The Weird Nerd comes with trade-offs • Hacker News Board

Re: The Weird Nerd comes with trade-offs

#331

Post by naruhodo » Mon, Jun 10, 2024, 4:05 AM UTC

hnbad wrote: post #252

antisthenes wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> my wife (Dr of special education) finally convinced me to talk to a Dr and get get tested for autism. Turns out I'm ASD 1, would have been Asperger's in the past. Can I ask candidly, what did you gain from knowing this? Presumably this didn't have much effect on you, since you seem to be fairly successful - finding a partner and getting married and presumably also having a decent job. Seems kind of like a vanity va…

It can help reframe personal experiences and past struggles for one, but it can also help gain access to support that isn't available if you're just a "weird nerd". It can also serve to legitimize your struggles to people who think you just need to "stop being so lazy" at whatever you genuinely struggle with by being able to point at a diagnosis. Yeah, the benefits are a mixed bag and subjective but that's why we sho…

As of recently[1], in Australia, an ASD diagnosis is a reportable condition that may affect your driving ability and therefore comes with an AU$9000 fine if you don't disclose it to the authorities. Though I suspect I might be ASD 1, there is now no way I would seek a diagnosis.

[1] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-26/national-fitness-to-d...

Re: The Weird Nerd comes with trade-offs

#332

Post by mrcartmeneses » Mon, Jun 10, 2024, 4:16 AM UTC

It’s really harsh that Katalin Karikó got such a backlash for calling academia like it is in her book.

Academics are as much courtiers these days as they are researchers.

Re: The Weird Nerd comes with trade-offs

#333

Post by gavinhoward » Mon, Jun 10, 2024, 4:20 AM UTC

skulk wrote: post #319

gavinhoward wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In some ways, things are better than ever for folks like you. Starting and running a one-person business making software is feasible now but would've been much harder in decades past. Yes, you are absolutely right. Unfortunately, I have been trying that and failing. I don't blame anyone for that either. > Unfortunately, industry has problems that are big enough that they're not easily solved with one person. So too…

I've seen your monorepo and it's definitely impressive. How are you going about acquiring clients though? It's not like I have any advice but I'm curious what you've tried.

Thank you for your compliment!

Blog post marketing, mostly. I am about to start a podcast for marketing as well.

I would do conferences, but people have advised against that.

Re: The Weird Nerd comes with trade-offs

#334

Post by lazyasciiart » Mon, Jun 10, 2024, 4:23 AM UTC

faeriechangling wrote: post #215

WereAllMadHere wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about someone who needs a wheelchair but is conveniently successful?

Being in a wheelchair is rarely going to be caused by a disorder, also autism is different insofar that the negatives and positives seem to be linked to eachother and are not merely a matter of random circumstance. But practically, the disorder definition above basically would lump the above poster in with somebody who was struggling to hold down a part time job or any social relationships as having the same level of…

Your lack of knowledge about the range of treatment options and support available for autism/asperges does not make it true that all therapies, treatments, etc are the same. Your "take" seems to be very strongly held based on what appears to be a very limited set of anecdotal data points.

Re: The Weird Nerd comes with trade-offs

#335

Post by patrickhogan1 » Mon, Jun 10, 2024, 4:23 AM UTC

My dad was the prototypical weird nerd. He was a physics teacher that was allergic to schmoozing yet could read a 600 page book in 5 minutes. He had limited career success which was opposite to his intellect and ability.

Unfortunately my only solution to this is to learn from my dad’s experience and lean into instead of away from the areas Katalin disdains. Success seems to require leaning into these areas of social reciprocity. Especially in startups. Yes you must make a product that people want, but to become big it requires distribution, which requires schlepping by performing these social reciprocity hacks.

