#brainstuff

hyperfixation can be a real power if you learn how to aim it right.

it’s not about being maniacal about something and spending hours running in cycles; it’s about reading articles and reddit threads and books, watching videos on YouTube and movies, and listening to podcasts. obtaining information in large volumes and analyzing it.

it can be hard, it can be a struggle, and maybe someone will get to: “why should I do all of this? I can just get a short answer from ChatGPT or something.” and that someone would have a point. BUT hyperfixation’s point is not getting an answer, but getting LITTLE answers on the way to something BIG. and when you gather little answers yourself, and put it all together, you’ll get a result. and even if it’s not new, and you could’ve gotten it simply by receiving an answer from someone or something, it won’t matter. after all, even if there’s nothing new in the world, there will be something that will be YOURS.

hyperfixation gives you deep focus most people struggle to access. it helps you learn faster (because your brain wants to be there), notice details others miss, and keep going longer without needing constant “motivation.” it creates “flow,” which not only feels genuinely good, but can help you improve real skills like art, coding, languages, music—and gives your brain a clear goal instead of scattered noise.

in some way, hyperfixation can actually be a great counterweight to “clip thinking” (short attention bursts trained by endless scrolling), because it retrains your brain to tolerate boredom—and boredom is where focus grows. it gives “earned dopamine” instead of “scroll dopamine.” and it feels calmer and longer-lasting than the quick spike from videos.

Bc for most of my life, my priority in communicating out loud was to seem neurotypical. Someone would say something, and instead of trying to think "what am I thinking, and how do I communicate it?" Because that took too long. And if I waited to talk, people would think I was weird.

So instead, my brain would go "What is the quickest thought I can verbalize that is both coherent, and relevant to what was just said?"

Now, though, I'm starting to trust that I won't be punished for stating my actual thoughts, nor for taking a moment to organize them--and if someone tries to, I can stand up for myself, or even just ignore them. I don't care what they think.

And the end result is that I do tend to pause more before speaking, and I will tell people I need a moment to think while I do so. And I do tend to phrase things in a certain robotic way. "I don't have information about that subject" rather than "Uhhhhh I don't know." "I need more information before I can answer your question" rather than "What?"

Netflix MCU women, part 2. Your fave Misty Knight (Simone Missick) is autistic.

Misty is the first of the Netflix women that I pinged as autistic. She’s one of the first women I pinged as autistic by myself, actually, and it didn’t take long. It wasn’t because she had obvious stims, or because I could recognize her social patterns from my own behavior (or a checklist), or any of the usual stuff. No, Misty revealed herself to me as autistic the first time she went into her Mind Palace™.

Let me explain.

It is 11:30 pm at the end of a very busy Friday.

My Anxiety: Sure, right after we’re done stressing out about not being prepared for tonight’s session.

Me: That seems paradoxical, when will we be done stressing out?