Quote from Albert Einstein , or so was presented to me as such :
"Imagination is more Important than Knowledge" . As a late bloomer Aspie.
I had to digest that ? Was trying to make it be a Oxymoron . But it seems it is not .
But it did seem he left out that they are or can be complimentary to each other most often.
Kudos to your son to be able to help his parent ,out as a ND. And to you for upgrading or being able to see the value of continuing education . Formal or otherwise .
Yes definitely a spectacular achievement on yours sons part on the first interveiw .


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And yes , also if I had only known as well. About Autism spectrum. But early years due to familial constraints . My early years were concerned with physical safety . Education / School etc. was not always considered a safe environment either . And perhaps the situation caused some odd psyche development . Such as some sorts of rudimentary foreknowledge in being around others ,(situations and interactions) occassionally . Basically ( discernment, observation , pattern recognition,and aspects of anticipation )
Possibly helped me form into some of what I had become . Not to discount somewhat functional memory . Seeing , what I did in early formative years . Did not allow me to exactly flourish. And very possibly even held me back to some degree .? After about a full 18 years of rather tough life . Observed patterns that helped form me. There was no reference point for my level of Autism/ Asbergers. In those days,severe autism such as my dear younger sisters level of Autism ,known as "non verbal" was regarded as Form of Mental Retardation . "After being taught that was autism " early on , I was sure that I could not be related to that condition, because I was verbal , not initially . But later with a vengeance so to speak

( unintentional pun) My English linguistic skills [ first language] .Inadvertantly practically got carried away . Such that weirdly enough, younger peers that did not know me well, Asked if I was from another country . This did not help in being social . The gist of what am attempting to outline is. As being more of a loner , And earlier on noting incongrueties in treatment of children/ people allowed more room for mental expansion I think ? over developed sense of right and Wrong. Education either institutional or self taught was such a plus , I found .Obviously yourself aswell? That It just naturally seemed beneficial route to follow . Eventually after a brief stent ,ironically in the military. Still unrecognized attributes . Apparently birth circumstances regarding health allowed me to disinter from the Armed forces immediately after training
with them.

No disrespect to our armed forces intended. Setting me up for further
" learning experiences" Long and short of it was that after a number of employee/ employer relationship jobs Some left voluntarily, some not so. P.O.V. changed dramatically.. Military taught it was idiocy to apply myself there ,before had gotten my degree . And my lack of social skills and not being adept at being lazy while working for someone else. Seemed what doomed at least 2 career paths.Civil Service,then Medical And one very formative
opportunity, and inadvertant influence from my Father ,a somewhat small ,but rather brilliant businessman . Causing me to engage in a small but lucrative small business venture myself eventually. In late teens ,early twenties . Lots of Social practice & a Decade later plus many years, and a few critical life changing decisions later . Allowed me to retire from business life . Allowed a form of retirement early . Please pardon going on about my own formative stuff .
But thought prudent before asking ( inquiring) ,what caused you to take up chemistry ??
Informational gathering or a educational pathway ?
Have a older brother ( enstranged) be he also studied chemistry, eventually went to work for Rocketdyne in its heyday, then much later to the Boing Manned space flight program as a engineer .
btw, Loved the commentary on life being weird and running real life experiments

possibly being a message
