This makes me think that it is not the skills themselves, but who is using these talents to do what type of work. Science has long dominated knowledge production, and is associated with masculinity. Baking is also a science, but when done in the home (gender coded as feminine) for the sustenance of people, is seen as less important. Brewing is also thought to be scientific, and guess who does it and how it is perceived? Or take the way that Philosophy is divided into epistemology/metaphysics, and the normative side with ethics/politics/aesthetics. Who goes where? And it’s not just a matter of keeping one side outside what is valued and often better paid, but of allowing those on the inside to only do epistemology or science, or computer engineering, without being bothered with the social, historical, political, and ethical effects of the work they do.
Yep, I think so. Though to be fair, most philosophy is still men, even the ethics/politics/aesthetics. At least the philosophy I was exposed to in grad school. My sense is that you did a lot more non-analytical philosophy than I did, so maybe it's different in that area. But in any case, I agree with you.
When I was younger, I was definitely closer to autism on this spectrum: I did well in school in everything because I had no difficulty focusing on doing something that I didn't enjoy. I was not emotional and didn't really love any subject. As I recall, I was not very creative either. I was good at math and ended up majoring in it in college but, again, I was good at it, but not great because creativity was lacking. As I got older and with all the life challenges related to my daughter's condition, emotions started to take over that adversely affected my attention. As a result, with my mind now often wandering, I feel I became more creative. As a mathematician, even though I was getting straight As in college, when comparing myself to my more creative peers, I felt like I was not smart. They could easily see interesting solutions to problems that I just couldn't come up with.
This is why your essay made me think that sharp vs round smart distinction might actually come down to how creative we are. Einstein famously was quite disorganized and impulsive and probably had ADHD. ADHD could provide a significant advantage as long as one finds something to do that she REALLY enjoys as in this case hyperfocus kicks in thanks to tremendous emotional rewards a person with ADHD gets from doing something she truly loves.
I really enjoy reading your substack since, unlike many philosophy blogs that simply lecture on who thought what, you take a life situation and zoom in on it creatively that provokes so many thoughts (at least on my head). Most of us fall somewhere in the middle of that Autism-ADHD spectrum. Perhaps, your mathematician friend, like me, is slightly closer to autism while you are slightly more on the ADHD side. Perhaps, if you start paying closer attention to your friend and yourself, you might start noticing some of the typical personality traits that could support (or disprove) my speculation :)
I will definitely pay attention to this now--though for the record, he thinks he might have undiagnosed ADHD and I would place myself nearer the autism side of things. But I'll pay attention and see if I can observe counterexamples in both of us. :)
Also, I'm so glad to hear you enjoy my writing! That really means a lot to me. I do love reading the people who wrote all the stuff we learn about in philosophy classes based on "primary" texts (couldn't have gotten a Ph.D. without enjoying that, right?), but even in grad school I had the seeds of being kind of fed up with professional philosophy. Developments in the last five years have sprouted those seeds to full flower and really freed me from worrying about what the academy thinks anymore, and my sabbatical last spring gave me the space to finally realize that I like writing and I like thinking philosophically about stuff that isn't on the face of it philosophy-as-such. (Sometimes to the eye-rolling of my family...)
I got it all backwards then! Then you are right: your sharp vs round smart has nothing to do with ADHD vs Autism or creativity for that matter. It was great to think about all this though :)
I see a different way to look at this distinction of sharp vs round smart. I was actually thinking about this quite a bit, partially from a medical standpoint. To me, it seems that all of us fall somewhere on the spectrum with regards to our prefrontal cortical development. Those with a relatively thick prefrontal cortex tend to be emotionally very stable and cool, have excellent attention, are not easily bored by repetitive tedious tasks (like Lego or puzzles, for instance), and have good motor control. Those with a relatively “underdeveloped” prefrontal cortex might remain “childish” in some ways: clumsy, emotionally unstable, inattentive, and easily bored with repetitive tasks they are not very interested in. A person with a thick prefrontal cortex could have some autistic traits that might be highly beneficial in the academic setting. Someone with a thinner prefrontal cortex might have attention issues and, as a result, might not do as well academically, but there is a silver lining to the “wandering brain”: creativity. This is just a big speculation and there are definitely many other variables involved, but I think the closer you are to ADHD, the more creative and inventive you are. On the other hand, if you are closer to the autism spectrum, creativity might be less pronounced. Perhaps your distinction of sharp vs round smart when comparing people of roughly similar intelligence/IQ, comes down to how creative and innovative one is, based on where they fall on the autism-ADHD spectrum, regardless of the field they are working in?
This is super interesting, and I can definitely see something in the idea of all of us falling on a spectrum between ADHD and autism. I'm not sure that this necessarily tracks the distinction I was playing with here, though. Both math-y problem solving and reading- or arts-y meaning making activities can require intense concentration (the more autistic side of the spectrum), and they both can require a lot of creative activity (the more ADHD side). But I definitely don't have your expertise, and maybe I'm not thinking in fine-grained enough terms; creativity might look different depending on where on this spectrum you sit.
