Good thread on Metafilter, started by an article in the NYT on Asperger's syndrome.
Oh, man, that inability to tactfully deal with being right. Behold, the self-employed network operator.
I ran with a group of internet service providers in the late 90's, independent, iconoclastic, direct, blunt, self-employed entrepreneurs, and it was just amazing to watch them interact with each other in person.
Very complicated details of some technical aspect of networking that were being debated in other places were all just known to have been resolved because almost all of the people had thought long hours about the same problems and mostly reached the same conclusions independently. Someone would start a detailed question for the group, get 1/3 of the way through and half the people present would all blurt out the same one or two word answer, bam, topic over, next topic.
Things unresolved would disappear under an avalanche of analysis and debate relative to the topic for hours at a time.
I saw three guys wrestling an aspect of routing for literally 8 straight hours at a table off to the side of a hotel lobby bar(walked by several times over the course of an afternoon and evening, openly eavesdropping, which wasn't considered impolite at all) and after listening for the last hour mentioned that I found their conversation interesting, and could I buy them a beer? Ordered the beer, introduced myself, asked their names, at which point they introduced themselves. They all recognized each other from online interactions, but I was just fascinated that they had talked to each other all day and didn't even think to find out each others names until I brought it up.
Subject was all, identity nothing.
Sleeping on a planter at the port authority
Waiting for my bus to come
Seven scotch and sodas at the office party
Now I don't remember where I’m from
I think I had a black wallet in my back pocket
With a bus ticket and a picture of my baby inside
And if I make it home alive
I'm gonna get my shit together
Cause I can’t live like this forever
You know I've come too far
And I don't want to fail
I got a new computer
And a bright future in sales, yeah yeah (yeah yeah)
Bright future in sales, yeah yeah (yeah yeah) yeah yeah
Heading for the airport on a misty morning
Gonna catch a flight to Baltimore
Try to kill an hour with a whiskey sour
And this time I might have just one more
I gotta do some quick reading for the big meeting
But my head is spinning and I can't quite open my eyes
As long as I don't have to drive
I'm gonna get my shit together
Cause I can't live like this forever
You know I've come too far
And I don't want to fail
I got a new computer
And a bright future in sales, yeah yeah (yeah yeah)
Bright future in sales, yeah yeah (yeah yeah)
Bright future in sales, yeah yeah (yeah yeah)
Bright future in sales, yeah yeah (yeah yeah) yeah yeah
I had a line on a brand new account
But now I can't seem to find where I wrote that number down
I try to focus, I’m staring at the screen
Pretending like I know what all these little flashing lights mean
(oh yeah)
I gotta do some quick reading for the big meeting
But my head is spinning and I can't quite open my eyes
I’ve gotta get my shit together
Cause I can't live like this forever
You know I've come too far
And I don't want to fail
I got a new computer
And a bright future in sales
Got into a conversation with a guy at a bar tonight. Another guy was ranting against Bush, and he said "Nuke 'em all, problem solved".
Then we had a nice conversation wher he admitted he didn't want to kill everybody in a region.
I really think it was the first time he equated his "nuke 'em all" attitutude confronted the fact that he would have to nuke women, children, and gas station attendants.
As a debrief fact, I was surprised to find out that the gas station attendant was the part that stopped him from nuking a spot.
Who knew that pump jockeys carried so much familiarity. But there it is.
You can talk Americans out of committing genocide if you invoke the imaqge of the working Iraqi.