Sometimes it almost feels as if I was born into the wrong time period (although any earlier and I probably would have died in childbirth, lacking modern medical care – a debt I consider repaid, given what I’ve already done within the medical field and what I intend to do if I am permitted). I latch on to fundamentals, which I feel are fairly timeless, while everyone around me tends to flock to whatever the new hot thing is. I seek expert proficiency in more than one area while everyone around me emphasizes hyperspecialization. I consider any knowledge better than none, while everyone around me (scientists anyway) emphasizes a skepticism that often discards useful theories (not mine, which are reasonably received within the “scientific community”; this is a broader complaint). I feel most productive when I am working alone (communication very rapidly becomes the dominant factor in the amount of time required to accomplish something, as I’ve seen over and over), while everyone around me emphasizes teamwork (which has almost invariably resulted in the majority of the work falling on me anyway, except now others get to take some of the credit – usually most of it, if I’m not far enough on the totem pole yet). I cannot abide the prolonged existence of reparable suboptimality in systems such as science, while everyone around me seems content to complacently follow the status quo. I can’t tolerate decisions made without justification through reason, while everyone around me seems to think the issue irrelevant. I constantly seek challenges and am rebuffed in my search, while most people seek simply to avoid challenges.

I would like to see a society governed more by self-determination and ability than a stratified hierarchy often governed by a capricious elite. But I’m about 350 years too late for this, and it gnaws at me sometimes.