Firstborns gravitate toward positions of leadership because that was their position in the family. When there’s a family crisis, everyone tends to depend on the firstborn. They are perfectionists. They excel in structured occupations and prefer orderly lives. They’re reliable, conscientious, punctual, and goal-oriented, and they love to make lists. The male firstborn is likely to be a calculating, controlling type who keeps his feelings to himself. He becomes an architect, an engineer, an accountant, a writer. Paradoxically, firstborns are more creative than laterborns. Show me a really good artist, and I’ll show you a firstborn.

Dr. Kevin Leman, in Homemade, November, 1987