My highly gifted stepson doesn't seem to care that much about making a lot of money or social norms. He could not handle office politics and quit jobs that paid well. He is an IT person with experience but no college degree. I noticed that none of his IT friends look like they follow social norms, but then maybe that is the social norm for IT people.
Not really. I've got 100 IT people. Some are traditional "geeks" and some are not. Some are polished socially and some are true Aspies and some are just curmudgeons.
And I think that real giftedness is the ability to communicate with college professors and fit in with the beer crowd. Because the beer crowd can have some interesting things to say. ..
And you are a much better engineer if you get down to the assembly floor and talk the talk and walk the walk with those people doing the job.
To get things done in the Real World, you have to leverage yourself with other people. The flip side, is that everyone has interesting things to say and a different perspective. Most people can only teach or be reached via talking to them and most tacit knowledge can only be gained by talking to someone.
Being able to ask questions, draw people out, gain their trust, then get them to help you and themselves is the magic moment.
A giftie with broad gifts has a unique position in the Real World. Being able to deal with the technical side and the people side and work with all types - and bring imagination to the process - suits them more than anyone else. Oppenheimer is an example of this.
The funny thing is, I can sit down with the two Aspies that work for me and logically walk them through my argument for a given task and we work things out. The curmudgeons fight me every step of the way - they are not emotionally mature.
