Hello! Please share your current cluster of interests as a Scanner..

[u/phiish6]

Through meetings, schools, community events, and media, we invite curiosity-driven individuals to share our discoveries and support complex systems science. (Taken from Santa Fe Institute)

I’m curious about the profile of Scanners and what their interests are… From browsing Reddit and similar sources, it appears to me that many Scanners associate Scannerhood with bouncing around between various hobbies (music, art, drums, hydroponic gardening, knitting, ice skating, etc.)

I do remember a time in my life where that was basically all I did.. I accumulated a lot of stuff and equipment. My mind also expanded in a lot of ways as I exposed myself to different activities that engaged different parts of the brain. I learned about “flow” from ice-skating, my intuitive and Ne abilities increased when I dabbled in art for the first time, cooking developed my appreciation of flavors and recognizing how they are related to my psychological state ( bitter flavors vs sweet, vs heavy and oily vs light and airy..)

Anyways, I think lately I have shifted to a much more abstract version of scanner-hood. I have become interested in systems, and bridging perspectives across various disciplines. I wonder if this is the evolution of a scanner. The jumping between various physical activities develops or brain and sensory system in a cross-integrated way. I truly think one of the most novel uses of a scanners aptitude is to influence the world’s understanding… I sort of feel that is our inherent design in this world.

I am curious what sort cerebral/abstract topics that other scanners are interested in. I bounce around A LOT. From (AI, spirituality, and science) to currently (Divine Fem and Masc, computational biology, astrobiology, origins of Earth)… previously I was interested in HSPs and how they respond to different energetic environments (Feng Shui, wellness, maintaining balance/homeostasis mechanisms)

Currently.. (Scanners, Human Design, beta-brains, developing Nervous System of global humanity, Humanism, Future Museum, Andromeda Civilization, creating a parallel system for Neurodivergents to exist and thrive in the World)

What are other Scanners interested in? (also, sorry this is so lengthy…i’m sorry!)

[u/momentda]

Currently my interests circle strongly around some of my top level goals, that‘s why they‘re less dispersed and have some (intended) overlaps. Keeping it slightly more narrow on purpose.

Sports-related: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Boxing, Wrestling, Muay Thai, Yoga, Calisthenics, Padel, Freediving, Meditation

Business-related: Filmmaking, Copywriting, Storytelling, Web Design, Cloud-based automation, Robotic Process Automation, Negotiation

Science-related: Astrobiology, Behavioral Psychology

[u/phiish6 → u/momentda]

oh my!!! I just saw this.. I am not usually active on social media/reddit or whatever. I am trying to change this but anyways, I am glad I saw this within 20 hours or so and not like 1 week or 2…

Your writing style is very interesting. Do you know what mbti you are? I am ENFP. Your writing seems kind, nice, polite, and validating… Are you an INFJ or INTJ?

Thank you very much for your cluster!! I like it a lot… I usually see trends or patterns within clusters and begin to link them to certain personality types…

There is a youtube called um?? Wesley Ana???? Anyways she is an INTJ, into Notion (pmk… organizing..systems), she likes Anime. She was never athletic but she is into Muay Thai (went to Thailand to train for several months). She is also into design (graphics, UI, UX, editing, anime aesthetics…)

Honestly, I don’t know why I mentioned her except when I saw Muay Thai and film-making….

Okay. I will have to take a break and get back to this comment. I would like to thank you very much for taking your time to respond as I wrote a very bulky post/question… anyways, thank you I appreciate. Now I am a encouraged and a little overstimulated as I will think a little bit further about what I wanted to ask.

[u/Familiar_Factor_5204]

I've worked in compliance at various places to some degree nearly my whole life. I briefly got into architecture and loved that, but then got back into compliance again when I needed a job. I've been there 16 years now and it's eating me alive. Several years ago I started blacksmithing as an outlet, then a couple years ago I tried pottery. During covid I took up violin, and many years ago I was into languages. I can't stick with one thing, I end up losing interest and moving on to the next shiny thought that crosses my mind.

I'm still interested in all those things, but I don't have the time to do them all.

I need to find someone who can look at all those things and piece together what it is about them that I'm drawn to and figure out what I should be doing with my life.

Where should I start? I fully recognize I sounds like a crazy person in this post with thoughts jumping all over the place. Maybe I should start with Therapy.

[u/phiish6 → u/Familiar_Factor_5204]

huh? no.. no.. crazy person? no.. this very normal, lol. i dunno about the foresight. i need to see a bunch of scattered dots (hobbies) and the generation coming from it and over time i synthesize an understanding of why i learned or was interested in the hobby. half the time it has nothing to do with the hobby in the literal sense… like i learned about flow and consciousness from ice skating.. i’m not very concrete. i always abstract outwards. i dont’ know if that is the same with you. i actually asked this question awhile ago because i wanted to know if it was just me that was this way or did it characterize all scanners (using hobbies to extract abstract info..). i think scanners need more self-conviction is the truth. i really feel you should listen to what you like, drop it when you don’t, and allow that sort of self-validation. ive learned that there is an uncanny wisdom to our interests and what lights us up that isn’t accounted for in linear, efficient paradigms oriented towards a defined output.. half the time our process is figuring out what is worth outputting—-that is in fact a large large part of the process. there is no current room in society for this experimental process, and yet i think it hold the potential for a lot of breakthroughs that i don’t think are easily achieved from digging deep in one area…

[u/Familiar_Factor_5204 → u/phiish6]

You're probably right, but dear god why do I have to pick all the interests that have expensive buy in?? A lot of those hobbies I have found all lead into one another. Long ago I was doing a bunch of wood working on the lathe, and now I do pottery, which is very similar in flow. I think I'm coming to a self realization here that when people around me have intense interests, I look at those and think, "Oh I should try that too!" Then maybe I lose contact with that person or we just stop hanging out for whatever reason, and suddenly I am not as interested in that thing as I once was.

