Tell me if you’ve ever had this happen, your overhearing a conversation concerning a topic you know well. Comics, video games, vintage motorcycles, it doesn’t matter. You either join the conversation and dominate it with your superior knowledge, or politely stay out of it unless invited by one of the participants. But what if you’re someone who does the former, who has to show off how much they know and prove themselves? Then you may be like TV’s Sheldon Cooper.
Doctor Sheldon Cooper is one of the main characters on CBS’ The Big Bang Theory. He is a theoretical physicist with an eidetic memory, questionable social skills and possibly Asperger’s Syndrome. All of this is to say he can be either one of the funniest characters on the show, or one of the most annoying or both. Every episode he makes a point to condescendingly explain to one of his friends about some topic, even if they already know about it. This is frustrating when it occurs in real life, and sadly sometimes it does. The main characters on The Big Bang Theory are meant to be representative of geek culture (no matter how dated or over the top).
I’ve had it happen several times where I meet someone in school, work, etc and they just keep talking to me about something ad nausem. If they’re really bad, they’ll even hang around after the conversation is over just taking up space until they finally leave. One guy even stopped me in the restroom trying to continue a conversation that had been dead for over a half hour. In an age where cyber communication has become the norm, even preferred, method to interact our social grace has languished.
Now I’m not saying this is EVERYONE, this is the one of a dozen, but he’s the one that sticks in your mind. He’s Sheldon Cooper without the laugh track, and you need more than a channel change to get away from him. To they’re credit, they may in fact know what they’re talking about. They could actually be experts on a given subject matter, but the way they go about it is simply obnoxious.
To be clear, I think it’s great that people can care about something so much they know an incredible amount about it. Making that a subject of a college course might be dumb, but then so is majoring in Philosophy. You love Comic Books, Game of Thrones, Magic the Gathering; that is awesome. Throwing the book of social skills out the window, decidedly less so. You need to temper that knowledge with some common sense.
Sheldon Syndrome: Characterized by excessive and/or condescending discussion by one speaker, who ignores the listener’s feelings/personal space/comfort in order to demonstrate their perceived intelligence.
I’ll comp to having Sheldon Syndrome on rare occasions, but I hope I’ve gotten it out of my system. The last time I even thought about it, when I overheard two gentlemen discussing Marvel’s Black Panther and they tried to remember how to pronounce Vibranium. Since then, I’m more than happy to remain silent if it means I don’t bother people with something trivial.
This can go beyond normal everyday conversation, this can be applied to meeting creators, celebrities, any kind of industry professional that is not being paid to interact with you. Just like “Don’t Be That Guy”, Don’t be like Sheldon.
Nothing But Comics 
I once had a friend who collected degrees. First metallurgical engineering and then law. He would initiate conversations at random about his studies. I like to shoe horn in topics I care about myself but there just is no graceful way to abruptly start a conversation about patent law. I used to sit and listen to the crap for about an hour or so. I am talking about detailed law code. I had no idea what he was talking about. Not quite a Sheldon situation but perhaps worse.
“but there just is no graceful way to abruptly start a conversation about patent law” just reading that is kind of hillarious
What about “Man, these patent laws are kicking my ass.”
“Y’know, the thing about patent laws…”
I wish he opened with either of those 2 sentences Abe. One minute it was “Arwyn has too big of a role in the lord of the rings movies” and the next it was code 255 doesn’t allow for new product registration… And then about an hour of my eyes glazing over.
Truth is stranger than fiction I guess. Man, it was weird. Abrupt segway is putting it mildly. I kind of wonder if he was practicing court speech without letting me know.
Hold on to that thought. Like you said, “Truth is stranger than fiction”. Hopefully he did something worthwhile with one of those degrees he collected.
He worked in a steel plant and hated it. Last I heard he was working for a judge.
Life…..
I guess it depends on if you want to be “Leonard” or not. If the “boring” person is a friend, like Leonard is to Sheldon, then you may want to help them develop better social skills. In the way that Leonard held up the sign that said “SARCASM” so that Sheldon could tell when it was being employed, perhaps the two of you could work out a “sign” of your own, so that your friend will know when he’s “Asbergering” (as one of my friends calls it). Or the two of you could work out rules, such as “In social gatherings, no more than 4 sentences about a subject without letting someone else speak. If no one else speaks, wait until THEY change the subject”.
All of this is somewhat amusing to those of us who are able to socially interact with no problems. What is NOT amusing is the fact that most people like this aren’t TRYING to be challenging. They have developmental issues, and just because those issues exist, doesn’t mean they are oblivious to them, or that they don’t want to do better socially. And even if they ARE oblivious, as a FRIEND, it’s our job to help them understand WHY people don’t want to listen to an hour conversation about patent law! So, speaking for myself, I try to BE a friend, even when doing so entails some uncomfortable conversations. Because, in the end, I want my friend to be happy, long after I’m gone.