Do We Need Hobbies?

I like to talk, and, sometimes, when I find that I’m droning on and on, I rein myself in by calculating an interestingness ratio. The I-ratio, as I think of it, relates the interest a listener has in what he’s hearing to the interest the speaker has in what he’s talking about. In the best-case scenario, the ratio is one: listener and speaker are equally interested in what’s being said. But it can rise above one, if, for example, you unwittingly let slip some piece of gossip you don’t recognize as fascinating. And it can fall below one, when you’re being boring. If the I-ratio keeps dropping, then you’re basically talking to yourself.