# What subjects do you know a lot about, but don't help you earn a living, at all? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 7, 2008, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-subjects-do-you-know-a-lot-about-but-dont-help-you-earn-a-living-at-all/448439 "2008-05-07T15:46:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Walpurgis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Walpurgis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walpurgis)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-subjects-do-you-know-a-lot-about-but-dont-help-you-earn-a-living-at-all/448439/21 "2008-05-07T17:24:00Z")
Mother goddess symbolism in the Mediterranean and Middle East. Holy anorexia among Dominican nuns (in northern Italy) in the 12th and 13th centuries. Mediaeval and renaissance fashion. Cryptozoology. Oh, and I can imitate mediaeval manuscript illustrations. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-subjects-do-you-know-a-lot-about-but-dont-help-you-earn-a-living-at-all/448439/22 "2008-05-07T17:34:16Z")
[QUOTE=Grammanaut] Holy anorexia among Dominican nuns (in northern Italy) in the 12th and 13th centuries. [/QUOTE] Yep. Mine is Holy anorexia among Dominican nuns (in northern Italy) in the 14th and 15th centuries. We could compliment each other quite well. Fascinating. ---
**Author:** ![Walpurgis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Walpurgis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walpurgis)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-subjects-do-you-know-a-lot-about-but-dont-help-you-earn-a-living-at-all/448439/23 "2008-05-07T17:41:40Z")
[QUOTE=Shagnasty] Yep. Mine is Holy anorexia among Dominican nuns (in northern Italy) in the 14th and 15th centuries. We could compliment each other quite well. Fascinating. [/QUOTE] That’s about as obscurely specific as common references get! Cool, one person who wouldn’t give me the vacant gaping stare. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-subjects-do-you-know-a-lot-about-but-dont-help-you-earn-a-living-at-all/448439/24 "2008-05-07T17:53:15Z")
95% of the stuff I talk about on this message board ;). ETA: That is, 95% of the stuff I talk about are worthless to me career-wise ( my history and zoology backgrounds in particular ), not that I’m expert at 95% of the stuff I talk about :p. ---
**Author:** ![Nutty\_Bunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d07c76/32.png) [@Nutty\_Bunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nutty_Bunny)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-subjects-do-you-know-a-lot-about-but-dont-help-you-earn-a-living-at-all/448439/25 "2008-05-07T18:01:03Z")
Pop culture trivia, primarily music and TV. Anytime a question pops up at the office, I’m all over it. I can tell you anything from TV spinoffs to game show panelists and hosts to one-hit wonders to the month and year a song hit the charts. It would be nice to make some money from that, but instead I’m a bean counter. ::sigh:: ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-subjects-do-you-know-a-lot-about-but-dont-help-you-earn-a-living-at-all/448439/26 "2008-05-07T18:49:29Z")
[QUOTE=Priceguy] Magic the Gathering artwork. Show me the picture from a card and I probably have something like a 75% chance of identifying the card by name. Sometimes I wonder what normal people keep in the brainpart that I tie up with stuff like that. [/QUOTE] How to talk to the opposite sex? ---
**Author:** ![Monstera\_deliciosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monstera_deliciosa/32/109_2.png) [@Monstera\_deliciosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstera_deliciosa)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-subjects-do-you-know-a-lot-about-but-dont-help-you-earn-a-living-at-all/448439/27 "2008-05-07T18:56:20Z")
Caring for houseplants. I actually tried to make a living at it last year, working for an interiorscaping company for a couple of months, but I hated the job. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-subjects-do-you-know-a-lot-about-but-dont-help-you-earn-a-living-at-all/448439/28 "2008-05-07T19:32:26Z")
Heavy metal and similar forms of music. I’m not really sure who would be willing to pay me for anything involving that specific background. ---
**Author:** ![Gadarene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-subjects-do-you-know-a-lot-about-but-dont-help-you-earn-a-living-at-all/448439/29 "2008-05-07T20:05:55Z")
I know way, way too much about poker for someone who doesn’t play it professionally. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-subjects-do-you-know-a-lot-about-but-dont-help-you-earn-a-living-at-all/448439/30 "2008-05-07T20:06:10Z")
