trafguy

If you are able to function independently, then you probably won’t be clinically diagnosed even if you have some struggles here and there.

I disagree. I have official diagnoses for both ADHD and ASD and am mostly functional most of the time. If I earned enough, I'd be living on my own. I was diagnosed as an adult within the past few years while working nearly full time and I made it on time to each of the several appointments that went into getting that diagnosis. If what you say is true, I doubt the assessor would have been willing to give a diagnosis.

You know, I hadn't thought about it too much in this context, but I do more or less the same. When I'm around anyone at all, I'm conscious of all my behaviors. The only way I can really turn it off is weed/alcohol, and even then the instinct is just dulled a little, not switched off. I don't think the majority of people are nearly that aware of how each movement or sound they make might be perceived by others. It's largely unconscious for most. And I don't think it's an inherent wiring difference either.

I think growing up different and constantly having it impressed upon you that every single way you're different is wrong takes a toll. Other people are pushing you into a box and demanding you behave this way, not that way. Until you either learn to reject (at least some of) those rules or are pushed so far you burn out and can no longer conform, it's constant stress. And it's so constant that you probably aren't even fully aware of it, particularly if you're also alexithymic and generally have to work harder to identify your emotional state/response to a situation under the best of circumstances.

This leads me to another aspect. If we're viewed as too rigid, then allistics' intrinsic/core selves are perhaps comparatively more malleable. Their core underlying personality is perhaps more ready to adopt the behaviors and beliefs of the group. Quicker to be guided by faith. In which case, perhaps for an allistic person, this pushing and prodding doesn't create this emotional/mental tension in the same way it does when it pushes an autist to mask. Granted, this feels like it's painting an unreasonably broad brush, but maybe there's something to it.

Also, the most solitary jobs I know of are in the tech industry. Otherwise, for really isolated jobs, maybe fire watch or possibly lighthouse work if there are openings. If you have relevant skills, you might be able to work in web design, system administration, or as a programmer ("individual contributor") with minimal public interaction. I'm lucky enough that my managers have more or less recognized that I'm very reluctant to deal directly with customers, so I only have to interact with my small team for the most part. This likely would hurt my ability to progress to higher pay, but certainly avoids certain types of stress, and with the way the last half a decade has gone, I'm only just now reaching a point where I might have energy for that broader social interaction again.

I think you'd need to start by getting them to admit that the heat is a problem without mentioning climate change. Don't use any of the buzz words they've been taught how to respond to. Just try to get them to have a conversation where they have to come up with their own answers.

In fact, maybe don't even start off with anything related to the topics they've been told what to think about. Ask about something they care about more directly that isn't on their party's agenda. You'd need to keep at it long enough for them to start understanding you're not their enemy, which could be anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks/months, depending on how deeply entrenched they are. Then, start trying to work towards the lesser issues their authority doesn't bring up often but has expressed an opinion on. Basically, you need to de-indoctrinate them.

If you can get them to talk about an issue without recognizing immediately that they're in danger of contradicting their chosen authorities, then slowly transition towards getting them to talk about more and more "dangerous" topics, you might help them to bridge that disconnect and start thinking critically about the key issues.

That all said, You'll have an easier time working with people who haven't been deeply entrenched in an authoritarian ideology. The less developed their beliefs, the easier it'll be to guide them towards thinking about their beliefs critically. That's one reason it's so important to teach critical thinking in primary/secondary schools.

logic will never convince them because they aren't arguing from a position of logic. It's about conforming to the beliefs required to be part of their tribe and/or protecting themselves from coming to terms with the harsh realities of climate change. It's reactionary against a challenge to their beliefs.

You would need to first convince them to consider that their respected authorities could be wrong. But within this reactionary mindset, being wrong is disgraceful. So unless they lose respect for their leaders or manage to shift away from believing fallibility is disgraceful, I don't know if they can be convinced.

So I designed the company in a way that makes my personal limits less of a problem...

Interesting. It sounds to me like you used your strengths to streamline your process such that your limits don't come up as much. By working towards solutions that accommodated your limits, you built software that would make life easier for anyone (provided they can figure out the software). The same approach would probably work well for me.

they found a flaw in our contracts and took off with like 50k [+250k in damages]

Ah, that would make me hesitant to take on partners too. I've had some small setbacks from trusting people, but never quite that much (granted, I've never had that much to lose). Sucks you had that happen. Crazy that it was a previously reliable employee who turned on you like that too.

I don't know that I would be able to work with partners I couldn't trust. Even if I could keep them at arms length and remain suspicious, the added effort of having to handle that on top of everything else wouldn't be worth it, not to mention there would be too high of a chance they'd eventually stab me in the back. If it's a choice between working with someone I can't trust or trying to go at it alone, working alone is definitely a better choice. I agree with you there. I'll keep that in mind as I continue working on this problem. If I do look for a business partner, I'd be looking for someone who comes across as unflinchingly transparent, and whose transparency reveals strong integrity and a collaborative spirit.

