30 Things I Don’t Care For
Things in my life I don't care about
(Originally posted on April 16, 2021)
Random Observation/Comment #709: Sometimes it’s good to figure out what you shouldn’t think about. These topics that cross my mind just fly right through with a shrug and “mweh.”
Why this List?
I have a very curated digital bubble. I am interested in a lot of things (there’s a whole list of 30 Communities for that), but there are just areas I personally don’t spend any time thinking about. Some of it is not knowing enough about to have a strong opinion, while others is just keeping life simple. Pare down your distractions!
Sports (other than table tennis) – I obviously know how the games work, but I don’t follow it at all. Don’t ask me about stats or even major events. I do enjoy the act of watching it with friends.
Since 2021, I have joined a Fantasy football league for 2 seasons and also started playing disc golf.
Online clothes shopping – I’ve had the same clothes for the past 5 years. It’s even more relaxed now that I work at a start up and literally have been in sweatpants for a year.
Makeup / Cosmetics – Not that I ever wore makeup, but I don’t even care if people wear it.
Horror movies and gore – It doesn’t bring me joy. I still stand by this.
Physical mail – How do I get off these lists? Why do I still have to open this mail?
Lawncare – This is the whole reason why I don’t want a lawn and I rather pay my neighbor’s kid to mow the small space we have.
Since 2021, we’ve gotten rid of our whole lawn, so I manifested this nicely.
Strict diets – I have my own set of rules to balance my consumption amounts, but I tend to eat everything and anything. There’s always a special occasion for a treat.
Specialty soaps – I’m okay with anything that lathers. Buy it in bulk.
Candles – I do like the ones that smell like you’ve just baked cookies, but then again, I can just bake cookies. The candle making process is pretty cool, but this does not occupy space in my brain.
Coupons – It’s not about being thrifty or saving money, but I think the time spent cutting them or scanning them isn’t worth my extra time. My Mom is going to hate this one.
US History – I do know bits and pieces from documentaries here and there, but I’ve never gotten into being a historian. I know the value of learning from the past and predicting the future set of humanity patterns from it. My brain does not care for memorizing any dates.
Horoscopes – I couldn’t even name all the animals or what they mean. It doesn’t make sense to me.
Gambling – Even though options trading is like gambling, you at least have some information to play smart. I don’t gamble with more than $20 in real life at casinos. Sign me up to the old lady slot machines.
Since 2021, I’ve played in a lot of bi-weekly/monthly poker games with some local friends. We set our buy-in to $20. I tend to drink more money than gamble.
Jewelry – I do care about watches because they’re beautiful time pieces, but I personally don’t wear anything except glasses. Anything on my wrist leads to carpel tunnel and I’ve outgrown the necklace bling phase of my life.
Piercings – I’ve never considered it and don’t really understand the appeal for piercings.
Biceps / Weight Training – I don’t think I’ve ever done curls or used weights in my decades of exercise. It’s bad to not work out all parts of your body equally, so maybe I should care about this, but I currently do what has low impact.
Since 2021, I started dumbell bicep curls before meetings. It’s not exactly a gun show, but at least they’re not water pistols.
Sodas – There’s a bit of a love for Mexi-coke, but not really into sugary drinks. Note that beer doesn’t count as soda.
Rollercoasters – It’s been ages since I’ve been to a theme park and I never feel great after going on a rollercoaster. I’m okay to live without it.
Office politics – It’s something I’ve stayed away from; especially power struggles and land grabbing. I’m perfectly happy with being a team player instead of a team lead and have to worry about budgets.
Celebrity gossip – I don’t know names that well to begin with, and know even less about their lives
Soap operas – There were some TVB shows that were pretty addictive, but I haven’t followed a long running drama since Naruto.
Sun tanning – This is something I don’t understanding, not because I have the Asian culture belief of pale skin showing royalty, but because it gets so hot and looks so weird most of the time.
Exotic pets – I’ve never had the urge to get a snake or tarantula. I’m probably not used to taking care of any pet, TBH. It was a pretty shocking thing to get a Guinea pig.
Since 2021, we got rid of guinea pigs and went to kittens again. We do have neighbors with bearded dragons and snakes, which are fun to visit, but not to own.
All-nighters – With work it’s sometimes needed if there’s a last minute urgent and important deadline, but I maybe have one every year. Sleep is too important. Same with partying – let’s wake up at a reasonable time instead of sleeping through my most productive time of day.
Fighting – I like watching it and used to take Aikido, but I feel very brittle. I hurt my back sneezing the other day. That being said, we do have a punching bag and I did just play an Oculus Quest 2 boxing game.
Flipping real estate – I don’t have the appetite for it. Housing has always given me headaches. I’d live more in virtual real estate.
Pornography – I’ve watched it, but I don’t think I’ve ever really enjoyed it for the characters or plot points. There’s a lot of shame in culture around porn. It’s such a weird genre of entertainment.
External guilt – I don’t think I have Catholic white guilt engrained in me. I feel a level of disgrace and disrespect if I do things wrong from a deep rooted Chinese stand point, but it’s not guilt.
Doom scrolling – It’s hard to avoid, but I’m hoping my curated algorithm shows me happier stuff. I don’t have any notifications, so I try to only look deep into one topic once a day rather than do the high frequency trading equivalent of internalizing opinions.
Clowns – Why you so scary?
Personal value
This was a surprisingly hard list to write. I tend to care about a lot, but I think it’s important to narrow your focus or else you’ll be good at some things and never great at one thing. There’s value in being passionate and contributing.
~See Lemons Care Selectively