So, what is an eccentric? According to this study, an eccentric is:
nonconforming;
creative;
strongly motivated by curiosity;
idealistic: he wants to make the world a better place and the people in it happier
happily obsessed with one or more hobbyhorses (usually five or six)
aware from early childhood that he is different;
intelligent;
opinionated and outspoken, convinced that he is right and that the rest of the world is out of step;
noncompetitive, not inneed of reassurance or reinforcement from society;
unusual in his eating habits and living arrangements;
not particularly interested in the opinions or company of other people, except in order to persuade them to his—the correct—point of view;
possessed of a mischievous sense of humor;
single;
usually the eldest or an only child; and
a bad speller.
Eccentrics: A Study of Sanity and Strangeness
Dr. David Weeks and Jamie James
Villard
1995
277 pp.
9780394565651
"More difficult to measure is happiness, but the authors report that the eccentrics in the study not only seem happier than most people, they radiate joy. "
My guess is, that the listed attributes of eccentric people just correlate in a positive way with the very uncommon ERE ideals.
I don't think that there is a causality (cause-effect-relationship), but who knows?
Yup, 15 out of 15 if you sub out "random use of punctuation" for "bad speller." Luckily, in my neck of the woods, people usually assume that my behavior is indicative of maybe being Canadian.
I think a definition for eccentricity is a deviation from the norm of thought, action, and behavior in an unconventional manner due to ones differences, where differences can come in many forms. Or perhaps eccentricity can be defined as the force that drives one to consciously behave in a non-normal manner. The listed attributes can be derived from these vague and probably poor definings, but I do not think that eccentricity necessarily has to be defined by those characteristics, it can come out in any form of action, behavior, or thought, it just depends on what makes that person different. What makes the ERE community different is that seeks FI as early as possible, anti-consumerism, and a host of other things (such as some of the listed attributes) which are deviations from the norm that in turn cause it to appear eccentric. That's my best crack at it.
