There is also something else going on here, which I realized after learning about personality types, especially Jung’s theories and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. One dimension separates along the primary mode of seeing the world (Sensing vs iNtuitive), with the former ones collecting individual facts and strictly following isolated rules, and the latter ones always looking for the generalized principle behind the facts and questioning the origin and sense of rules.
These two types have a lot of trouble understanding each others’ way of thinking and frequently get into each others’ hairs; e.g. S types tend to interpret N types questioning rules out of curiosity as a personal attack on their way of life (especially so if accurate), while N types tend to dismiss criticism by S types as small-minded bean counting and accuse them of missing the forest for the trees.
Now, there are roughly four to six times as many S types as N types around, and on top of that most weak cases of N types tend to hide it so as not to seem too weird. On the other hand, abstract topics (natural sciences, Less Wrong) tend to attract N types. From this baseline (and your description) I infer that you are also one of the aliens. You can’t fundamentally alter your way of thinking to fit in (would you even want to?) - the best you can hope for is to find and befriend the other hidden aliens while trying to get along with the rest.
There’s also a nice TED talk on the matter. Just google “Weirdos, Misfits and You”.
And you might like Eugene Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros”. It’s usually taken as a metaphor for something else, but I still find that it hits the mark pretty well. It’s also short and fun to read, so there’s no good excuse not to.
There is also something else going on here, which I realized after learning about personality types, especially Jung’s theories and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. One dimension separates along the primary mode of seeing the world (Sensing vs iNtuitive), with the former ones collecting individual facts and strictly following isolated rules, and the latter ones always looking for the generalized principle behind the facts and questioning the origin and sense of rules.
These two types have a lot of trouble understanding each others’ way of thinking and frequently get into each others’ hairs; e.g. S types tend to interpret N types questioning rules out of curiosity as a personal attack on their way of life (especially so if accurate), while N types tend to dismiss criticism by S types as small-minded bean counting and accuse them of missing the forest for the trees.
Now, there are roughly four to six times as many S types as N types around, and on top of that most weak cases of N types tend to hide it so as not to seem too weird. On the other hand, abstract topics (natural sciences, Less Wrong) tend to attract N types. From this baseline (and your description) I infer that you are also one of the aliens. You can’t fundamentally alter your way of thinking to fit in (would you even want to?) - the best you can hope for is to find and befriend the other hidden aliens while trying to get along with the rest.
There’s also a nice TED talk on the matter. Just google “Weirdos, Misfits and You”. And you might like Eugene Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros”. It’s usually taken as a metaphor for something else, but I still find that it hits the mark pretty well. It’s also short and fun to read, so there’s no good excuse not to.