Skip to main content

What is the significance of birth order?

There seems to be little consensus among the scientific community regarding the subject of birth order. Some experts believe that birth order merely decides personalities while others believe that birth order actually affects destinies.


That being said, firstborns are said to be achievement-oriented, methodical, and dependable. Parents are said to spend more time with their firstborns than with their other children. Also, parents depend heavily on their firstborn children to set good examples for their siblings. According to research, almost 100% of astronauts are either the firstborn children or the oldest sons of their families. Firstborns are also said to gravitate toward careers in technology, engineering, and science. Many world leaders and CEOs are firstborns, notably Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Steve Ballmer (of Microsoft), and Joe Moglia (of TD Ameritrade).


Middle children are often said to be socially-astute and loyal. It is said that 80% of middle children prove to be more loyal to their spouses than 65% of firstborns and 53% of last-born children. Middle children are said to gravitate toward careers in law enforcement, public service, education, and healthcare. They are said to be the mediators and peacemakers of the sibling world. Experts say that these traits translate into who middle children become as they get older. As an example, Martin Luther was a middle child, and he worked to foster equality and understanding between white and black Americans.


The youngest children of families tend to be outgoing, sociable, attention-seeking, and fun-loving. They also tend to sympathize with the downtrodden, simply because their early childhood experiences were often accompanied by a sense of helplessness. Youngest children gravitate toward careers in sales, art, and design. A modern example of a fun-loving and outgoing personality is Prince Harry. Perhaps because his extroverted personality is combined with his sensitivity towards the downtrodden, Prince Harry is responsible for bringing to fruition the Invictus Games. The Invictus Games is an international Paralympics sports event created by Prince Harry for wounded soldiers or veterans; it made its debut in 2014 in London.


While birth order is significant, many experts argue that it is only significant in helping us to understand who we are. If we can learn to understand how birth order affects us, we can overcome certain destructive, inherent tendencies, and we can become our best selves in the process.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A man has a garden measuring 84 meters by 56 meters. He divides it into the minimum number of square plots. What is the length of the square plots?

We wish to divide this man's garden into the minimum number of square plots possible. A square has all four sides with the same length.Our garden is a rectangle, so the answer is clearly not 1 square plot. If we choose the wrong length for our squares, we may end up with missing holes or we may not be able to fit our squares inside the garden. So we have 84 meters in one direction and 56 meters in the other direction. When we start dividing the garden in square plots, we are "filling" those lengths in their respective directions. At each direction, there must be an integer number of squares (otherwise, we get holes or we leave the garden), so that all the square plots fill up the garden nicely. Thus, our job here is to find the greatest common divisor of 84 and 56. For this, we prime factor both of them: `56 = 2*2*2*7` `84 = 2*2*3*7` We can see that the prime factors and multiplicities in common are `2*2*7 = 28` . This is the desired length of the square plots. If you wi...
Post a Comment
Read more

What warning does Chuchundra issue to Rikki?

Chuchundra, the sniveling, fearful muskrat who creeps around walls because he is too terrified to go into the center of a room, meets Rikki in the middle of the night. He insults Rikki by begging him not to kill him. He then insults him by suggesting that Nag might mistake Chuchundra for Rikki. He says, "Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes."  He issues this warning to Rikki not to help keep Rikki safe but as a way of explaining why Rikki's presence gives him, Chuchundra, more reason to fear.  Chuchundra starts to tell Rikki what Chua the rat told him--but breaks it off when he realizes he might be overheard by Nag. He says, "Nag is everywhere, Rikki-Tikki." Rikki threatens to bite Chuchundra to get him to talk. Even then, Chuchundra won't overtly reveal any information. But he does say, "Can't you hear, Rikki-Tikki?" This is enough of a clue for the clever mongoose. He listens carefully and can just make out the "faintest scratch-s...
Post a Comment
Read more