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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • If you’re comfortable in your skin, don’t worry too much about it. But looking further into autistic communities and their struggles and solutions can still help you see issues you weren’t aware of or find coping mechanisms for things you didn’t realize could be easier.

    Worth pursueing a diagnosis? Probably not.worth looking into? I’d say yes. But go with your gut :)



  • Not officially diagnosed with ADD (on a waitlist though) but autistic, and I second that. I constantly feel like I’m too lazy and yet I got my current job through an internship. It was supposed to last three months and I got an of#er three weeks in, because they were so impressed with my willingness to perform.

    I was very bewildered. I still have to remind myself of that when I feel like I’m not getting shit done because my mind refuses to cooperate. What I can convince myself of by now is that those moments are the productivity normal for most people and that even when I’m like that my productivity is high enough - especially because that is usually the moment when I look into things that are not the absolute core of my job.

    I’m a test automation engineer, but people explicitly want me to not just automate, but also care for quality topics as a whole, so reading relevant blogs and security news and feeding that back into the team is part of my job.

    Still often feel guilty about that, but my boss repeatedly told me I’m absolutely overachieving and fulfilling the job more than he hoped for.

    For me, there’s two takeaways:

    1. you probably have higher standards for yourself that most people, and the moments where your brain cooperates you’re like a racecar compared to a truck, and
    2. find a niche that interests you is of utmost importance. I was once at an info event for SAP and they said that autistic people are intrinsically motivated and it’s almost impossible to get us motivated with things like more money. It’s definitely true for me, and for my few ADHD friends, though I’m not sure if that is in general true. Accepting this has allowed me to make peace with myself and to take a much healthier approach to jobs than before - “I can work any job, I don’t need my dream job” when I was desperate for a job was the most toxic thing I could do to myself.





  • Neiter you nor the person you’re replying to is wrong, but the way I see it you’re coming from different angles.

    You’re coming from the view of an experienced GM, while the person before you worries about people getting in the game or struggle with their social skills.

    Imho, both ruleset have their place and everything depends on the group, what they want, what their personalities are and how experienced they are.

    I would never run a table because I don’t think I could handle it if one of the players got combative, and that danger is higher when you go rules light I would guess.


  • I’m insulted how little effort the author put into supporting his thesis.

    “Streber” in German is a common insult if you’re good in school, and it often meant social death in class. Sure, geek and nerd have become commonplace and are used as German words now, but that’s also because if you are one your English is good enough and it’s just easier to use the short word from another language that pretty much all geeks and nerds use than to use the German one.

    It has actually not really the negative connotation that the English word has, it feels more like a name for a subculture, like goth.



  • That’s the official version, but at least when I talk about some average dude it’s way too long and artificial, I don’t think the name Mustermann actually exists.

    When I think of the most common name to use in casual conversation, I’d probably go for Müller (maybe Peter? Though the first name is probably heavily generation-dependent).

    In older publication you may alse find references to “der deutsche Michel” (the german Michel, short for Michael) as a somewhat condescending reference to the average citizen who is very hesitant to adopt new concepts and tech and not always able or willing to understand complex concepts. Often used to remark that a product/idea will not have a chance on the market because “der deutsche Michel” doesn’t see the pointor would never pick it up.

    Haven’t seen that in a while though, I guess Germans have become more open to new stuff :)


  • As someone with ASD, the difference it makes when you know your sensory issues and are able to get accommodation for it is insane.

    I just started a new job where I am open about it and my officemates love that I love the “dark” spot away from the windows. Now they don’t have to sit there. For me, the peace and quiet of that place means my stress level is so low for the first time in my life that I struggle to go to sleep at night.

    My “go to sleep” indicator has been mental stress, but my job allows my to hyperfocus, which is recharging my mental batteries. I’m left alone to do my thing unless there is a meeting that’s been announced way before or I reach out to others.

    When I get home from work, I may be physically tired, but mentally I could just go on, because the basic level of stress that was at like 70% all my life is so much lower now. Now I have to learn how to recognize when I physically need to sleep - and fight my brain on it, because it just wants to play…

    Long story short: my diagnosis for ASD changed my life, for the better. But there are many factors to consider (state of healthcare is a big one, accessibility of therapy, possible legal ramifications in your country, social acceptance, but alse how much it affects you).

    For me, ASD helped me make sense of what was happening and allowed me to pushback when others were calling me lazy. But what helped me was mostly therapy work, and if you have a good therapist, you can just work on those issues separately. Imho you can get the help you need for ASD without a diagnosis, but in my situation the diagnosis was a massive help.