Confessions of a Compulsive List-Maker
I have a small OCD quirk: I make lists of things that no one asked me to list.
Not to-do lists. Not shopping lists. I mean the weird ones—lists that live in my notes app, on scraps of paper, sometimes in my head—obsessively organized for absolutely no reason.
Sometimes it's music gear. Sometimes it's ideas for magic tricks. Sometimes it's words.
Yes—words.
And English is the perfect playground for this habit because it's a hot mess of soundalikes, lookalikes, and words that seem designed to gaslight learners. So naturally, I made a list.
Homophones (same sound, different spelling/meaning)
These are the ones that drive you nuts because they sound identical but are written differently:
- feet / feat
- flower / flour
- to / too / two
- pair / pare / pear
- right / write / rite
- sea / see
- knight / night
- plane / plain
- bear / bare
- cell / sell
- break / brake
- peace / piece
- hole / whole
Imagine being a non-native speaker and someone tells you "I can't bear it." Are they talking about suffering or holding a grizzly in their arms?
Homographs (same spelling, different meaning)
These are even sneakier. Same spelling, different meaning—and sometimes different pronunciation:
- live (I live in Mexico / a live performance)
- lead (to lead a team / heavy metal lead)
- bass (bass guitar / bass fish)
- tear (tear a page / a tear from the eye)
- wind (the wind blows / to wind a clock)
- row (to row a boat / had a row = fight)
- read (I read yesterday / I will read tomorrow)
- close (close the door / a close friend)
- object (an object / to object)
- record (keep a record / to record music)
- present (a present gift / to present an idea / the present moment)
- minute (60 seconds / something minute = tiny)
- bow (bow tie / take a bow / shoot a bow)
If you've ever frozen mid-sentence trying to figure out if it's pronounced read (reed) or read (red), welcome to the club.
Why make a list like this?
Because I can't not. That's the truth of it. My brain wants to capture every example, categorize them, polish them, and then keep adding more. It's the same compulsion that has me writing down chord progressions, favorite stoic quotes, and magic patter ideas.
And the list? Of course it isn't finished. Lists never are. I often forget about them and make them again. Still good fun.
Magicians have their own version of this — endless practice routines at 2 a.m. that nobody ever sees.
These small obsessions are how I quietly spend hours that compound into nothing useful — and that's the point.
Sometimes the obsession turns into a tool — like the composing partner I built one weekend.
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