It's often the case that the more intellectually inclined a person is, the less mechanically minded they are. Charlie also demonstrates an alarming lack of home maintenance ability when trying to fix the showerhead in one episode (although admittedly Don also makes a bit of a pig's ear of it too).
I remember one particularly bright guy I taught to ride a motorcycle many years ago. This chap had a Phd in Astrophysics, the whole nine yards. No word of a lie, I actually had to write the letters 'L' and 'R' on his gloves to remind him which way to turn when I yelled, "LEFT, LEFT, LEFT!" into the radio at a junction. Seriously, the guy could calculate the weight of a bloody universe and had an IQ in four figures, but he couldn't remember which direction was left or right on the road. He passed his test, but the examiner did comment that they didn't (and I quote), "exactly take the route I'd planned to" on the course!
Zenophobia: n. An irrational fear of Buddhists...
reply
share
Chickdoll3
13 years ago
Yeah, I'm pretty sure this is the basic premise of savant syndrome- people having a brilliant ability in one area of their lives but being totally deficient in other areas. Now I wouldn't say Charlie is necessarily a savant as he is functioning member of society (as opposed to Kim Peek, the real life Rain Man, who could give you the day of the week for any date in history but couldn't button his own shirt) but he definitely exhibits some of those traits. It's amazing how the mind works sometimes!
reply
share
kes-cross
13 years ago
The mind is an amazing thing. I have two uber-intelligent men in my life - my father and my husband. Both of them are astonishingly brilliant. That isn't just pride saying this - my father is a renowned scientist in his own right and one of the world's leading experts on forensic ecology and hubby is a precision engineer who is currently in the middle of R&D on a highly technical invention involving engineering, optics and electronics that will blow the amateur astronomy community's combined bonces. CJ (the hubby) recently took my ancient washing machine and completely rebuilt it from the ground up, including replacing bearings, re-designing the drum mounting and taking a snapped shaft and designing a replacement. I now have a washing machine originally destined for landfill that now works better than any brand new Hotpoint.
But ask him how much powder to put into this 'CJ'd washing machine' and how to actually do the washing and he's completely clueless. Seriously. It's scary...
The trouble with hyper-intelligent people is that they constantly have their mind engaged on higher things. The mundane, everyday stuff literally doesn't register with them. You see it all the time with Charlie. Give him a math problem and he's totally focused on it. Give him a real-life situation (for example, when the gunman breached the Bullpen) and he freezes. It's only as he's exposed to more of the 'real world' rather than the hallowed halls of Academia that he starts to draw on the experiences and develops a better understanding of what's actually happening around him.
Zenophobia: n. An irrational fear of Buddhists...
reply
share
Chickdoll3
13 years ago
Wow, you're lucky to have such intelligent men in your life, I would get stuck buying the new washer!
I really think Charlie's hyper-intelligence and on the flip side of the coin his utter cluelessness is really what makes him such a likable character. It's amazing to think that someone who can do complex equations in their head can't do something as simple as the laundry!
I do believe you're correct in saying that these people are so engaged in higher thinking that anything less than that just doesn't register. Sometimes I wish I was as smart as Charlie and people like your father and husband, but then I remember that while I may not be a genius, I at least can wash the dishes or load the laundry, even color coordinate my clothes, and I feel a little bit better! :D
reply
share
kes-cross
13 years ago
My dad's nickname (at least with CJ and I) is "Blimey! I didn't think that was gonna happen!" He does incredibly stupid things like leaving a spanner on the engine block of the car, slamming the bonnet (hood) down and then wondering where that dent in the bonnet came from, why the car is making that strange, metallic 'clatterclatterclatterBOING!' noise and where the hell his 13mm spanner is...
Brilliant people can sometimes be incrediblydaft!
Zenophobia: n. An irrational fear of Buddhists...
reply
share
Chickdoll3
13 years ago
Haha, yeah my dad sometimes forgets his wrenches under the hood when he's working on the car but I chalk that up to plain stupidity rather than a man who's incredibly brilliant, yet so completely clueless!
reply
share