Saturday, March 12

Wired 9.12: The Geek Syndrome

I found this article (published back in December 2001) to be very interesting, partially because I have suspected myself of having at least some degree of Asperger's Syndrome since I first heard about it a year or so ago.

When I was a kid, I remember my mom always telling me to be more outgoing... especially trying to develop my ability to sustain eye contact. I'm still not very good at maintaining an eye-to-eye gaze when conversing, especially if I don't know the person to whom I'm speaking very well.

I keep seeing myself whenever I read articles about Asperger's. I'm very technically minded, picking out patterns in everything from music theory and notation (my chosen field) to the oft-misunderstood "behavior" of computers. I keep very much to myself, both in the office and at social gatherings. While I sometimes I wish I were more a part of the social circle, I don't really find myself looking for more companionship than that which I've already developed.

I hope to go, eventually, into the world of professional academia, where eccentricity and single-mindedness are the norm. I always found myself much more at home with professors then with fellow students when I was in college. Fanatic attention to detail and specificity in definition are what make up a good theorist, so I eagerly look forward to the time in which I can "come into my own," so to speak, and use my gifts to the utmost.

Update (3/15/05): I don't claim to have any sort of "clinical" case of AS, and I mean no offense to those who do. As I understand it, Asperger's is a syndrome, defined by a common collection of symptoms and not by any sort of chemical imbalance that would indicate a disorder. I only claim to exhibit AS to a limited degree, based on noticing some of the commonly accepted symptoms in myself.

No comments:

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available by emailing the author (use the link above).




The Geek Code desperately needs updating, but in any case here's mine (as of 2010-02-28):

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12
GIT/MU d+(-) s:+>: a C++> ULXB++++$ L+++ M++ w--() !O !V P+ E---
W+++ N o++ K? PS PE++ Y+ PGP t !5 X- R- tv+@ b++ DI++++ D--- e*++
h--- r+++ y+++ G+
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------


If you really care about knowing what that all means, you either know the code already, or you can get it decoded for you here.