article on science, academia, social skills, obsession

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pbcoll
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20 Mar 2009, 8:30 pm

Quote:
The academy has long been a haven for obsessives, but now its emphasis on teamwork would ill suit socially inept geniuses such as Paul Dirac, writes Matthew Reisz


Full story:

You don't have to be fixated to work here...


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Kangoogle
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20 Mar 2009, 8:46 pm

Sounds more or less like my university maths department...



Woodpecker
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21 Mar 2009, 1:35 am

Good paper, I enjoyed reading it. I am sure that AS & HFA are common in some areas of universitys.


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Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.


pbcoll
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22 Mar 2009, 8:52 pm

[quote="I am sure that AS & HFA are common in some areas of universitys.[/quote]

More than among the overall population, certainly, esp. in CS, maths, etc, though even in the sciences a large majority is NT. However, where I'm at, as one of the comments put it, it's the ruthless with good networking and social skills that dominate.

The system nowadays is set up, probably everywhere in the world, so as to favour the hardworking that don't rock the boat and follow trends set by funding bodies, not mavericks and eccentrics, even brilliant ones. Judging from cases like Wittgenstein and Ramanujan, this was not always the case, neither of which would have a shot at getting into Cambridge or comparable institutions nowadays (I doubt Ramanujan's GPA was any good, and it's difficult to imagine Wittgenstein, without a college degree, getting a lectureship anywhere today). At some point Darwin was mentioned, today he'd be thrown on the scrapheap for going for so long without publishing. Godel would never have survived modern departmental politics.

I also find most of the academic staff pretty dull as individuals, esp, the higher ranking ones. Most of my fellow students are boringly ordinary, but they're still better on average than the lecturers and professors.


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MissConstrue
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23 Mar 2009, 8:10 am

Too high falutin for me.


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