When the sun shines, we should drop our mathematics and go out 'to enjoy the Sun'. Those who don't are considered odd. They must 'have a personality disorder' of some kind. If you spend time on something 'you don't need anyway', like mathematics, something must be wrong with you.
Maybe there -is- something wrong with me after all? Gary Numan, a musician I like, has Asperger syndrome. Maybe I have the same disorder? It would be an explanation for my 'strange behaviour' since Numan is usually considered somewhat strange too. Considering that, according to some statistics, over half of the population has some form of personality disorder, this is a normal question to ask. I looked up a test for Asperger Syndrome, completed it, and here is the result:
 |
| Click to enlarge |
24. 'An average math contest winner' - Exactly right, if you change winner to contestant of course. Programmers score 21, which I am and explains that even in that context I am considered somewhat as a Nerd, sometimes anyway. The average man scores 18, while a male biologist scores 15. A score of 32 strongly indicates Asperger. Asperger is a form of autism. - I am in the clear. If you are interested in your own score on the Nerd scale you'll find it at this site.
Some people who have (had) Asperger.
- Albert Einstein
- Isaac Newton
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Bill Gates
- Robin Williams and
- Shakespeare.
who all did, "sort-of" well.
From: source
(*) Even if the 'real' answer is Yes, the answer is still NO. Because Asperger Syndrome is merely an invention by psychiatrists. A real disease can be determined during an autopsy. The zillions of diseases, syndromes ( supposedly caused by chemical imbalances ) are inventions to justify prescriptions of psychiatric drugs which are as addictive to the patient as profitable to the manufacturer. ( See: CCHR )
Interesting Most of my colleagues at work and including myself feel they have some form of Asperger's. It works both ways, from societies view as a whole they can excuse their inadequacies in maths, physics or any intellectual activity by labelling people as having Asperger's.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand it sort of gives those of us who are fascinated by Maths some sort of rationale to explain our lack of social skills.
Of course the fact that society as a whole seems to be run by people who place more value on what people look like or how rich they are rather than prizing people for their intellectual ability probably has more to do with the dengiration of intellectual activity. It's interesting that it's mathematicians, engineers and scientists that are accused of having Asperger's syndrome as opposed to Composer's, Artist's or writer's.
The point is that if you want to succeed in any intellectual or creative activity you need to spend large amounts of time on your own. By definition especially if you are trying to struggle to do a full time job that means that social life is going to suffer.
Of course like the guy in Pi you can take this to extremes and it might all end with nothing to show for it. On the other hand trying to achieve something lasting is worth all the social oprobium that so called normal people heap on us.
Chris
PS if anyone is interested I got 34 so according to Cohen I'm Aspergic good job that such labelling wasn't available when I was at school.
ReplyDeleteWe all have an intimate, emotional relationship with time, it seems. I just had a profound cognition in understanding the Pomodoro Technique: Goal, Process and Metric are equal (!) with the result that the perception of time is radically changed, if not neutralized all together. Imagine timeless time: pure flow. - The PT is better than Time Management itself, I would almost call it Pure Theta. - http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/
ReplyDeleteI think that your opinion on psychiatrists lacks humility. Did you study multiple years on medical university? Are you sure you know everything about this complex science to state such exaggerated opinions about fake diseases?
ReplyDelete@ Sebastian. I have studied the business practices of the pharmaceutical industry. Many years ago, I started here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3609599239524875493# ( The drugging of our children. )
ReplyDelete