Being able to just simply move on from something as easily.
Not a common ability but some people have photographic memory.
I can’t remember shit. Photographic memory would be life changing.
Your wish has been granted! You will now keenly remember old photographs 👍
🙃
As someone with ADHD. My brain remembering things would be a game changer.
Afaik no one has ever been proven to have photographic memory (e.g. being able to remember random dots on an image is used as a test, if memory serves right). So for the most part it is just a nice little character trait for movies and the likes.
I noticed that a lot of people I know are significantly better at remembering some things, in this case numbers, but worse at other parts (e.g. conversations). So oftentimes its also a matter of what exactly you are good and bad at remembering.
Depending on the context, it also comes with experience. Think of games like chess, poker, etc. Experienced players are often able to replay an entire match, which in large part comes from their experience and the context of the many games they’ve played. If you met the same people in their first few matches, that ability would probably have been a lot less developed (if that makes sense).
No scientific backing on these statements, it’s just based on my personal experience and impressions.
To do things at the proper time, and not procrastinate.
I truly don’t know how some people work if not in a manic state for 10 hrs straight because you have a bunch of stuff due at the same time
I guess I could spread out the work, but sometimes I’m passively thinking of the best way to tackle it and other times it’s a task I don’t like doing.
Pretending to give a shit when I don’t
It’s literally how I make all my money.
Teach me your secrets!
Which half are you having trouble with? The apathy, or the pretense?
The pretense. I do not have a good poker face.
You don’t want a poker face! You want to be very expressive. But voice is even more important. Pitch voice soft and a little low, and always decreasing at the end of a sentence, the opposite of asking a question. Like a kind parent talking to a tired toddler or particularly stupid dog.
You’re trying to slip information into the person at a subconscious level, and the information you want to slip in is that you, the speaker, are trustworthy and will take care of them. It’s much easier to do this than to actually figure out and fix whatever bullshit problem they’ve created for themselves.
Note that this is not effective on people you see everyday, as they will eventually realize you didn’t do anything to actually help them. But for one-offs, work associates-of-associates, clients you’re not the sole contact for, and the more distant sort of relative, it works pretty well.
That’s pretty hilarious and I don’t doubt it’s efficacy!
I’ll admit my trouble with these situations is I can’t help but care about people or fixing things, often to save them from themselves as if they’re, like you said, toddlers.
I start to resent being taken advantage of though. It’s tough. :(
So you’re also struggling with the apathy part, huh? For me, waiting tables, I just don’t think of the guests as fully human. They come in hungry and I make sure they leave happy. Giving them a sense of assurance is a part of that, but as soon as they’re out the door they cease to exist.
As to resentment, you shouldn’t be resentful of something you choose to do, or to put it another way, you shouldn’t choose things to do that harm your own well-being.
It takes too much energy to have a good poker face, I’d rather just stay grumpy.
Executive functioning.
Went here to say that. Imagine not having an absolute obsession, want to do the thing, but not thinking about it all day. You just… do it. Couldn’t be me. I wish I could have little side projects instead of just… comtemplating the idea of doing it for fucking years.
Don’t compare your blooper reel with other people’s highlights.
Also, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie split up about twenty years ago and that relationship is still creating drama
Do you mean Pitt and Jennifer Aniston? The Brangelina split was in 2019.
My favorite Jolie story.
Lauren Ridloff is deaf. She was having problems with her cues in ‘The Eternals.’ Jolie told the director to use a laser pointer and then clean it up in post-production.
Also, they had to use her own kid in Maleficent because she was scaring all the other children.
I have ADHD. Anyone telling you it is a super power is either lying or has a drastically different experience with it than I do.
Its a super power in battle/reaction situations. In all aplicable areas of modern age, its a nightmare.
Nope. Absolutely not. That is your experience with it. Not mine. It’s a disability. Please don’t describe my experience with a disability as a super power.
I say because I have ADHD too. My reaction are more thoughtful and cold in stress situations like theft assaults or accidents are way better that neurotypical ones (I’m from latinamerica so they are very common). But I have so much problems to do normal things daily and they are ruining my life.
Is that directly related to ADHD or just an independent character trait?
I have ADHD too and in those few high stress / life or death situations I’ve been in, I suddenly felt super calm and focused while some other people were just screaming. I read somewhere that people with ADHD are overrepresented in first responders and similar jobs and I can believe that.
That being said, I very much agree with JackByDev. Yeah, ADHD is a disability. It has caused much pain and suffering for me and I wish I could get rid of it.
Thanks for the insight, that’s pretty interesting. But yes, it does not sound like it would be worth the trade-offs, if one got the chance to choose
I don’t think it is. There are plenty of neurotypical people who have those qualities and plenty of people with ADHD who don’t. My wife has ADHD and wouldn’t fit that definition.
Not a superpower. Thinking all moments of every single day, although exhausting, does make one significantly more experienced with thinking and how their mind works than those who can choose not to think most of the time though if untempered these thoughts are typically nonsense. It’s an advantage in many situations to be able to think at light speed while everyone else is panicking, but the burnout that comes from not being able to ever turn it off is pretty nasty. It’s different with different advantages and disadvantages. I personally wouldn’t change my mind to be different, but I wouldn’t recommend a mind like mine to someone who wouldn’t be able to handle it since I’m barely able to handle it myself with decades of experience.
