Re: ::scr The Geek Syndrome

[Simon Batistoni <simon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 07/12/01 14:25 +0000, Simon Wistow wrote:
> 
> It does seem to me that geeks/nerds/techies [DELETE as appropriate] do
> tend to exhibit some or all of the symptons of these syndromes. 

I wonder briefly where depression fits in amongst all this. Whether
it can be seen as a "symptom" of any of the above syndromes or not.
That very thought makes me a little wary of lumping too many people
in under a syndrome. I think we can over-analyse personalities into
"disorder" boxes that don't really exist.

Most (probably all) of the geeks I know are prone to bouts of
self-doubt and varying degrees of depression, from mild week-long
funks to what seems like pretty serious clinical stuff.

I always had a theory that intelligence increases your vulnerability
to these things. It's a cheesy way of thinking about it, but it
almost seems the faster a person's mind whizzes internally, the more
prone it is to wobble and fly off at an angle every so often.

I was talking to someone the other night who added the thought that
most geeks have very analytical minds, and tend to pick everything
in sight apart and turn it round in their heads. They do this to
themselves, too, with often less-than-healthy consequences.

> There are also other trends such as almost universally bad
> handwriting (even before extended contact with computers precluded
> writing stuff by hand.

My handwriting was always fairly average. A bit yickier than average
maybe. 

> Is [dylexic geeks] something other people have noticed? I'm mildly
> dyslexic - I have problems 'seeing' word endings especially if I
> wrote them and will often write "th end" and such. Are other people
> dyslexic?

Hrm. Well, I've always had pretty exceptional language skills
</ego>. I have no trouble visualising words in English or French
(the two languages I know best), and I can use my knowledge of
those, plus a smattering of German and Italian to guess my way
through just about any European language.

OTOH, I'm a touch of a geek fraud, really. I turned my back on more
traditionally geeky school subjects after GCSE, and studied English
Lit at uni before returning to the geek fold. As much as anything,
this was an "eeny meeny" decision - I wasn't really any better at
arts or sciences (if you lump everything into one of those 2
categories), and I think I basically went down the arts route,
because I was lazy and considered it to be "easier".

</random>


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