I’ve been learning a lot about neurodiversity lately, and the “spiky profile” concept really struck a cord with me.1 The basic idea is that brains outside the neurotypical pattern can have uneven skill development. So you’ll end up really good at something but at the cost of being notably not good at something else (to massively oversimplify).
This framework explains a lot about my life. For instance, I can figure out a system for almost anything, and my living space is super organized—as maniacally detailed in this newsletter, whose existence itself says something—so people assume I’m really on top of every other aspect of life.
But I am actually downright inept in certain everyday tasks:
I cannot fill out forms correctly or read detailed instructions/contracts. I once paid all my IRS taxes to the state of California because I could not decode the details of the webpage. California refused to give me back my money, and drama ensued.
I’ll be copying information from an appointment reminde…