I see you. In my job, i am funny, interactive and outgoing. But that exhausts me and by the time i get home i can barely speak. People at work look at me like i have lobsters coming out of my ears when i tell them how introverted i am. On the Meyers-Briggs inventory (is that even still a thing? It was huge when i was young!) I am as far out on the I-scale as it was possible to be. INTP ftw! Apparently that is not a “normal” profile for a pediatrician, or at least so my advisor told me as he recommended pathology or radiology for my residency. 30 years later, i think i was right and he was full of shit, but it is hard work, man.
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My mom, who was a well known Ob/Gyn had a huge social circle, known for being outgoing and gregarious and authoritative in her professional life, spent the majority of her time at home in bed reading mystery novels. She projected extrovert very well when she had to, but in private was one of the biggest introverts I’ve met.
The time I spent with her partners in private, I think a lot of doctors are somewhat introverted but are forced to perform extroversion for their jobs.
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A fun (or “fun”) Myers-Briggs game is to have your friends answer the quiz on your behalf. My friends once clocked my INTJ ass as an ENFP. I guess we agree on intuition vs sensing, at least.
Whole thing’s a bunch of hooey anyway, amirite?
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Every single one of those things listed was relatable. 
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It’s kind of on-brand for me to feel this way, but…
To me the truly dumb part (*) about Myers-Briggs is taking the four scores (I/E, N/S, T/F, P/J) which may have some superficial value, and then converting them all to binary choices.
I’ve taken it many times over the course of many years. I always score very near 100% on introversion, which is hardly a surprise to me. But on all of the others I’m never far from 50%… so one time it’ll say I’m INFP, the next ISTJ. I have never learned anything about myself from taking the test.
…
(*) no wait, the dumbest part is when companies use the test for employment purposes because they think an ENTJ will be a better fit for the position.
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Oh, god, the object permanence. Relatedly, I once couldn’t find the kitchen roll, because the loose sheet had gotten stuck on the dispenser thingummy upon which said roll lives, making a triangle shape, and I was looking for a cylinder shape. Some days are… worse than others…
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Today I nearly locked my keys in my trunk because I had them in my hand when I reached into the trunk to grab something. When I picked up the other thing my hands forgot about the existence of the keys and just dropped them into the trunk-junk gyre. Luckily I checked my pocket and found them missing before I shut the trunk lid.
This is no less than the third time this has happened to me. The first two times, I succeeded in locking myself out of my car.
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I learned long ago to tie keys to me with string. My car has keyless entry, thank fuck, so I can keep the key in a button down pocket l.
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I keep my spare car key in my purse because of this. I swear car keys have some weird physical property that causes them to teleport short distances randomly.
Yes, that’s so frustrating. The number of times I’ve overlooked the thing I’m looking for actively when it’s right in front of me…
On the other hand, if I intentionally put something away, I’ll remember exactly where it is forever. ‘Oh you need the thingamajig? It’s in the storage room, in a box under the green box of xmas decorations, in a bag on the left side under the old cat blanket’. Why am I like this?
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I mostly have the cope to deal with the keys… I used to keep them chained to my person; nowadays they live in a zipped pocket when they are not literally in my hand. The only situation where I have ever locked myself out of my car since I-don’t-know-when has been when rummaging in the trunk. It’s indicative of some kind of hole in my compensation mechanisms.
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I once couldn’t find the lighter that was in my “other” hand. I groped all my pockets, moved the lighter so I could see if it was in the pack of smokes, told my friends I couldn’t find it, then I finally “found” it.
Being a good sport, I did have the grace to tell them where I’d just found it, so they could point and laugh.
Granted, I was quite stoned, but I do that shit while ahem stone cold sober, too, also.
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Last night my very neurodivergent wife was getting frustrated looking for her misplaced vape while I was reading in bed, so I put down my book to help her look and what did I see in her hand as soon as I looked up? Yep. The vape she was getting really frustrated trying to find. She got a good laugh about it at least.
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Awwww! /sad but still amused smile
I hope she hit it 3X in quick succession after that. She deserved it.
I joined them in heartily laughing at myself that time, but every once in a while that shit scares fuck outta me.
