this is especially true for researchers, most of us would work for free if we had the funding to
Agree, we should exploit autistic people’s hyperfixations for profit 🥀
There are plenty of jobs people don’t want to do unless they’re compelled. Lots of people wouldn’t even bathe if there wasn’t social pressure.
I completely disagree. I think most people want to do something, but they don’t have the means and opportunity to do a thing that fulfills them. I fucking HATE having a job. Coming to a place every day to do the same thing, it kills my motivation to do ANYTHING. The only reason I have one is to eat and to do the things I WANT to do. Usually pretty productive things, such as gardening, programming, repairs.
Those are all productive things. Things I COULD earn money for, but then they become work. I have to do them to survive, and so I no longer find the joy in doing them. If I could do them and not have to worry about bills being paid, I would by all accounts be a more productive member of society.
I don’t think people are all that fundamentally different. We have some differences in preference, but when you get down to the basics the majority of people are pretty similar. Some will fall through the cracks or abuse the system, but by and large no one WANTS to be useless. That’s a learned trait.
I obsessively/compulsively update and optimize computers. I see a missing driver or BIOS update not installed? A dusty CPU Fan? A security alert? I fix. I literally just went to bed after running “sudo dnf update -y && Sudo flatpak upgrade -y” on my wife’s laptop that she doesn’t even use! Thankfully, my work lets me tinker on machines all day, every day, and nobody cares if a side project shows up on the bench every now and then. I would do it for free if I didn’t need the money. When I’m not at work, I do IT for family, and I volunteer at the library. I don’t even game anymore, I self host and tinker. Hell, I spend more time mucking with Jellyfin than watching media. There are people like that. We exist.
I know someone like that who cannot keep a job because of autism and health issues. Luckily she lives in a functioning country and gets state support including money and guidance. She is the regional pet/pony/alpaca carer and her house is always filled with animals from people on holiday or sick animals from people with full time jobs. She also notifies all the local farmers if one of their animals has an issue.
I would literally be the jack of all trades
I’d happily do something completely different every couple of weeks
Not very practical with a 3 month notice period IRL
… And yeah the whole needing to work to not die thing
I’m more or less a professional handyman, it can be done
Im 51. I’ve done this my entire life. My resume is vast and strange.
What’s this gap in your resume? Oh, that’s the two years I was a jeweler. What about this one? That time I managed a retail store. But you’re applying for a manufacturing position sir. Yes, that’s why I only left the relevant bits on the resume, otherwise it would be 7 pages long and you wouldn’t be seeing me now.
Sounds nice, how does it work in reality?