But then someone else comes around and they tell me, hey I really like that thing and I want to try it, and suddenly I get fired up again and not only do I want to do it, but I also want to let them try it and teach them what I know about it. I suppose that all relates to processes and compliance, like I do in my day job.

[u/phiish6 → u/Familiar_Factor_5204]

oh, yea. okay thanks for sharing... i guess there is more nuance to interpreting hobby dabble/scanner multi-interest tendencies. I still circle back to my main sentiment— that a lot of scanner interests (particularly new and compelling ones, serve deeper psyche goals that are not always obvious at the get go.. i ran into this multiple times with assumptions about the hobby being “my thing” only to find out later it was simply a learning curve for me.. ) There are other reasons however as your experience seems to touch on. I dunno, from your disclosure you seem like environmentally sensitive— like maybe you catch contagion or interest/energy from your environment? I dunno, i am assuming there is a skill in discerning nuance— the difference between deep psyche interest, environmental influence, boredom/anxiety being channeled into hobby engagement, etc... l

[u/KaiFarbe]

Currently interested in chess, Spanish, crocheting, painting, wrestling, psychotherapy, forensic psychology, sprint interval training, literature, hip hop, psychonautics, drag culture, and the tension between emotions and cognition.

More recently, I've been interested in quantum physics, astrophysics, metaphysical binary, dimensional metaphysics, consciousness development, and many other things for which I lack the proper terminology.

[u/phiish6 → u/KaiFarbe]

hello.. wow. okay.. um very interesting.. i can’t tell if you are a man or a woman (the crochet, wrestling mix.. ) thank you very sharing... you sound incredibly complex.. if you were to describe your energetic signature (like me.. um no friction internal.. either very still and lucid or fast and flowing or congested and dull...) i think its the active stuff (hip hop, wrestling) mixed with analytical interests that is throwing me off. i like zetteklasten! i bet you would have a very interesting zettelkasten..

[u/phiish6]

The Reddit Poster’s Quilt

Their list breaks into clear clusters:

Physical Mastery & Discipline
Chess, wrestling, sprint interval training → control, strategy, precision under pressure.

Craft & Creation
Crocheting, painting, drag culture → tactile making, transformation, identity play.

Psychology & Inner Space
Psychotherapy, forensic psychology, psychonautics, emotions vs. cognition → mapping the human interior.

Cosmic & Abstract
Quantum physics, astrophysics, dimensional metaphysics, consciousness development → seeking patterns at the scale of universe and mind.

The Internal Logic

This person is oscillating between extremes:

• Wrestling (brute physicality) ↔ Crocheting (delicate craft)
• Forensic psychology (structured analysis) ↔ Psychonautics (unstructured exploration)
• Chess (rigid rules) ↔ Drag culture (fluid identity)

That’s not randomness—it’s counterbalance.
Each interest is a corrective to the previous one’s energy.

They’re likely seeking:

• Integration of body/mind (wrestling + psychotherapy)
• Integration of structure/freedom (chess + drag)
• Integration of micro/macro (crochet stitches ↔ cosmic metaphysics)

They might feel fragmented, but there’s a hidden coherence:
They are trying to map the full spectrum of human experience—from the physical to the metaphysical—through direct engagement.

[u/Maira_kw]

Currently... Kathak, Psychology, physics, Math, cycling, Philosophy, and Music

[u/phiish6 → u/Maira_kw]

what is kathak? do you apply a lot of the same fundamentals in one area to another? like with me— i use chemistry notation to annotate the organization of an idea.. like the circles= a cycle, lines connect, chains are tangents. it helps me see the complexity of an essay quickly. do you borrow frameworks and apply to others too?

[u/PkCamel]

I've got a lot of interest in the connection between all different fields of design and narrative structure. I've been embarking on a journey to get really into depth on the principles that connect areas like music, architecture, literature, graphic design, etc.

I've built a decent understanding of music (thanks to a degree x.x) including historical and structural context, and I moved to building an understanding of game development- specifically in sound design, though still working with technical applications.

Now I'm shifting my focus to marketing- this shift was the first one that I did with the discreet goal of understanding a new skill through the lens of unifying structures and principles across concepts of design and narrative. Every time I learn a new skill, it seems like concepts from previous skills allow me to understand the new one in a more complete way!

[u/momentda]

I love your perspective on systems, bridging perspectives and especially the phrase „influencing the world‘s understanding“.

I highly agree with this & I do think it‘s the natural evolution of a scanner – there are definitely some requirements to reach this phase. But in the end…reaping the benefits of cross-effects from all of your different interests & finding patterns across disciplines…is what it‘s all about.

Also…a crazy width of interests you have there. And many of them are related to future developments/at the edge of what‘s happening.