Engineers, systemizing, and Autism
Last year, an issue of IEEE spectrum had an interesting short article on Engineers and Autism This was particularly interesting in light of the fact that my wife is also an engineer, and we have seen definite signs of systemizing in our son as he plays. Very methodical little bugger, who spends a fair amount of his play time organizing his toys.
The process seems interesting as well:
- Certain career areas attract specific types of personalities
- Acceptance of both genders into more career areas lead to male and females of similar personality types spending time together
- The genetic predisposition for that personalty type is amplified in their offspring
- Personality traits taken to extremes lead to disorders
Doomed. My kids are both doomed.
Actually, the youngest is probably really good for him. She doesn’t seem to play into his “systemizing” at all.