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Yeah, I often feel very frustrated with myself and worry about my ability to function. But that’s usually in a fit of frustration about something.
Lately that’s mostly just keeping the place clean. I’m currently carrying the family as the only earner and main admin person, and have been since my wife got to Canada. I’m very often completely out of executive function thanks to this, and she is because she’s not been able to work until quite recently but hasn’t found a job yet.
It doesn’t help that both of us are ADHD and probably autistic, and our kids are both neurodivergent as well. If no one has spoons, it can turn into a disaster area far too quickly.
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I was relieved to find out that it was this kind of 
that Google and friends use for targeting. Not that directly, but in the same vein. At least our AI-pushing, data hoovering, wannabe overlords are doing something fundamentally borked and doomed to failure.
Edit: Funny story… So I took one of these sorts of tests as part of an executive “reassignment” process. The consultant got the results back, looked at me and said “I’m scared.” “Why?”, I asked. “I’ve never seen 10/10 on the ‘Willpower’ axis before.” It wasn’t wrong…
Me too! Last week. 
Except that the keys ended up in the trunk.
Me too! Now… the number was… 
… 
…
Me too! Thank you! You found my keys for me.
@chgoliz Hyper attentive … I always put that down to the three building fires in my apartment block and whitewater kayaking (a sport where invisible monsters in the river are always trying to grab your boat…)
Random thoughts… … we’d always put that down to growing up with the CBC on the radio, which gives you a boundless library of trivia at your mental fingertips, and being in a community of scientists. Upon careful consideration, I’m prepared to hypothesize that a nuclear research community is probably one with more than its fair share of ND.
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Object permanence is such a huge factor for me. If I’m not paying enough attention to where I’m putting something down as I’m doing it, it’s like the object just… disappears into an alternate dimension. I can lose hours ripping my surroundings apart looking for it, because there are times my brain refuses to stop nagging me until I find where the whatsit went (and said brain is usually insulting/cussing me out the whole time until I manage to find it.) Add in the fact that I’m rarely physically¹ organized and attract clutter like a magnet and yeah, I’ve lost so much time that way…
If I’m very lucky, the mental notation in my brain sticks well enough that I remember where the object is, or I can retrace my thought process well enough to find the object quickly. I’m not always that lucky, especially if I’m thinking about something else (or several somethings) while moving around.
I’ve been like this for as long as I can remember. It’s always made me feel embarrassed, careless, ditzy, bad, like there’s something wrong with me when I can’t keep track of things like everybody else seems to.
But if I’m neurodivergent (and the evidence keeps mounting)… I’m different, but maybe not bad, if you get the distinction. There’s an odd kind of relief in that.
¹ At work I can organize fairly well, although some bosses have been a little exasperated at how my paperwork can spread itself out to all available counter space before I’m done with it. 
Still, there’s usually systems in place for me to follow, and I’ve invented systems when there weren’t. I’m better at keeping digitally organized, mostly (If I keep up with file tagging and folder management.)
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I gave a DJ GF many GBs of music from an external drive while she was spinning at a local performance space/gallery show. After the process had run for quite some time, I told her, “All albums have their own folder. Tracks are in the same order as on the album. All tracks are numbered & titled, unless the album came from a demented site & I didn’t get around to fixing them. Album folders include all the artwork I could find. When there are more than 2 albums by the same band, the albums are together in a folder w/the band name on it. There are some folders of specific genres, w/all the albums in 'em.”
She grabbed my shoulders, looked deep into my eyes, then gave me a massive hug 
If only I could organize myself, my life, and my tasks that well…
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Long ago in the days of cassettes, a friend was over at my apartment. It was student lodgings, and was a the far end of the “disorganized” scale - everything was everywhere. I had to run a quick errand, and he waited at my shambles of a place. He decided he wanted some music, and opened one of my cassette drawers. The surroundings made him wonder what he would find in the random mess of music, and was startled to find that the albums were in alphabetical order by artist, and within each artist the albums were sorted by year of release.
I wish I could turn that on at will.
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As it should be!
I was shocked to find out not everybody does this.
What a world.
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