I am the flaky, creative, messy type. My friend is the organized, ridged, dependable type.
Just last week, we had a conversation on the advantages of both. I told her, “If everyone was like me, nobody would ever make an appointment. Everyone’s place would be a mess. No repetitive jobs would be done. The world would fall apart.
“However, if everyone were like *you*, people would overreact when messy life situations happened. Ridged, organized people don’t react so well when a kid is sick or when their schedule is thrown off. We help you guys cope with the messiness of life.
“The world needs both and it needs a few who actually manage to be well balanced and in the middle. We keep each other sane.”
For example, common variation of repeat number in the gene for the dopamine receptor. Those with a high number of repeats are not as sensitive to dopamine (the brains “good boy!” chemical), they tend to be the thrill seeker type, that is always pushing the envelope, that has to do everything better and faster next time to get the same thrill.
I thought, “I must have the shortest number of repeats within common human variation”. I ate the same jalapeno with cream cheese and lox bagel for breakfast for a year, and damned if I didn't enjoy it the three hundredth day just as much as the first!