How does one even live like this?

You suck all the dopamine out of something and move on leaving the drained husk of your former hobby behind. Hopefully the dopamine runs out before you put money into it.
I swear as soon as I put money into a hobby, I lose interest. I got a guitar I can't play, a hackRF I can't be bothered to relearn, a box of half built eletronics, an unknown amount of Raspberry Pis and Arduinos with no purpose...
- Yeah I got into lockpicking a few years ago, figured out how to pick all the random master locks i had lying around the house, and immediately after spending like 250 dollars on some specialty, hard-to-pick locks, I lost interest. Still keep my lockpicking set in my car in case anyone locks themselves out of the house or something, but the dopamine i got from picking those first few locks is gone. On to the next thing.
  
  This is something that has always interested me but I've never tried. Any recommendations on a set of picks to start with?
  
  Same, I have a few locks I don't have the keys for and even broke into my friends car for them once.
  Im not good at it but I can atleast pop open cheap locks no problem.
- No wonder I have a ton of cleaning supplies and a dirty home.
- But I got so much Warhammer that needs painting! I have to like it or Shame Mountain won't erode.
- yunohost is good at being set and forget for RPis that sit unused. I still haven't got around to setting up paperless-ngx but I've done the rest and it is useful…
  Now don't ask me how long it's been since I said I'd set up a NAS
  
  as a linux enthusiast and server hosting nerd myself. I bought like 400 dollars of hardware, installed fedora on it, immediately proceeded to not like fedora very much. And then it sat for about six months. On a whim i heard about debian 12 releasing, which had a new enough kernel for proper QSV support on modern intel and i immediately set it up in about a week or two, now using containers and relatively well organized file structures.

As a person with no diagnosis of any type, I too feel confused by people only having ‘a few’ interests and hobbies. If my time were not so finite, and I had the financial means, I’d be pursuing a lot of random things
- Every night after after I just spent 5h with a new hobby, I really dislike the humans need to sleep.
  I am aware this sentence is broken but I don't wanna spend the time
  
  If we needn't sleep, capitalism would have made sure you have to work 20 hours per day.

I find the world to be crawling with interesting things to learn about. From electric plugs, to coffee, to how computers work, etc. It always drives me insane that the average person doesn't seem to be remotely interested in learning much about how and why the world works..
Didn't know it could be an ADHD thing though.
- That's why I love technology connection guy, I can just skim through his list of videos and find some weird things to watch about some random tech.
- electric plugs
  I thought that I was the only one... But it makes sense that other ADHD folks would too. Have a favorite plug? Mine's the CEE 7/4 (Schuko). It just has a lovely symmetry and thoughtful, safety-conscious design.
  
  The UK plug seems to be the best engineered one, I'm partial to the French one, along the Schuko.
  
  Ok, I had to look at this and I definitely agree. It's much better than the US Type B plug which I'm always afraid I'll short out when a random piece of metal falls on it.
  
  at the moment i'm partial to andersons, wonderfully versatile, modular, and scalable. You can get them ranging from itty bitty baby connectors, to big chungus giga connectors.
  It's a very nice design. I don't like plugs, i think they're all bad tbh.
- Hey I think I should get tested or something. I'll make a phone call.... Eventually

I prefer the term "renaissance man".
- A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
  Robert A. Heinlein

My ADHD interests: intensely researching a topic that has no prospect of financial reward and wanting to talk about it to people who don’t care
- What was your last one? I lately fell into the Esperanto rabbit hole.
  
  Not OP, but TTRPGs. Started after I finished BG3, and talked my friends into playing DnD, with me as a DM. Knew literally nothing, and hyperfocused for months learning as much as I could.
  I've prepared a 70 page document for my players detailing every one of my 6 homebrew classes, 20 subclasses, 15 origins (races don't make sense in the setting), and some lore about our ASOIAF campaign (I could keep going for hours about all I've homebrewed).
  We're all ready and rearing to go and I'm kind of... Already over it. I'm homebrewing vampire bloodlines ala dragonborn lineages and wild magic radiation and mutation systems on the side but those don't make sense in this setting, and it hurts.
  Edit: the worst thing is, I do have people that would be interested in those homebrews, but they're my players and I don't want to spoil them!
  
  Conlanging is great for this because you can make and abandon basic sketches of languages forever.
- Don't forget waking up a month or two later and realizing that you no longer care about the subject you've been hyperfocusing on and now have no idea what to do with yourself until the next hyperfixation shows up.
- I think what bothers me most is having no one to talk about things with. Like, I just made this cool thing! Someone ask me about it!!
  
