There was a nicotine + adhd thread today in c/whitepeopletwitter@sh.itjust.works and I got to write a few paragraphs about my favorite subject: anything tobacco.
I don’t know particularly what is so cool about it, but I just can’t get enough information on the subject. Old fashioned snuffboxes, cigarette boxes and holders, pipes… And the rich history and culture of each brand and style and how it evolved in every part of the world is just so interesting to me.
So it made me curious about what are some of the other more unconventional special interests around this community
lmao this is my favorite so far. May you elaborate on why you find this so interesting?
As a child one of my tasks (and probably my favourite - it was assigned more out of the fact that I was so eager to do it than anything else) was to make tea for my family. When we moved to the US, after eventually finding an electric kettle (which that was a mission in itself at the time), I noticed how much longer it took to boil the water. My dad started explaining the differences in the electrical systems to me.
One particular incident I can think of that really sparked my obsession with “how can I boil the most water possible in the least time possible?” occurred at a party. There were probably 30 people over and I was making tea and coffee for everyone. I was already maximising throughput by using a coffee maker on one circuit, a kettle on another circuit, and heating water in a pot on the stove. Yet it still took ages for me to provide everyone with their tea and coffee (longer than it would have taken with just a 2 litre 3 kW kettle without any of the other bits, because much of what I was doing was waiting for more water to boil). It didn’t help that the gas stove was seemingly better at heating up the rest of the house than at heating the water.
So it became one of those things where I apparently decided this was a problem with the world and I’m going to find the One Best Answer™. Right now the thing I think is probably the best available option is still not available in the US. Probably my ideal would be something that can boil a litre of water in under a minute and has at least a 5 litre tank so you can have an initial, near-instant burst of boiling water for your daily usage. Which would essentially be that same Quooker I linked, but with 10 kW of heating power rather than just 2.
(And before anyone asks… yes, I did once start enough kettles, induction cookers, etc. simultaneously that the lights dimmed and my UPS started beeping. No, there wasn’t a purpose to that other than for fun. Can you really blame me though? I had just got an electrician to install a 14-50R, a 6-20R and two new 5-20R circuits in my kitchen and I wanted to check whether I really could draw 25 kW of power in my kitchen!)