

    Agreed!

  3. Ryan James Ragsdale
    Posted March 17, 2009 at 12:45 pm | Permalink

    I love the different background images for each blog post.

  4. johno
    Posted March 18, 2009 at 7:28 am | Permalink

    Re the changing background images, if anyone is interested in how it’s done (with WP custom fields), I’ll post it here. Very simple.

    Thanks for your comments.

  5. nerdski
    Posted March 18, 2009 at 7:39 pm | Permalink

    I would like to know how its done! :P

  6. johno
    Posted March 20, 2009 at 10:15 am | Permalink

    nerdski:

    OK, I’ll put something together. Guess I’ll post it here.

  7. Simon Robertson
    Posted April 14, 2009 at 11:16 pm | Permalink

    whilst i don’t think lust and addiction are really something to be desired, i completely agree with you about obsession.

    lots of my friends simply know me as the type guy. sometimes i’m too obsessive (at least for my girlfriend). so i can relate to the digger guy.

    thanks for the thought.

    also, re the wp bg image thing, i’d like to know as well :-)

    and fyi, the type on here using chrome in win xp is really bad, all pixelly and hard to ready. weird.