Thanks, listing out some specific experts to talk to and describing the overall process is helpful! I suppose I'll need to return to that project and work out the remaining bugs, revisit my business plan, talk with some consultants, and then look into funding. Given that my project requires custom-manufactured hardware, the upfront cost could be eye wateringly high, potentially > $100k if I needed to start generating revenue quickly.

Sounds like you might have gotten a gray hair or two already dealing with this stuff, prepare for more.

It was definitely a challenging few years, between that and everything else going on in my life. I don't mind hard work. I'd rather spend my time doing something meaningful to me than working on whatever a manager dictates I should do. I do need time to relax and recharge, but there's nothing saying I can't do both.

Partners were what nearly brought me down.

Could you expand on that a little? I've been looking for partners because I've come to understand that certain tasks burn me out quickly, which leads me to think one or more partners will need to take on those tasks in my case. Did you have a bad experience with a partnership? Couldn't find anyone who was competent and interested?

It's hard to find examples of autistic entrepreneurs, and neurodiverse-friendly resources for starting a business are hard to find online. If you were so inclined, I think sharing your experience in a book/website could help a lot of aspiring innovators. (How did you research? What business structures have you tried? What roadblocks did you hit/what solutions did you find that worked for you? How was your experience convincing people to trust/work with you?, etc.)

Mind if I ask if you have any advice for an aspiring entrepreneur? I had an electronics project that I tried to get off the ground. I managed to teach myself what I needed, but I'm stumped by lack of funding, time, and an aversion to the social aspects. I figure I need to find cofounders who can take on that work, but no one I know has the time, and few if any have the skills. Plus as a self-taught electronics designer, I can't ignore a concern that there could easily be a major mistake that'll affect reliability/lifespan of whatever I produce.

I have ideas in varying stages for electronics and software. Not many I've started on, but a few I've at least started basic planning for.

If you have good insurance it's no nearly that much. Weekly, with good insurance, you're looking at ~$20-30. Without insurance, with a payment plan for low income individuals, you can find discounted care around $60-70/session fairly easily. They didn't check my income when I was offered that, just in response to me mentioning I might need to quit when my insurance was shit for a year or two.

The Secular Therapy Project may be worth looking at. It focuses on specifically finding non-theist care providers, but as I understand it, you'll be less likely to find non-evidence based providers, so somewhat better outcomes.

Ultimately, therapy is a space for you to work through your own issues with the help of a trained professional who can guide you, but imprecisely. They'll offer tools, and it's up to you to figure out how to use them in a way that suits you. The tools can work, but only so much as you are willing to learn to apply them for your own benefit. Some will suit you better than others. It's hard to have that much patience to continue trying new approaches, introspecting, and growing two steps forward and one step back, but it's worth it. Ultimately, as cliche as this probably sounds, every day you're putting in that effort, trying to see the good, reaching towards contentedness and your dreams, is a small victory. It's a step in the right direction.

*these prices are for US healthcare prividers. It may be different elsewhere.

I'm a little new to the terminology, so to clarify, the switching current refers to the amperage across the terminals other than the coil, right? I'm definitely within those limits; I don't expect to transfer more than ~1/8 of the maximum amperage.

Is there a rule of thumb for the minimum current I should allow across the coil? The only specification I see on the datasheet for coil amperage is that it was tested to failure at 100mA. I don't think power consumption is too big of a deal with this use case, but resistive heating sounds like it could shorten component life (and even if it's only a secondary consideration here, I'd still prefer to minimize waste).

Thanks, that's good to know! The datasheet doesn't seem to include the word "duty" anywhere, so I think that must have been omitted. Ostensibly that means the maximum duty cycle is unlimited, but I don't have enough experience here to say that with any confidence.

Thanks, I don't think there are any external settings for the power supply, but it does provide a few more volts than I strictly need. Toggling a single relay hasn't caused me any issues in the limited testing I've done. A momentary drop to as low as 5V should be perfectly fine, although, looking over the specs for my components, I see I'm getting dangerously close to the upper limits for the power supply's current rating. I'll have to look into connecting 2 supplies in parallel (or getting a larger supply) I suppose.

I haven't worked with battery backups yet, so I was thinking it would be best to keep that element simple to minimize potential issues like a trickle charge draining the battery unexpectedly, or damaging the battery from overcharge. The minimum requirement is just to ensure the hardware (a motorized ball valve) returns to a closed position if power is lost. The battery needs to provide at least 9V to power the motor, so I could use a 9V (or a few smaller cells in series) to keep it below the 12V supply.

With your solution using a diode on each voltage source, would there be any risk of a trickle charge draining the battery unexpectedly if the battery? If so, in that configuration I'd need to do more research and figure out how to use a BMS, rather than an externally recharged or disposable cell.