Re: The Weird Nerd comes with trade-offs

#336

Post by lazyasciiart » Mon, Jun 10, 2024, 4:27 AM UTC

naruhodo wrote: post #331

hnbad wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can help reframe personal experiences and past struggles for one, but it can also help gain access to support that isn't available if you're just a "weird nerd". It can also serve to legitimize your struggles to people who think you just need to "stop being so lazy" at whatever you genuinely struggle with by being able to point at a diagnosis. Yeah, the benefits are a mixed bag and subjective but that's why we sho…

As of recently[1], in Australia, an ASD diagnosis is a reportable condition that may affect your driving ability and therefore comes with an AU$9000 fine if you don't disclose it to the authorities. Though I suspect I might be ASD 1, there is now no way I would seek a diagnosis. [1] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-26/national-fitness-to-d...

Not quite - as of more than a decade ago in Queensland, but nobody noticed until recently, when it became a reportable condition in some other states with a possible $500 fine.

Re: The Weird Nerd comes with trade-offs

#337

Post by tatrajim » Mon, Jun 10, 2024, 4:37 AM UTC

anewhnaccount3 wrote: post #123

Shades of Graeber in this essay: >There was a time when academia was society’s refuge for the eccentric, brilliant, and impractical. No longer. It is now the domain of professional self-marketers. As for the eccentric, brilliant, and impractical: it would seem society now has no place for them at all. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7004628-there-was-a-time-wh...

Thanks be for online investing. It's been my place of economic refuge to fund my lifelong impracticality.

Re: The Weird Nerd comes with trade-offs

#338

Post by lazyasciiart » Mon, Jun 10, 2024, 4:41 AM UTC

bsder wrote: post #287

cbozeman wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"You're out of your depth." That's what you do. A lot of very smart people think because they're very smart they have some kind of exceptional insight into the inner workings of all things. They don't. And they need to be reminded of that. Intelligence allows someone to gain that insight faster than those in the middle of the bell curve of IQ, but it doesn't magically confer it . It still takes time, reading, researc…

> "You're out of your depth." Except most of the time ... they are not. Most non-junior WNs learn to have significant respect for those doing the work . The Weird Nerd judges based upon objectively observed behavior rather than social cues or group opinions. Mostly, the Weird Nerd gets in trouble because they simply aren't fooled. And that pisses of corporatocrats like you worse than anything else. The WN can see tha…

I have been in a meeting where the weird nerd is saying "our company should completely ditch customer support phone lines and only use a chat service because I don't know anyone who wants to make a phone call". This company was a utility that had customers with every level of literacy and internet access. He was mindbogglingly wrong, because he had no idea there was information in the world that he hadn't come across. It's very common - so common it's called engineer syndrome.

Re: The Weird Nerd comes with trade-offs

#339

Post by fragmede » Mon, Jun 10, 2024, 4:42 AM UTC

eikenberry wrote: post #256

fragmede wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone doesn't need to be a Monet, they just have to be able to paint their name on a poster without embarrassing themselves and putting down others.

Everyone can paint their name, that is a 0 skill exercise. And I wasn't saying everyone needs to be a Monet, more that these are high ceiling skills you are talking about and there is a lot more variety than is given credit.

There's room to go really really far down that path and even become a licensed therapist if someone takes to that kind of work and is looking for a second career, but in this analogy, some people don't even have the EQ to be able to paint their name with fingerpaints. Maybe I've had more misfortune dealing with difficult people though.

Re: The Weird Nerd comes with trade-offs

#340

Post by tatrajim » Mon, Jun 10, 2024, 4:42 AM UTC

Michelangelo11 wrote: post #27

I do think it's a major issue that academia is increasingly bureaucratic and corporate, but I don't quite agree with the article. It's not that very smart, truth-motivated people have bad people skills (e.g., off the top of my head - von Neumann, Feynman, and Newton were all pretty good with people when they needed to be), it's that they are motivated largely by discovery and not by status and money. But academia tod…

The shift in the US from the 1980s to banning forced retirement age has only added to the trend toward accruing and maintaining status through navigating an established, and increasingly sclerotic, hierarchy. The quest for lifelong tenure has become increasingly and necessarily political as the length of future job security has extended into one's 80s.