Tips for an Aspie Programmer

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I'm a programmer for 3 years now. Much is said about how people with asperger can be great programmers, but right now I'm having a couple of problems with my career.

Programming is great, I enjoy it and I'm capable of solving problems quicker than most of my coworkers. On the other hand, I have problems looking at the whole project and usually leave dumb mistakes in parts I'm not paying that much attention. Also, I have to deal directly with the Project Manager and being assertive is quite difficult, especially when something cannot be made, 'cause there's not enough time or the client didn't provided enough information.

Other programmers or anyone that have something to add, have you faced the same problems? What you made to deal with it?

I can defintely relate to this.

What language/compiler/IDE are you using? Some stupid mistakes can be evaded with warnings in compilers and IDEs. But catching silly mistakes is whar code reviews are for, so maybe your company is taking too light on it? Either way, don't feel too bad because of them, everyone makes them, none writes bug free code the first time they write it.

I also know what you mean when you talk about dealing with project management. I used to do it alot. Once a week there was a meeting for the whole project and I had to talk about what I had been doing. And when I finished a compnent, I had to demonstrate it and show that it was working. It can be tough at some times, but as time goes on you can draw a lot of confidence in yourself and your work for it. Especially if your leader gives people praise when they desserve it as a leader should.

And yes, it's annoying when things aren't documented well enough. I remember running back and forth between people to try to get an explanation as to what I was supposed to do. Looking back, it probably drained some energy and motivation. But, in the end, I got my work done, and I did it well. And that's something to be proud of, And also having a leader that told me I did good work really helped me out.

I'm still sort of new to this situation, so learning how to navigate the social aspects of my customers and leaders (they never remember the conversation we have, which I can recite almost in whole, and forget the work arounds and training I give them)... and dealing with the burning frustration of the stupid mistakes that I've made (I'm a trees person and sometimes miss that darned forest).

I just keep perspective that I'm better than the others I've seen do it, and if I keep on, the stuff will sink in slowly over time.
I made a ton of mistakes in the early times at my last job, I was probably 4-5 years in before that dropped off significantly, so I am trying to keep perspective and know that I'll absorb what I need to and try to use my mistakes to be mindful rather than beating myself up or becoming embarassed.

Last edited by MissDorkness on 09 Apr 2014, 4:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I've been a software engineer and consultant for years.

Everyone makes mistakes. Be careful not to dispropotionatly assign some sort of blame to yourself. Programming is an immersion sort of experience. That is required to have sufficient focus to get the job done with proper attention to detail. For me, a project is a cycle of diving deeply into an area of detail, then stepping back to reorient myself to the big picture. That is normal to neurotypical programmers.

Project managers are generally incompetent regarding the technologies used in their projects. And, they tend to rely on nonverbal communication to determine if things are going well and the relevance of what is said to them. So, you could almost tell them "the building is on fire" and if they see no nonverbal reinforcement of that statement, it seems intuitively unimportant.

Wow.
I guess I know this by experience, but, yeah, that's a good fact to keep in mind.

FYP.

I've been doing it for a couple of years now. It's a job where I get good validation, and after my previous stints this is important. It enables me to leverage my skills.

I think the most important thing is to continue to produce really high-quality work. If you do good work, and it sells, then that can cover a multitude of sins and your 'issues' will get looked over.

Try to make an effort to understand the system as a whole. Despite my aspie nature I *have* to do this. I need to understand why code is being used, and understand how the system fits together and works. A lot of the technical and systems analysis is where the really interesting parts of software engineering lie. (Coding itself is easy once you have this sorted, it is just knowing how to push the right buttons in the computer, which comes with experience.) Also try to get an understanding of what is important to the people using it, and focus your natural obsessive quality on getting that aspect just right.

Sometimes, I find it helps to make a list of each component I need to check and go through it that way, usually within the code itself and designated with # signs. Still, there will always be bugs on the first few go arounds. It can take awhile (and much yelling at the computer -I work from home) before I really get it right. I think it's that way for most people, especially when its something dumb like a comma in the wrong place. Hence, why I use a larger font size. It's easier to tell a comma from a period of I use a larger font. Not sure if that helps, just some stuff that's helped me.