  The only person I have to babble at has level 2 autism and can only process a finite (and very small) number of words per day before she combusts 😭

Yup, that's me. Only have a handful of active interests at a time. But a couple of those are free floating interest slots that I'll swap out every month or few as I really dig into something new. And then everything else gets moved into passive interest territory, where I'm not seeking it out but can still relate or engage if it comes up again. So that's how I live with it.
- Same for me. I actually have so little money that I barely do anything anymore but I still am interested in a bunch of stuff just unable to actively do it since I have little time and no money.

Yeah, this sounds about right. I think this is why other people (without ADHD) often identify me with only one or two of my special interests instead of the full variety of all those interests. The other day I had to introduce me in a certain setting to someone where everyone had to mention their hobbies as well. I was struggling at first how to cram so many hobbies in a short time or how to prioritize them. Then a friend, who was also there, said to me "Oh, you like to upload pictures on iNaturalist!" This is true, but I did not really feel seen because of all the other hobbies that seem similarly important!
- I just say i'm into science and technology.
- iNaturalist?! I wanna see these pics! Do you like Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't?
  
  Haha, username checks out I guess xD
  Have not heard of this podcast yet, but will have a listen. Thanks! Usually I have problems paying attention to non-fiction podcasts. But I give it a try.
  I can send you a dm regarding my iNat. Have my real name over there and don't wanna dox myself...

I had a similar moment of confusion when I realized "normal" people have to put forth effort to think. Your brains aren't always on, always thinking, about everything? You don't always notice every little detail (though sometimes at the expense of the bigger picture)? How can you do one thing over and over again without getting bored? You just obey and believe things you're told? You can follow rules you don't personally understand a need for? You've been doing a thing the same way forever just because that's the way it's always been done?
Sometimes it's aggravating to me as it seems like other people are being intentionally obtuse, but other times I envy the ability to float through life, free of thoughts and therefore free of anxiety.
- I feel like "free of anxiety" is a rather large assumption. I'm definitely riddled with anxiety but that doesn't mean a more neurotypical individual is free from that burden. We likely just deal with much more mental instability as a result of the ADHD firehose-like stream of consciousness exacerbating any already present sources of anxiety. :shrug:

Huh. I used to write notes to myself a few years ago when I was still in school and would get super drunk. "Look up modular synths," was one of my notes and I never went and actually did it. This is probably my calling to learn about them 🤔.
- Me, autistic: "Huh, what are modular synths? I wonder what Pickle Junior meant by that."
  Me, autistic, 9 months from now, probably:
- I'd really suggest fiddling around in VCV rack before committing yourself to building anything for real. It's free too. Individual modules cost upwards of $300 at minimum and you need at least 10 of them to do the crazy generative stuff people are into.

Can you imagine how specialized you would be if you only had one interest? Like the example non-ADD person just into politics... They must know the name of every representative at every level from city to country where they are living, know the detailed history of the political parties, and have a deep knowledge of political movements and their history.
- It's why most people are heavily propagandized and proselytized from a very early age to make sports their hobby. Indeed, these people tend to have deep knowledge of their team's and their immediate opponent's histories, with background going back to specific matches half a century ago and impressive retention of numbers and statistics thereof and so on.
  All this knowledge of course is absolutely useless politically (and often, socially), which is precisely the point.
  
  Ehm no? What person or institution or organisation do you imagine going "harrr let's get kids into sports so that they don't bother to learn about politics harr!" exactly? Because it's for sure not schools that are doing that. Most schools even teach about how politics work even.

I mean, I wouldn’t call it living. Maybe rather existing. :D

Only historical materialism can placate their rabid curiosity now
- real

ADHD: how to get more out of life and less out of life at the same time.
- Slicing up the candle into smaller candles and burning all the ends.
  
  My mother used to say about my brother and I, "they aren't content with burning the candle at both ends, they also take a blowtorch to the middle."

i think ADHD is probably responsible for the bastardized version of "jack of all trades master of none"
That's my headcanon for it at least.

My interests tend to rotate, thankfully. I try to decorate my room or have things that will physically remind me of old hobbies and get me to jump start them back to life.

As someone who switched meds, didn't sleep much for about 14 days and discovered modular synths: I'm in this picture and I don't like it.
Disclaimer: let's face it, I actually love it. Like others in this thread, I can't even imagine how boring I'd feel not discovering a completely new interest / hobby / aspect of life all the time.
Hell, I know so many people my age who simply seem to stagnate and are simply not interested in anything any longer, and I feel "protected" from that. Life is fucking exciting, let me try all the things!
There are definitely layers to this though, I have core interests that are more aligned with my personality, and I feel that governs how invested I am into each particular hobby. That doesn't keep me from having wildly varying interests, though.

