At the turn of the millennium, I read something that made so much sense to me that I built a bit of a world view on it.
At the time, my life was in upheaval as I chased this software engineering job and that, and I didn’t have time to flesh it out for others to understand. I couldn’t even remember what the article was, so when I did have time, I couldn’t refer back to it. Recently, after the heart attack and dealing with the bureaucracy of getting a triple bypass (no joy yet) I subscribed again and dived into the Scientific American archives. I found it.
The article is found in Scientific American1 Special Edition – 1998 Volume 09, No 4 – “Exploring Intelligence” – it’s written by Ellen Winner, and is titled “Uncommon Talents: Gifted Children, Prodigies and Savants”.
One of the interesting things raised by the article was – is – that society is not designed for outliers. In the great bell curve of society, society is designed for the majority– which is around the median.