re: #891 Obdicut

Yep. She’s a very good example. There’s probably a lot more people like her out there.

Part of what got me on to this— as well as my friend who died— is my wife’s med school class. She’s in the MD/PhD program, which is populated by people who are going to be doing serious research. They’re different than the MD program; ‘smarter’ in general, but they also tend to be more obsessive. Then, in the pure PhD program, you find true obsessives, people with severe social ‘deficits’, but who are still successful enough because academia knows how to deal with that kind of stuff.

A common trait they share is that they’re not mainly motivated by greed or desire for success, but real obsession with their subject, with really just figuring this stuff out. They make excellent researchers because they’re data driven; they don’t want to prove their pet theories, for the most part, but they really want to know, they want to get to the bottom of it, they want wants real. Obviously, this can go off the rails— vid. Tesla, who was obsessive but believed in a lot of non-real stuff— but a lot of the most competent people I’ve met share that trait, of liking the job qua job, rather than for what the job brings them.

And I think we need more of that, to celebrate that more, respect those people more.

She’s a great example in that she has become quite well-known for exactly that aspect that you’re focusing on: how people with “different” attributes can make unique contributions in work environments. I would imagine that she might be a useful resource for support.