That’s good for you, but don’t act like that’s the typical ADHD experience. There is literally no benefit to this for me. It’s a disability. There are so so so many neurotypical people who also meet the description of the advantages you’re talking about. It’s nothing unique to ADHD. And, that’s great for you, I’m glad you’re able to find what you believe to be a silver lining, but don’t say it’s some sort of universal advantage of ADHD. My wife has ADHD and definitely doesn’t have that aspect.
One thing I’ve learned about ADHD is that since we can’t control our thinking, we are each so divergent from the typical experience that we have little in common even with one another aside from common symptoms and the obvious reaction to those symptoms. My experience is not at all to invalidate anyone else’s experience. That being said, it’s very likely that the reason you are with your wife is at least partly due to how she is, and how she is is heavily influenced by her adhd. There are likely things you love about your wife that are directly influenced by her adhd or her life experience living with adhd.
If my wife and/or I were to magically lose our ADHD I firmly believe we’d stay in love. We’ve been together for 16 years and married for 10. I’ve been with them for over half of my life. We’ve both drastically changed from the people we were to the people we are now. Neither of us would likely fall for the other if we were meeting our past selves (assuming age isn’t a factor, obviously lol).
I wish I could form intimate relationships.
Sleep instantly and without interruption
What up insomnia gang? Coming to you love from the bed at 6 AM. Too late to fall back asleep, too early to get up.
To get what I want by just being cute. Like little kids or cute girls. Or to be automatically excluded from manual labor/heavy lifting for the same reason.
If you’re a healthy boy, the moment you become a teenager is the moment you’re just expected to be performing manual labor or other hot, sweaty activities. At least in the US 🤷
Have you considered trying to dress cute or paint your nails?
It’d be ineffective and in fact, decrease the likelihood of obtaining that default assumption of innocence that cuteness provides. It’d be like tying a pink ribbon to the tail of a tiger. The ribbon itself would be cute but the tiger would still be viewed as a dangerous predator.
Might help with getting out of manual labor though 🤔 🤣
To be consistent on a physical level.
I play guitar and games like rocket league, things that require excellent physical dexterity, and consistency is a big factor. I struggle to repeat physical actions the same way every time. I practice lots, and I’m reasonably good at both things (imho), but I know I screw up more than most people because I can’t repeat things the same way every time.
That’s absolutely normal, especially as people tend to compare their general performance with their peak performance („I managed to play that without errors once, why am I not managing it every time?“).
You can do a number of things to improve your mental consistency within the limits of your current abilities by forming healthy habits around it, if it is very important. E.g. a balanced lifestyle of sorts and a good warmup routine when playing your instrument, but even then you will have off days.
If you want to nail that section consistently, you will have to increase your skill ceiling quite a bit, way beyond „nailing it once“. Usually you don’t notice that progress as much with instruments, because ideally the things you are working on are always challenging you at your current level, but try going back to something you played one or two years ago. You may have to refresh the piece until it sounds good again, but then you will probably be way more consistent about your performance than the first time around.
Rocket league is a completely different skill set, but the concepts apply in the same way. Structuring your life around being in ideal mental and physical condition to perform in a video game is probably a lot less useful for your life, but I’d bet every professional player does it.
Maintain eye contact.
Shit makes me so uncomfortable. Look at me all you want, that’s fine. I’m going to look at that plant.
If you want to look at that plant, I’ll look at you, but you can’t have both.
Unless we both look at the plant. That’s fine too.
Out of curiosity, how does it feel for you to look at someone’s nose while they are looking in your eyes?
I wish I could actually listen to what is being said to me for more than 5 minutes. Instead of having my attention drift off and me starting to daydream about something the other said.
The sort of natural looking and sincere charm that someone like Robert Downey Jr. can just turn on and work the whole room at once, not that fake or smarmy shit that has people commenting that it fake after the fact.
I’ve worked with accounts guys who can do it, I’ve watched them work close up, but I be damned if I cant just naturally do that.
I wish I could have a baseline functional understanding of human interaction & relationships.
As someone who transitioned from a deeply introverted anxious young adult with a persistent stammer, to a relatively outgoing person who is capable of clear communication, the secret is caring less and forgetting that you exist.
There are steps though to get there:
- Look at a person. De-age them back to when they were a shy or excited or inquisite toddler. That’s their base model. Anything built on that is just extra wisdom or fluff or bluster.
- Talk to people like you would an innocent child, just use more grownup words.
- Cheat questions:
- “How was your day today” “what did you get up to” “hows your upcoming week looking”
- Cheat responses:
- “nice!” “well done!” “oh damn”
- Cheat moves:
- Eye contact. Look at people in the eye, then look away when describing something, then look them in the eye again.
- Nodding: Make nodding gestures as they respond to you
- Hands: Gesture with your hands when you describe something.
- Smile: You don’t need to smile, but it helps. You can look away when you do it.
- Listening helps but is top-tier and isn’t a requirement
- Learn to build connections through topics though. If they’re talking about cats, remember your dog.
- Signal it’s your turn: I suck at this and wait for gaps, which usually means I forget what I wanted to say, but you can signal in other ways
- Yes: Finger gun and a nod whilst inhaling
- No: Polite laugh and a head shake whilst exhaling
- Random: if someone won’t stop, they need to be stopped. Just jump in with your crab story, who cares.
This should hopefully get you along the way to forgetting that you exist in a conversation, and it should become second nature after a while.
To light things on fire with my mind.
You know someone who can light a fire with their mind?
Maybe. On a completely unrelated note, can you let me know the next time you’ll be in public, preferably not standing within several feet of anyone else and anything flammable?