I have one broad interest that manifests in many ways: I like to make things. From a D&D table, to a workbench, to glowing led hex panels, to making automated blinds from scratch, to cutting worm gears, to internal keyway cutters, to sex machines, to syncing up videos to said sex machines, to grind rails and ramps for skating, to gearboxes, to spool un-winders, to book presses, to rpi powered media centers, to pi arcades, to bed frames.....just to name a few.

wonder if this has anything to do with an inability to say youre not interested when someone starts talking to you about something (at least in my case because i perceive it as being rude and i absolute hate feeling like ive been rude) leading to the actual development of a larger range of interests

ive never understood when my friends decline something because it "sounds boring" i just cant think that way at all
- Specially when it's something new.
- They feel the same about me when I decline the opportunity to get shitfaced drunk and banter over 17 games of "Mexican train dominoes" for the 59574th time.
  
  that sounds like it would be insanely interesting maybe the first and second time.

NT: "So what are your interests?"
Me, inside: "Software development, compression algorithms, binary file processing, scripting in Bash and Powershell, web development, networking, homelab/selfhosting, household automation, 3D graphics and modelling (and a particular fascination with Geometry Nodes), shader programming, video game development, video games..."
Me, outside: "... ...I like computer? Like, all of computer?"

when self-hating people who've learned a little about genetics and evolution pipe up with "why are we even still in the gene pool" sadposts ... this is why. overall, this style of thinking is a net positive to the proliferation of Homo sapiens, and every now and then even a net positive to the people who embody it.

People: what do you do in life? Me: video games. that's it, just videogames. A LOT of videogames

Uh, I was never diagnosed with any type yet I have fuckloads of different interests, though I very rarely devote enough time to any of them. Maybe I should recheck? Or is it just a case of internet rabbit holes? I mean, you start perusing wikipedia and you have no idea how you went from vector graphic formulae to chemical composition of certain drugs to baryon asymmetry.

no i do not have adhd. i love doing lots of things and learning lots of things. it means you are a smart person and have alot of time on your hands to do all that. most people are in a RUT and work home and family thats it.
- The big diagnostic factor is, do you FINISH those lots of things.
  It's ok to occasionally try something and be like yeah, this wasn't as great as advertised, I'm walking away.
  But if your shelves are covered in an assortment of unfinished projects that never will be finished? ADHD
  
  I don't THINK I'm ADHD but I feel called out by your last sentence.

This is one of the things my other ND things cancels out. Or maybe just the way my ADHD is more on hyper focusing than being totally unfocused? I only like, basically, 3 things. Video games, music, and language. Granted, "language," covers a lot.
- I genuinely thought I was NT because I was comparing my quantity of interests to my brothers quantity of interests. He's autistic, he has one interest.
  Then I'd compare my quantity of interests to my best friends quantity of interests, he has ADHD hyperactive type, he has 700+ interests.
  And I have like, 25 (and that's if I split up larger interests into subcategories)
  So I'm normal...except for all the sensory issues, executive dysfunction, impulsively, social difficulties, memory issues, communication deficits, learning difficulties, inability to establish routines, poor interoception resulting in medical complications from failing to attend to basic needs because I'm "in the zone" on something else.
  Jokes on me, I have AuDHD.
  Some of my "symptoms" cancel each other out in a way I'm very grateful for, and others conflict with each other in the most debilitating ways. That feeling when you are somehow catastrophically overstimulated and also your brain is tearing itself down the middle in desperate need for some dopamine through sensory input...
- I consider video games to be multiple hobbies as each genre can scratch such a massively different brain itch. Sinking into a JRPG vs sinking into an RTS are very different levels of mental engagement.
- Video games can also be a lot. When normies play, they play one game or two. Say fifa and cod. My steam lib is 500+

How I am is not a disorder. Other people just want to put me in line behind them.

What does it say about starting all those hobbies / projects and not finishing any?

Nonsense. I’ve had myself certified to be riddled with ADHD by 5 separate psychiatrists, and I’ve lost count of my hobbies/interests. And I have every intention of returning to leathercraft one day… just as soon as I dig my bed back out and get a good nights sleep.
Part of me really misses the certainty of the old school psychiatry. It seemed to hold the promise of answers and ultimately solutions. For if conclusions cold be reached problems could be identified and solved or otherwise compensated for.
Unfortunately this was never the case. It was just well meaning folks making it up as they went along. If they could convince their colleagues to buy in and do a bit of limited research… bingo, accepted theory.
Now we just get an endless wash of statistics and papers loaded with so much domain specific language they are practically indecipherable.
- You misread it just like I did the first time!
  The post says people without ADHD only have like 2 interests.
  Which... is also baffling to me.
  
  I read it like 4 times and still got it backwards, thank you friend.
  Yeah… I’m not sure that’s accurate either, I certainly know plenty of people with more than 2 hobbies or interests.
  Perhaps something you tell a new patient to make them feel better :-)