This makes me think that it is not the skills themselves, but who is using these talents to do what type of work. Science has long dominated knowledge production, and is associated with masculinity. Baking is also a science, but when done in the home (gender coded as feminine) for the sustenance of people, is seen as less important. Brewing is also thought to be scientific, and guess who does it and how it is perceived? Or take the way that Philosophy is divided into epistemology/metaphysics, and the normative side with ethics/politics/aesthetics. Who goes where? And it’s not just a matter of keeping one side outside what is valued and often better paid, but of allowing those on the inside to only do epistemology or science, or computer engineering, without being bothered with the social, historical, political, and ethical effects of the work they do.
Yep, I think so. Though to be fair, most philosophy is still men, even the ethics/politics/aesthetics. At least the philosophy I was exposed to in grad school. My sense is that you did a lot more non-analytical philosophy than I did, so maybe it's different in that area. But in any case, I agree with you.
Oh def more men across the board, but more women end up in ethics than other areas.
When I was younger, I was definitely closer to autism on this spectrum: I did well in school in everything because I had no difficulty focusing on doing something that I didn't enjoy. I was not emotional and didn't really love any subject. As I recall, I was not very creative either. I was good at math and ended up majoring in it in college but, again, I was good at it, but not great because creativity was lacking. As I got older and with all the life challenges related to my daughter's condition, emotions started to take over that adversely affected my attention. As a result, with my mind now often wandering, I feel I became more creative. As a mathematician, even though I was getting straight As in college, when comparing myself to my more creative peers, I felt like I was not smart. They could easily see interesting solutions to problems that I just couldn't come up with.
This is why your essay made me think that sharp vs round smart distinction might actually come down to how creative we are. Einstein famously was quite disorganized and impulsive and probably had ADHD. ADHD could provide a significant advantage as long as one finds something to do that she REALLY enjoys as in this case hyperfocus kicks in thanks to tremendous emotional rewards a person with ADHD gets from doing something she truly loves.
I really enjoy reading your substack since, unlike many philosophy blogs that simply lecture on who thought what, you take a life situation and zoom in on it creatively that provokes so many thoughts (at least on my head). Most of us fall somewhere in the middle of that Autism-ADHD spectrum. Perhaps, your mathematician friend, like me, is slightly closer to autism while you are slightly more on the ADHD side. Perhaps, if you start paying closer attention to your friend and yourself, you might start noticing some of the typical personality traits that could support (or disprove) my speculation :)
I will definitely pay attention to this now--though for the record, he thinks he might have undiagnosed ADHD and I would place myself nearer the autism side of things. But I'll pay attention and see if I can observe counterexamples in both of us. :)
Also, I'm so glad to hear you enjoy my writing! That really means a lot to me. I do love reading the people who wrote all the stuff we learn about in philosophy classes based on "primary" texts (couldn't have gotten a Ph.D. without enjoying that, right?), but even in grad school I had the seeds of being kind of fed up with professional philosophy. Developments in the last five years have sprouted those seeds to full flower and really freed me from worrying about what the academy thinks anymore, and my sabbatical last spring gave me the space to finally realize that I like writing and I like thinking philosophically about stuff that isn't on the face of it philosophy-as-such. (Sometimes to the eye-rolling of my family...)
I got it all backwards then! Then you are right: your sharp vs round smart has nothing to do with ADHD vs Autism or creativity for that matter. It was great to think about all this though :)
I see a different way to look at this distinction of sharp vs round smart. I was actually thinking about this quite a bit, partially from a medical standpoint. To me, it seems that all of us fall somewhere on the spectrum with regards to our prefrontal cortical development. Those with a relatively thick prefrontal cortex tend to be emotionally very stable and cool, have excellent attention, are not easily bored by repetitive tedious tasks (like Lego or puzzles, for instance), and have good motor control. Those with a relatively “underdeveloped” prefrontal cortex might remain “childish” in some ways: clumsy, emotionally unstable, inattentive, and easily bored with repetitive tasks they are not very interested in. A person with a thick prefrontal cortex could have some autistic traits that might be highly beneficial in the academic setting. Someone with a thinner prefrontal cortex might have attention issues and, as a result, might not do as well academically, but there is a silver lining to the “wandering brain”: creativity. This is just a big speculation and there are definitely many other variables involved, but I think the closer you are to ADHD, the more creative and inventive you are. On the other hand, if you are closer to the autism spectrum, creativity might be less pronounced. Perhaps your distinction of sharp vs round smart when comparing people of roughly similar intelligence/IQ, comes down to how creative and innovative one is, based on where they fall on the autism-ADHD spectrum, regardless of the field they are working in?
This is super interesting, and I can definitely see something in the idea of all of us falling on a spectrum between ADHD and autism. I'm not sure that this necessarily tracks the distinction I was playing with here, though. Both math-y problem solving and reading- or arts-y meaning making activities can require intense concentration (the more autistic side of the spectrum), and they both can require a lot of creative activity (the more ADHD side). But I definitely don't have your expertise, and maybe I'm not thinking in fine-grained enough terms; creativity might look different depending on where on this spectrum you sit.