This is a second-hand account of a radio program from
the nineties, and that which followed from it. Bear with me.
As my mum tells the story, we were all in the car on the way to Moonbi (a little town of about 250 inhabitants), and we were listening to ABC Radio National. They were talking about some odd results that came from a survey, wherein the results found that a disproportionately high percentage of Engineers' fathers are Engineers, and an even higher perentage of their grandfathers are Engineers. They discussed this, and concluded that Engineering is a great job for people with Autism or Asperger's syndrome, as they don't have to deal with people much, and can put their intellect to use. Since such things are hereditary (to an extent), their children have similar traits, and also become Engineers. Engineering men meet Engineering women, have little Engineering babies and form Engineering families.
My paternal grandfather is an Engineer, as was his father. My dad is a Radiologist (a doctor that spends his whole life in a dark little room, looking at X-Rays), which seems to me like the medical equivalent of Engineering. He's always said that he would've become an Engineer, but he didn't simply because his dad was one. He's always been terribly socially inept, preferring the company of Vinyl Records and good wine. This radio program came as a great eye-opener to him, it explained so much...
So I'm the son of a would've-been Engineer, who's the son of an Engineer, and there's a whole herd of Engineers on my mother's side of the family. In school I was most comfortable in Physics class, I can't talk to another human being to save my life, and I spend most of my time alone. This is all looking rather grim. Honestly, I find it deeply discomforting to think that I might turn out to be just like my dad. He doesn't like people and people don't like him. One has to wonder, though, whether it bothers him (does the madman know he's mad?).