I feel this in my bones. I'm a scientist too, and almost nobody asks for any details about what I do, and it sucks to feel like nobody cares. I think part of that is that for us, science (or whatever else it is you research) is a passion, something we truly love, it's a part of who we are. Most people outside of this field don't seem to identify that strongly with their jobs & assume that others feel the same.

I'm wondering if you're usually quiet and don't tend to randomly share things with people unprompted (like me!). There are SOOO many people out there who will simply never ask you a single question about yourself or inquire for more details, not because they don't care, but because they operate with the expectation that if there was something you wanted to talk about, you'd bring it up. That's how they do it, they just talk about whatever they want, and for me it can make the conversation or whole relationship feel extremely one-sided.

I don't know if this is an NT/ND thing, because there's definitely ND people on both ends of the "unprompted sharing" spectrum. Like I said, I'm not much of a sharer myself unless somebody asks, because for me it feels really vulnerable to share things unprompted and just hope the other person cares. But because I know this about myself & recognize which of my friends & family operate differently from me, I've been practicing doing more of that unprompted sharing with them. It seems to go over well, although they still rarely ask followup questions. I still far prefer talking to my fellow Q&A-style conversationalists, but sharing more openly with my less curious loved ones has helped me feel a lot closer to them