Just resting my eyes .....

Life is full of odd coincidences to note, if one has an eye out to spot them. As the youngest child was busy burning off some hyperactive energy at a playground in near-perfect weather in the company of other delightful little cherubs, I took the chance to settle down to looking through a newish book titled Shitstorm, about the Rudd government's timely and effective response to the global financial crisis during 2008-2009. No Women's Weekly or New Idea for Lili. Life is too short for reading a lobotomy on glossy paper. One amusing detail to be found in the book was an account of Australia's leader at the time nodding off during a meeting at the US Federal Reserve Bank with some American bloke named Ben Bernanke. Some notable characteristics of our ex-PM include a brilliant mind, a long history of working at odd hours, a reputation for not getting along terribly well with some other people at work, and he reportedly sleeps very short hours. The label of "Asperger syndrome" has been applied on the odd occasion.

Having expended a great amount of energy, at the end of a busy morning it was time to nag and harangue Mum to visit our favourite kiddie-friendly fast-food restaurant for the same meal that we order every time we visit. I sat down to browse through one of the free grease-smudged newspapers on offer and noticed that Larry Summers is quitting his top-level job as an economic advisor for the Obama Administration. The US President reportedly relied heavily on Summers' advice during the global financial crisis of 2008-2009. The report suggested that some people might not be too heartbroken to see Summers leave, even though he has a brilliant mind, as he has a reputation for not getting along too well with some of the people that he works with. The label of "Asperger syndrome" has been applied to Summers a few times by various people. Later that evening I looked at press stories about Summers on the internet and I found that he has a reputation for falling asleep during top-level meetings. Google images retrieves quite a few amusing shots of Summers visiting the land of nod during work-type situations, including a meeting in which a bloke named Barack Obama is yacking away.

So now I'm wondering - is this all just coincidence? Or perhaps is there a certain type of brilliant person who finds meetings as boring as batshit, and is therefore at special risk of lapsing into unconsciousness at the meeting table? Or is there a certain type of person who is very smart, not terrifically good at working relationships and also likely to have insomnia? (Can't think what that might be.) Or is it simply the case that powerful people who have a flair for making enemies are especially likely to have embarrasing moments at work, such as nodding off during meetings, reported to the media? Or did the GFC simply suck the life out of people who took it all very, very, very seriously? Don't ask me, I'm just a housewife.


White House adviser Summers stepping down
Caren Bohan and Ross Colvin
Reuters Sep 22, 2010
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68K4RU20100922

Obama's finance guru Larry Summers resigns
Andrew Clark
Guardian
September 22nd 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/22/larry-summers-resigns-obama-treasury

Taylor, Lenore and Uren, David (2010) Shitstorm: inside Labor’s darkest days. Melbourne University Press, 2010.
http://catalogue.mup.com.au/978-0-522-85729-0.html
["Shitstorm assembles a gripping picture of a rookie government facing the worst economic crisis in seventy-five years."]

A referenced list of 174 famous or important people diagnosed with an autism spectrum condition or subject of published speculation about whether they are or were on the autistic spectrum
http://incorrectpleasures.blogspot.com/2006/09/referenced-list-of-famous-or-important.html