I have as many passions and interests as there are colors, and that I find myself constantly drawn to investigating new and different things. In the words of Barbara Sher, I’m a scanner.
Intense curiosity about numerous unrelated subjects is one of the most basic characteristics of a Scanner. Scanners are endlessly inquisitive. In fact, Scanners often describe themselves as being hopelessly interested in everything (although, as you’ll find out, this isn’t so). A Scanner doesn’t want to specialize in any of the things she loves, because that means giving up all the rest. Some even think that being an expert would be limiting and boring.
I began my university studies as a computer science undergraduate. I didn’t mind computer science — not at all, really — but as I am wont to do, I found my interest drift around from thing to thing, idea to idea and place to place.
Fortunately, the university I attended required students to take a minimum of eight courses outside of their chosen field of study. Way beyond — beyond computer science, beyond science in general, to the wide, wide world of the social sciences, arts and humanities.
And I dabbled in a wide variety of things: languages, animation, sociology … and then, I took an introduction to world religions course. After finishing my computer science degree, I moved on to the next thing: a degree in Religious Studies.
My passions have taken me every which way since then. I now work in a post-secondary institution, building learning objects using the latest and greatest web technologies. I’m falling in love with Interaction Design. I play World of Warcraft in my spare time. And I still play around with programming and religious studies ideas now and again.
In a lot of ways, Sententia is a reflection of that. At a meta-level, I suppose you could say that I’m going to be using this space to show that having multiple interests isn’t a bad thing. At Sententia, I want to challenge the notion that if everyone would ever just pick one thing and stick to it, we’d be happier or better off.
Think of it as my experiment in charting my own version of “personal development” for scanners. There is nothing wrong with having multiple interests; I want to show you via my experiences, and bring you along on my journey.
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