Accidently blowing people away...figuratively.

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Do you ever just completely blow someone away by something awesome you have done, but didn't really think it was all that great?

At work places I have overwhelmed others to the point that they perceived me as a threat. For example, we might have a few days to come up with an idea. At the meeting, others will come in with a rough sketch of something, I might come in with a finished prototype. The boss loves it, says something like "why can't you all be like this", then everything falls apart for the project because people resent how it came about.

Does this happen to you? You do your best to make something, and people literally can't believe you made it, even though it is obvious that you did? Then they resent you for it?

Then a few people who do appreciate it start becoming either conniving in trying to use me, or almost worshipful like some Jedi pawadan. (Always a Harry Potter looking kid too!)


Your experiences?

OH YES absolutely!. People can't believe I did it myself and they get pissed off because I am supposed to be unbright. Lol. They should appreciate what I can do and get over themselves. If they want people who can figure stuff out and advance the human race, they need to nurture such individuals and realize it's for the good of the species. It's much bigger than just them. What they can and cannot do is irrelevant.

Yes, it happens almost every time I do something.

Nearly always, which is the justification for me being the only hourly-paid full engineer on my company's payroll.

Perhaps this is why so many of my teachers as a kid hated me so much. They knew I was smarter than them and they saw me as a threat.

While I am glad I am not the only one, it also means I am not as special anymore...

And that's what I hate about knowing about AS.

Yeah, it's the extremes thing.

"Wow, you're so clever!"

Then 2 minutes/2 hours/2 days/2 months later, in a disbelieving tone "Erm, it's really easy/obvious, you can't do/see that?"

And through it all, I'm just existing, carrying on in what to me is an average manner.

^

How about, "For someone so smart, you sure are stupid!" -- My 7th-grade history teacher

Although they never used those exact words, people gave me that all the time. I was really naieve and gulliable as a child and if you were to tell me it was a pink elephant I would have bought it. Today though if anyone gave me that, theyI'd knock their teeth out.

The blessing and the curse.

I also find that most people will expect you to deliver above and beyond and reprimand you for not living up to that expectation while the standards for those around you remain much lower. Also, performance has little to do with salary. The schmoozers ALWAYS seem to get the higher paid positions and the promotions while those that do the exemplary job - but don't shine at the company picnic baseball game - tend to chug along almost invisibly.

Sorta, people who knew me when I was younger can't believe I graduated college, have had jobs, relationships, etc. Most people assume I'm "normal" and can't believe the AS bit, especially on my good days.

Oh yes!

For a good number of years in my early career, I had several jobs where I managed to do so well at things that I ended up so indispensable that I could not move forward in the company. I tended to find myself working as a one man team and being paid a premium salary to keep me.

I managed to break out of that loop by becoming more vocal and getting noticed outside my own workplace, by representing my company in giving technical papers at seminars, etc. I was lucky enough to be headhunted by a company who needed somebody, with in depth knowledge of a wide range of engineering disciplines, to functionally manage a large team of technical experts that worked in different parts of the company. I focussed my interest on management rather than the technical side of the work and as a result became a generalist with specialist skills. I have never looked back. I am now a full time senior manager in a large, multinational, world class, company. I enjoy the management challenges just as much as I enjoyed the technical challenges of my early career.

I can still tend to see solutions more clearly than my NT colleagues and get results. I work closely with my NT staff, my secretary in particular, to get them to recognise and explain all of the important stuff that I now know that I miss because of my AS. So far this is working well and I can bu!! Sh*t to my seniors as well as any of my peers.