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Do couples who are both scientists form couples because they meet in college, or because no one else can stand being around them? Adorable as some people find geeks, my feeling is that some of those some end up frustrated with the geek despite the initial infatuation.
I'll admit it does take a certain patience at times to live with a scientist. They can be annoying in their insistence on understanding things, and in both colleagues and myself I see that the problem is that this insistence can drive other people less interested in comprehension crazy.
Does this all sound too personal yet? Too close to home? Too icky?
You know what? I don't care, because I am happy being the inquisitive person that I am, and if you can't live with that, then you can be on your merry way. It's not exactly that I look down on people who can't handle a scientist (and the truth). Not exactly. But close. Is that arrogance? People have called me that on more than one occasion, so given a scientist's healthy love for statistics, perhaps I should accept that. In fact, let me calculate a p-value for that. Living in four different places, I have found 6, 3, 5, and 8 who called me arrogant, while 4, 1, 0, and 5 said I was not. A one-tailed t-test gives p=0.0423, which means I am statistically arrogant.
Okay, so that was annoying.
What annoys you about scientists? Even if you like them at times, or "all the time", is there ever something about their personality that drives you nuts on occasion? People who have ever broken up with someone - how much was their scienticity a factor? I'd love to hear from other people.
Well now someone needs to define 'scienticity' if this thread is going to have any intellectual merit! Okay, in all seriousness (and making assumptions), I suspect most people find low-dimensional personalities which emphasize only scienticity to be difficult to be around. High scienticity is generally agreeable when the person knows how to tailor their interactions with others depending on the setting and group, playing up other facets of their own personality and experience. (Of course, this shouldn't be too necessary with a significant other....) On the other hand, this becomes difficult if you eat, sleep, and breathe science, at which point the person might feel it's too much a compromise of themselves to filter that in any way. I'd be curious what kinds of hobbies scientists have, since usually people seek a way to balance or broaden their life even when they love what they do.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking for myself, I am talking about a scientific way of thinking, rather than always talking about science (which I do not). Call that way of thinking scienticity.
ReplyDeleteHobbies? From what I know, scientists have hobbies like most other people. I like playing soccer with my kids (they are going to be stars), drinking lots of alcohol (not with kids), playing my guitar, throwing my shuriken, working. Yes, work is fun.
Well, I'm an engineer, not a scientist, but I work in R&D so I tend to think a little more that way (thank Jeebus I don't have to be nearly as rigorous though!) I think maybe the really annoying part to other people is being a skeptic -- I'm always telling people their anecdotes aren't true and that I can prove it with Snopes! heh....
ReplyDeleteI have the problem with my wife that she will suggest some solution to a problem, and the first thing I do is list five things wrong with it -- even if I'm not necessarily saying it's a bad idea! That's how I do things at work: If I or somebody else has an idea, I try to think of all the ways in which that idea won't work, partially in order to stimulate myself and others to come up with ways to address the issues, and partially because then whatever is left standing at the end is all the stronger. Not as effective an approach in relationships though!
And by the way, I've come to understand I *like* people who are arrogant. At least, as long as they've got something to back it up.
ReplyDeleteStrong annoyance from so many "whys", probably caused by the fear to face the truth. The truth that she was asking herself so many "why"s already, that she knew that solution was not gonna work, would set her so vulnerable that she could not bear there was really someone asking her these whys again.
ReplyDeleteI personally want to learn more stats too, like T-test, regression analysis. This probably could have helped me to understand more about my geek ex-boyfriend.
Strong annoyance from so many "whys", probably caused by the fear to face the truth.
ReplyDeleteFacing the truth is the only way to fix problems. Skirting them ends in ruin and regret.
The truth that she was asking herself so many "why"s already, that she knew that solution was not gonna work, would set her so vulnerable that she could not bear there was really someone asking her these whys again.
When a bone is broken, you don't ignore it out of the way. You have to inflict even more damage before it can heal properly. If you don't talk about the real problems, the problems will kill you(r relationship). Then, frankly, in my opinion you're totally to blame if you just shut up.
I personally want to learn more stats too, like T-test, regression analysis. This probably could have helped me to understand more about my geek ex-boyfriend.
Maybe you should have asked him. I'm sure he, like geeks everywhere, would have loved to answer any questions you might have had, about statistics or anything else.