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Write A Catalyst

Write A Catalyst and Build it into Existence.

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Your weekend plans might say too much.

I Learned the Hard Way That These Hobbies Are Clear Red Flags — Most People Still Miss Them

Some hobbies reveal who people really are.

Shaant
8 min readMay 12, 2025

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Photo by May Gauthier on Unsplash

I keep going back to a moment in particular, one date I went on in the USA when I was in grad school. She was smart, articulated, and had an amazing grin. We began talking about books, movies, weekend routines, and then I casually asked, “What do you like to do in your free time?”

She said, “Honestly, I just drink, bet on sports with my friends, and scour celebrity gossip.” At first I chuckled because I thought she was trying to be funny. What she said wasn’t a joke.

She went on to say she hadn’t read a book in over five years, she didn’t watch anything unless it was true crime or a reality show, and most of the time she spent online was basically, “just arguing for shits and giggles.” That wasn’t just a red flag, that was a whole factory of red flags.

Ever since then, I’ve been more aware of hobbies, not as a way of checking off boxes for dating purposes, but as a serious indicator of someone’s emotional ecosystem. Because hobbies aren’t just things that we do when we happen to be bored, they’re almost a record of who we choose to be when we aren’t forced…

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Write A Catalyst
Write A Catalyst

Published in Write A Catalyst

Write A Catalyst and Build it into Existence.

Shaant
Shaant

Written by Shaant

Life’s too short for dull words. So, I write with 3Ws: Wit, Wisdom, and Wanderlust.

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