Feel your talent going down the drain, due to your AS?

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you forgot to add just the opposite!

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my friend zee Mosez....zees eez no goot. you see, zee talents vill make you heppy.

mee? a long time ago i say NO No No to any uzzer vork except zee special interest verk. and so now i am poor but vedy vedyhappy wizz zees. and i am tooo stressed wiz see sensory issues to verk vizz zee uzzer peeeple.

I perfectly understand what you say Gary, but I tried to say that one sometimes get caugth between one's profession, and what one really wants to do, or are talented to do. And that this may have something to do with the AS condition.
I liked your definition of talents, by the way.

I used to do acting and singing. But, that can be a pretty cutthroat business, and that part was difficult for me to handle. Plus, as an autistic person, I don't "network" very well, and that is vital to the industry. On the whole, I'm happier out of that lifestyle.

Just what I tried to say. Constantly get forced out of the track, due to concentration
issues, or your regular job sucks out all your energy? s**t, maybe this was another stupid topic by me? It's hard to explain, but I think you got some of my meaning.

Mosez, I thought this was a *good* topic. I try to work freelance because having a regular job makes me feel as though my soul is dying (best way I can describe it) and I can avoid office politics, which would kill me as far as work history and references. If I had been less troubled and better with people, I flatter myself that I could have done much better about getting into writing/publishing, rather than trying write in my spare time, because I honestly don't have the energy for it when my work is done.

On the other hand, I have my AS strengths as well.

This is exactly what holds me back. I have been reasonably successful, but for years people have told me that if I would only network, I could really make it big time.

depends on your area of skill.

In IT, skill is a moving target. Everything is in a state of constant change; hardware, software, 'business fashions', etc. You have to constantly study in order to stay current on what you're working on.

I tend to wind up studying and passing certification tests annually (why? because they charge for them; it's a 'revenue stream')

So the ability to chuck tons of detailed info out of your brain, and fill it with new chunks that will in turn, get tossed out, is a skill in IT.

I do agree about being exhausted from work interfering. Though I'm not slinging 4x4s or 2x4s around all week.

No, I'm using my Autism to my advantage...and it's woikin' like a charm!

My talents would be in writing, photography, and drawing. These skills don't require much or if any group work, though the concert photography got stressful and the sensory issues became too much. Wedding photography I was bad at because of lack of communication between me and the people I photographed.
But I'm not giving up.

edited because I mentioned drawing twice. I like to draw...

Last edited by pensieve on 04 Feb 2009, 4:37 am, edited 1 time in total.

Yer good at writing and photography too, huh? I'm actually learning stop-motion animation to boot!

And for some strange reason, I am able to understand business *click* just like that! If you explain to me a procedure in business, I automatically get it the first time. When my partner and I were starting up our business, I'd be talking a lot on the phone with our credit card company, credit card company AUTHORIZING company, and more...and apparently everything they said to me I understood instantly.

To this day, my partner is utterly baffled by it. It's funny.

I blame ADHD, not AS (as I'm not even 100% sure I have it). I just can't concentrate enough on pursuing my talents, and instead spend all my focus and energy on useless information gathering.

Yes. Or at least due to what I believe is AS. Had I done well in school I might be an architect now. I was/am very talented in that area but will now never achieve my full potential there.

Also I allowed my photography talent go down the drain because of my social skills problems. What a shame...

This is me also. I probably wouldn't have the talent to be a writer because I wouldn't be as introspective..

Yeah, I have to go with "sort of".

My talents find expression in the music I play and the garden I grow.
They are not wasted.

Yet my talents were never adequately developed or properly capitalized upon. AS has caused me a lot of problems with higher education and employment. And this has indeed diverted some of my talent down the figurative drain.

So I'm working on that development and capitalization part right now.

Ummm, yeah. I've got this superpowered brain, kind of like a Cray computer, but I can't use it for anything except reading and thinking because I can't communicate what I know with other people, and not just because of my brains. My autism keeps me from being able to hold down a regular job, and it keeps me from being able to sell what I can do at home, too. Although (knock on wood) that may be changing, as a tenured scientist is helping me get one paper published. So maybe I will be able to sell my book soon, and get out of poverty (any year now).

Basically, there's a gap in my abilities that short circuits everything.