Do we, as science nerds, alienate others as a matter of course? If so, is this a defensive mechanism or a simple inability to climb out of our minds and relate to non-nerds?
I'm not trying to claim that all science nerds are awkward introverts, just some of us. There seem to be some scientists who are very very good at interacting with normal people, but there are just as many, if not more, who wander around public places looking either very confused or somewhat huddled into themselves.
Let's be honest: human social communication is so deep and complex and, frankly, damned weird that some of us will choose to immerse ourselves in protein interaction kinetics instead of going to parties.
What do you think?
(There's a point here that I'll get to later.)
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- Toaster Sunshine
- Immunologist, hacker, musician. Toaster.Sunshine_AT_gmail_DOT_com Toaster reserves the right to publish any unsolicited email received. Twitter: @ToasterSunshine
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3 comments:
I think it's an inability to climb out. The success of the species requires different skill sets amongst the population. Some are good at influencing others, others at social interactions, others at creating art, and others at science-izing. In my mind, it's as simple as that, a statistical tautology that some people "get" science so much that it's all they want to think about. Art nerds don't want to talk to regular people. Sports buffs would rather talk about sports than anything else. Etc.
Ah, no. We just have a low tolerance for bullshit ;-)
Do we, as science nerds, alienate others as a matter of course? If so, is this a defensive mechanism or a simple inability to climb out of our minds and relate to non-nerds?
It depends on the people we're alienating. If you were mercilessly teased as a young person for being smart, and were socialized primarily by adults and not peers, then your ability to "fit in" is not good. Later in life, I think critical people have a low tolerance for people who don't base their suppositions on facts. Further, if you hyper-focus on your work and feel that socializing is a secondary activity, then of course you're not going to be good at it.
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