cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/31225630
I have approximate knowledge of many rules
I like to say: "If there's one thing I know, it's trivia!" Nobody seems to think it's as clever as I do though :(
this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2025
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ADHD
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I have an approximate knowledge of many things.
I sometimes think that then I realize what I think is surface level is actually pretty far down on the ice burg.
Yep. And then add to that "you're smart" stuff coming from parents that would rather die than believe anything you tell them if it even slightly contradicts opinions they formed 40 years ago
Almost seems like an effort to other you as "smart" while getting to appear as they're complimenting you
They're probably not aware of it but that is exactly what they're doing by labelling you as 'smart' and implying they are not. Too bad they fail to notice the connotation of excluding themselves from the 'smart' category.
Through work experience ive come to understand that most normal people actually also only have surface knowledge of their supposedly specialist field, or it is so narrow and oddly specific that it doesn't apply for real world scenarios. The difference being they are not aware of their own lack of knowledge and cannot believe that there are things they don't actually know or need to learn in order to get better at what they do. There are far between actually good specialist who understands their own limitations.
People with ADHD I know are much more aware of their own lack of knowledge and will do absolutely everything to gather ALL the knowledge they can and use that surface knowledge they have on a million topics to find applicable places to dive further into. However controling the brain about what's "applicable" is the issue far an ADHD brain and where we need help to sort the gold from the noise. But it is an invaluable skill to have that curiosity and creativity and knowledge of a million things, it's just about how you use it.
An expert knows more and more about less and less until he or she knows everything about nothing. - Nicholas Butler
A wonderfully succinct explanation of why I decided - whilst still at university - that academia was not the path for me...
For me it was how unlikely it was to have a decent life. It felt more like the odds of someone trying to become an actor. small chance of goal, high chance of barely scraping by.
Starting to think it isn't for me either.
I feel your pain. Academically I was going into research and ended up leaving for tech. I often wonder if Im to much of a dilatante to develop deep understandings. I did have a professor who I liked who talked about depth and breath. This was a bit of a meta class around writing a doctorate and she was like yeah your paper needs to delve into the specifics of the research but needs to tie it back into the field in general and you have to maintain a broad understanding of the field.
I have that feeling until I get pulled into a deep technical discussion and realize I know more than everyone else in the call. Although I still qualify everything with, "I might be mistaken, but I believe..."
thats sounds like me. 99% means its almost impossible for it to be anything else but I just can't bring myself to say its definite.
As Adam Savage once said:
Jack of all trades, master of none, though often better than a master of one
and that's the hill I'm willing to die on
There is a lot to be said for being a jack of all trades. I can do a lot of things in my day-to-day life with relative ease, like cooking a meal or working on my car. I also enjoy reading the news and understanding what it says, and if there is something that I'm unsure of, I know where to go to find out what I'm missing. If I were really good with one thing, sure, I'd potentially have a higher paying job in that field, but I'd be missing out on a lot of other things.
Exactly. Knowing something in a variety of fields enabled me to fix devices and appliances, work on my car, do all kinds of home crafts, bond with people over shared interests, dive into more complex topics, the list goes on. I never needed to call a technician/craftsmen. And I certainly don't want to be a worker drone that can do one thing and one thing only (not meant to sound condescending).
Don't let that identity hold you back from getting good at things though, or realising when you're good at something. Speaking from experience, you can still become an expert as a Jack of all trades, it just tends to take a bit longer since you're not spending as much time on one thing all in one go.
I doubt I have ADHD. Sometimes I just feel personally attacked by some of these memes.
Or be getting a PhD and have insane depth of knowledge on one thing that is applicable to nothing 0_o
I fell both sides
Amen !! I've had too many managers with multiple PhDs and they knew nothing at all about basic stuff that's still well within the field of their study but not directly on the project they did.
I'm in this picture and I don't like it
I feel the exactly same, though I never never knowbwhen to attribute it to impostor syndrome...
Like ppl give me positive feedback when I share smth about my limited topics of genuine interest but I have a hard time believing them...
Damn it's too early to see myself in a post like this lol
Apparently I've been this way my entire life, even as a kid I couldn't take a compliment I'd just argue against it lol