Art, literature, pop culture, and sex. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-subjects-do-you-know-a-lot-about-but-dont-help-you-earn-a-living-at-all/448439/31 "2008-05-07T20:24:46Z")
Rocketry Ham Radio Photography Computer Science I mostly make my living in electronic fabrication and construction, with some PC layout thrown in. If I write any code nowadays, it’s just a few lines for an embedded processor. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-subjects-do-you-know-a-lot-about-but-dont-help-you-earn-a-living-at-all/448439/32 "2008-05-07T21:06:18Z")
Cooking. Not only do my skills (highly polished during my flexible, childless days) have no bearing on my job, I don’t have much time to cook at home and my kids wouldn’t appreciate most of my exotic favorites anyway. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-subjects-do-you-know-a-lot-about-but-dont-help-you-earn-a-living-at-all/448439/33 "2008-05-07T21:10:13Z")
General history, political science, architecture, city planning, science fiction, library science, history and theory of mass communication. None of much use in the practice of law. ---
**Author:** ![MerryMagdalen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@MerryMagdalen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MerryMagdalen)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-subjects-do-you-know-a-lot-about-but-dont-help-you-earn-a-living-at-all/448439/34 "2008-05-07T21:11:45Z")
Ancient Egyptian history. I’m no expert, but I’m more informed than average. This is why, though I want to go to med school, my bachelor’s will probably be in Ancient Near East Studies. ---
**Author:** ![Mycroft\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/898d66/32.png) [@Mycroft\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_H)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-subjects-do-you-know-a-lot-about-but-dont-help-you-earn-a-living-at-all/448439/35 "2008-05-07T21:12:42Z")
Arthur Conan Doyle ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-subjects-do-you-know-a-lot-about-but-dont-help-you-earn-a-living-at-all/448439/36 "2008-05-07T21:15:58Z")
[QUOTE=Trunk] How to talk to the opposite sex? [/QUOTE] Owie. Try to keep the gloves up. ---
**Author:** ![Ghanima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Ghanima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ghanima)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-subjects-do-you-know-a-lot-about-but-dont-help-you-earn-a-living-at-all/448439/37 "2008-05-07T21:22:52Z")
Song lyrics - lots and lots of song lyrics. I regularly surprise people by knowing the words to songs from the 1920’s all the way up to Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. It’s a talent. Mind you there’s plenty of bad disco and such that I’ve never heard, but most stuff that gets performed (old standards, popular music) or overheard in an elevator, I’m singing along to. ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-subjects-do-you-know-a-lot-about-but-dont-help-you-earn-a-living-at-all/448439/38 "2008-05-08T00:13:46Z")
Folklore and mythology from any number of cultures/areas worldwide. I can reel off a good bunch of groupings (culture, area, ethnicity, what have you) and their general points of interest, but I wouldn’t be able to write a thesis on, say, the role of the trickster archetype in Alaskan Native American folklore. Or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![DellieM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cdc98d/32.png) [@DellieM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DellieM)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-subjects-do-you-know-a-lot-about-but-dont-help-you-earn-a-living-at-all/448439/39 "2008-05-08T00:45:04Z")
Tudor and Stuart Kings and Queens, 15th - 17th century European History and the collected works of P L Travers. And I’m a politician’s bitch. Go figure. ---
**Author:** ![JpnDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@JpnDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JpnDude)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-subjects-do-you-know-a-lot-about-but-dont-help-you-earn-a-living-at-all/448439/40 "2008-05-08T01:06:40Z")
The history of the theme parks Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea, including conception, development, construction, operation, organization, promotion and maintenance. I’m just a fan. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-subjects-do-you-know-a-lot-about-but-dont-help-you-earn-a-living-at-all/448439.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-subjects-do-you-know-a-lot-about-but-dont-help-you-earn-a-living-at-all/448439.md?page=3)