wheeler

How can you possibly think that Grothendieck should be on a list of public intellectuals?

Like Soothsayer said earlier, I recommend you read a book about Myer-Brigg personality types in order to understand why other people behave as they do, why they expect you to behave in the same way, and why it's not your natural inclination to do that. Then you can accept who you are, and understand that you're always going to be acting to some extend when, e.g., engaging in small talk.

A book would be better than an online test because the point should be to learn about all the other personality types, and how they interact, rather than understand your own.

http://www.amazon.com/Please-Understand-Me-Character-Tempera...

Excellent advice. The smartest mathematicians and physicists often invent their own funny little diagrams for doing calculations---it's a real pity these usually don't make it into print. An obvious exception is Feynman diagrams.

I can't locate The Spellbook by Serge Lang. Can you give me a link?

George Orwell. I recommend "Shooting an elephant":

http://www.george-orwell.org/Shooting_an_Elephant/0.html