An obsession is a great way to concentrate on something. It provides the emotional drive and intensity required to maintain interest in something and dig into it enough to tease out all of its subtleties, which acquire the dimension of multitudes in breadth and depth. This takes time, focus, and energy.
But there is always a danger to this. Because with an obsession, you are tied to a single point, a single position of reference, or a way to perceive. The richer the picture becomes, the more wedded you are to staring only at the picture.
Soon enough, all of your perceptions and judgments are stemming from a single location in thought, with the limited perspective that this implies.
At times this is necessary. For example, a military arms race can be construed as dueling obsessions. If we are bound to the logic of nations, then a threatened nation that wants to survive needs to concentrate research and development and industrial power on its military capabilities. This process transforms the way in which the nation thinks about itself, and the way that it functions.
The larger the mass, and the more intensive the process, the more difficult it is to change course.
There is a reason that the Hopi say: "if you dig things out of the ground, you invite disaster." To dig as a single interest is to transform the landscape from which the interest springs. And it is usually very difficult to stop digging.
