While I completely sympathize with this, and I understand it’s a meme, I do want to give some hope for anybody that this meme resonates with. When my daughter was diagnosed with autism, my coworkers were all immensely understanding, and places I’ve worked since then have also been really receptive to ND in coworkers and their families. I think understanding and acceptance of ND in the workplace is getting better and better.
I’ve hired quite a few people and I’d never pass over somebody for not making solid eye contact.
It may be worth looking for jobs where perfectionism is a desired quality, because in most jobs it is not, which is obviously quite frustrating for those of us who appreciate high levels of excellence.
One way to get by without solving every problem and making things perfect is to write down in a ticket what you would love to do to make the thing perfect and leave it there for another day.
Also, make sure to have acceptance criteria for a task so that you know when to stop working on it. This prevents you from working endlessly on something, letting your own intuitions about completion guide you, because they will likely go way beyond what your boss is looking for. Writing non-goals is also helpful for eliminating entire aspects of tasks. I’ve found these to be very helpful for myself. Think about tasks as mini-games, and the goal is described in the acceptance criteria, and everything else is a distraction from the mini-game. (For more on this kind of thinking, read Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal)
While I completely sympathize with this, and I understand it’s a meme, I do want to give some hope for anybody that this meme resonates with. When my daughter was diagnosed with autism, my coworkers were all immensely understanding, and places I’ve worked since then have also been really receptive to ND in coworkers and their families. I think understanding and acceptance of ND in the workplace is getting better and better.
I’ve hired quite a few people and I’d never pass over somebody for not making solid eye contact.
It may be worth looking for jobs where perfectionism is a desired quality, because in most jobs it is not, which is obviously quite frustrating for those of us who appreciate high levels of excellence.
One way to get by without solving every problem and making things perfect is to write down in a ticket what you would love to do to make the thing perfect and leave it there for another day.
Also, make sure to have acceptance criteria for a task so that you know when to stop working on it. This prevents you from working endlessly on something, letting your own intuitions about completion guide you, because they will likely go way beyond what your boss is looking for. Writing non-goals is also helpful for eliminating entire aspects of tasks. I’ve found these to be very helpful for myself. Think about tasks as mini-games, and the goal is described in the acceptance criteria, and everything else is a distraction from the mini-game. (For more on this kind of thinking, read Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal)