Where do hobbies and careers come from?

How do people end up with their hobbies, their interests, their careers? "Where do 'tastes' and 'interests' come from?" Preference for romantic comedies, vs. action movies? Preference for jazz, vs. heavy metal? Watching sports on t.v., or not?

I've thought about that stuff a lot, and my assessment is that it's an intersection of natural inclinations (i.e. innate), which then get channeled into specific manifestations based on exposure and happenstance.

My daughter **loves** drawing: nearly every day she makes a few drawings (pencil; pens; paint, if we set her up). She's 5yo, and she'd been like that since she was 3yo, maybe before. My wife doodles when she's on the phone; I don't doodle, even though I've tried -- but I'm just not that way inclined. Took a few drawing classes in high school -- but I don't have enough patience or natural enjoyment from it to pursue it on my own time.

On the other hand, I consider myself a songwriter and recording musician (i.e. I play various instruments and record the same myself). My sister took piano lessons as a kid, so we had a piano at home -- but somehow, I never made the connection between the music I heard on the radio and "real" people playing it. If I had an uncle or older sister that played in a rock band, then I probably would've figured it out. As it was, it wasn't until my freshman year in college, when a guy down the hall had an electric bass -- and the next year I ended up buying an electric guitar...

My grandpa always did woodworking (mostly lathe stuff), and built shelves and such for around the house. I tried making a few things as a teenager, but I didn't know what I was doing (and my parent's ''shop'' and tools weren't suitable for what I was trying to do). Wasn't 'til my mid-'20s when I realized I could design and build music eqpt. racks that were more to my specifications than anything I could buy ''off the shelf'', that I ''got into'' woodworking.

I wasn't into sports, working out, etc., and didn't think I was into martial arts -- but my dad once brought home a videotape documentary on Aikido -- which included this footage -- so a few years later when a college course I took required us to learn a new skill (and keep a reflective journal on it), and I saw that college gym offered Aikido, I took it. Which led me to a karate class, which led me to Shaolin five-animals kung fu, which led me to dabbling in five or six different martial arts (unfortunately, I kept moving towns, so I didn't stay with any of them).

An ''adrenaline junkie'' that grows up in one household becomes a bank robber; in another, a BMX stunt biker.

Inclination plus happenstance. :)


--GG