'A certain subset of men (not all men, of course--and no blame on the men who don't have the drive) are willing to put their entire lives on hold to pursue their obsession.'

That reminds me of the description I read, some years ago, of autism as 'extreme masculinity', and the observation that there is a fine line between insanity and genius - men existing at the extremes while women cluster around the mean. I don't know how true the statement is of autism, however I am happy to accept that as the way life, or nature or 'god', or whatever you will, wants things arranged and all human attempts to alter that are bound to fail.