I have a thing for subject matter experts.
There. I said it.
Give me someone who knows an unreasonable amount about something ridiculously specific, and I’m in heaven.
Telecommunications? Absolutely.
Data centres? Tell me everything.
Roofing? Oh, now we’re talking.
Pipe relining?
OH BABY. 🤣
Apparently, this is not how everyone experiences the world.
I first discovered this when I was about 19 or 20.
I was at a telecommunications company’s Christmas party, sitting at the plus-ones table, getting to know the partners of the people I worked with.
I asked one woman what her partner did.
“Oh, he sells phones or something.”
I nearly fell off my chair.
HE DOESN’T SELL PHONES. HE SELLS WHOLESALE VOICE!
🤣
Now, looking back, I realise there’s absolutely no reason she needed to know the intricacies of wholesale telecommunications.
But at 19, I genuinely couldn’t comprehend how someone could be so close to all this fascinating technology and not want to know about it.
That was probably my first clue.
We were not all living in the same world.
Fast-forward a few years.
I’m working in property maintenance, surrounded by tradespeople who know all sorts of things I don’t.
Plumbing made a reasonable amount of sense to me.
Electrical systems? Fascinating.
Roofing?
Absolutely no idea what anyone was talking about.
So I set aside a few hours one afternoon and started Googling roofing terminology, watching videos and trying to understand what the roofers were actually telling me.
A little while later, my manager complimented one of my roof reports.
“Oh, good! I’m glad that learning paid off.”
“What learning?”
“Oh, I spent a few hours learning about roofing because none of it was making sense.”
She looked at me like I’d just told her I’d spent my weekend alphabetising gravel.
“Why would you do that?”
“Well, I’m going to keep writing roof reports, aren’t I? I figured I should understand them.”
Apparently, voluntarily learning about roofing was not everyone’s idea of a good time.
Who knew? 😂
And then there’s the time I listened to a woman talk about birds for two hours.
TWO HOURS.
About birds.
I am not particularly interested in birds.
I couldn’t tell you most of what she taught me.
But I remember being absolutely fascinated.
She knew SO MUCH.
And the way she lit up talking about something she loved?
I could have listened all afternoon.
That’s the thing.
Sometimes I’m fascinated by the subject.
Sometimes I’m fascinated by the person who knows the subject.
And sometimes I’m just delighted that someone is willing to explain their little corner of the universe to me.
Meanwhile, ask me to identify the Kardashians from a photograph, and I’m probably going to struggle.
I have absolutely no idea who’s dating whom, what’s trending, or which celebrity has done something outrageous this week.
But I can get genuinely excited about the engineering behind a data centre.
We all have our interests. Mine just occasionally involve sewer pipes.
🤣
Which brings me to pipe relining.
Oh, pipe relining.
I discovered that damaged pipes could sometimes be repaired by creating a new lining inside the existing pipe.
WITHOUT DIGGING THE WHOLE THING UP.
HOW COOL IS THAT?!
Naturally, I had questions.
I told a work friend, who knew a bit more about it through a family connection to a plumber.
Then I called one of the plumbers I worked with.
Because obviously, this required further investigation.
He explained a bit more about how it worked.
And eventually he said something along the lines of:
“You know it’s weird that you find this interesting, right?”
And I laughed.
“Yeah, I’m weird. I’m okay with it.” 😂