Originally posted by: Marshallj
Some of what you said was pretty close, some was not.
You're right that I'm not religious... the notion of religion seems irrational and doesn't answer any questions for me, it only breaks things down to a lower common denominator (god). I've never worn a pocket protector. I was actually good at sports, and played tennis and football in HS. But I never fit in with the "jock" crowd. I go to the gym 3 or 4 times a week and I'm in pretty good physical condition. I was in special classes from 2nd grade to senior year in high school (acedemically talented program, put there due to my CAT test scores, 98-99th percentile). Both my sister and I had the highest test scores in our classes, so I guess it runs in my family (She was also valedictorian of her class). I hated school, never liked sitting in class, got bored too soon. I do understand that raw data is meaningless, but I find that others will not find sense in the data even after I have found the relevance. However, I have learned to trust my instincts, since in my past experience going with my instinct has earned me better results (in situations where my answers were referenced against known answers) even though the majority of the people disagreed with me (but if they always agreed with me, they wouldn't be in the ~50% while I'm in the 98-99th). I've noticed that some people have a gift for wording, and can sugar coat everything and make it sounds believable, but in my experience going with what *I* think is right gets me the best results, even if I don't explain my position very well. I've never put too much emphasis on wording, the point is what matters to me. And the right hemisphere of my brain works just fine.
So I guess to sum it up, I'll say this- I hate disagreeing with people as I find it stressful, but I'm only cheating myself if I give in and agree. I have a rather pessimistic view of the world as I've found that in general, comprimising with people leads to worse results than if I ignored them and went with what I believed was right. And I also have a sick, dry sense of humor that not many people get. It usually ends up offending them.