My nicknane was “walking encyclopedia” when I was a kid so that tracks.
In my undergrad I went from being a chemistry/physics double major to a biochemist and finally finished my chemistry degree. (I am not far from having 3 degrees) I studied ASL, German and Japanese, modded video games and competed in a semiprofessional starcraft league. I wrote instrument guides and procedures for undergrads, contributed to papers on bioremediation, synthesized nanoparticles using genetically engineered enzymes. I developed a method for a plant alkaloid assay and a new way to reduce noise in an experiment designed to measure the rate of certain reactions that occur in extremely diluted systems. i.e single or double digit number of molecules in the entire sample.
Now I tutor college students in chemistry, physics, math and biology and work on computational chemistry projects.
Could I borrow your ability to productively function for 3-5 years? I need to clean up a decade of wasted time real quick
I was described to someone, right in front of me, as “…the sort of person who educates people involuntarily.”
Yeah I’ve never thought about it until then. Now I’ve tried hard to modify my behaviour.
If the person is unlucky, I am firehose mode…
I tend to accumulate seemingly random know-how and info but it is all easily traced back to interests and projects. (Assuming i can remember where I learned it …)
“How do you know this tailgate comes from a 1987-1991 Jeep Grand Wagoneer and why?”
My wife is still amazed that I know the make and model of every car by the headlight’s light beams from the view mirror. My knowledge goes back to the mid 80s.
I’m in a bit of a similar situation. I like to get mad at people who drive witg their lights off when it’s raining and I’ve memorized which cars have their tail lights off when the daytime running lights are on so I know which ones to flash my highbeams at and which ones can be seen by people behind them.
Friends started to make bets that within 5 minutes of any conversation, I’ll perk up and say excitedly, “I researched that!” And then bring up obscure, detailed facts. I don’t like that I can be so predictable… But wait, you ask, did the three fates have names? Well, I only know the Greek version, but there were Roman fates, fates in other cultures, woah, that made me think of Romulus and Remus for some reason, I read a fascinating book about them… 2 minutes later we are talking about the rise and fall of Rome, and the geopolitical realities of some obscure eastern European country in the spring of 1654.
The saddest thing is that as I get older, I find my recall starting to fail. I’m struggling more and more to pull facts I know that I know. The deluge of information coming from my yammering maw is increasingly choppy and punctuated by trying to remember exact bits of info.