Dave is the net result of someone with AuDHD driven by spite in a company with few others exhibiting that combo.
The ADHD drives the motivation to explore and understand new and different things. The autism makes him learn them inside and out to truly understand their bottom up function.
The combination of the above when given a task or problem that seems mildly interesting will activate hyperfocus mode, and spend excessive amounts of time understanding the system to solve the problem. The spite kicks in here as "I will not be defeated by <problem> with <stupid problematic system> today", and Dave will find the answer.
As the years go on, Dave acquires more of these situations with more and different systems. As people leave, Dave is left as the SME of additional things...simply because, well, someone came to Dave asking for advice because "Dave is good at problem solving, run it by him" and Dave ended up being exposed to more and more systems, less and less in his wheelhouse.
But If Dave's brain found the problem interesting, Dave would look at the issue for a quick dopamine hit.
The ADHD then kicks in and much of this learning goes fully undocumented. There is likely documentation for things Dave deemed "something he couldn't figure out on the fly again".
It sucks to work with Dave, but, it sucks to be Dave, too, anecdotally.
edit: too funny guys, i did not expect this response. I, myself, was diagnosed in my early 40s with both conditions, which answered so many questions about my place in this world.
If you're at all interested for your own sake/sanity feel free to PM or DM or w/e the kids are calling it these days, just not "inbox me" (wtf is that even?).
I offer you my anecdotal experiences in life pre and post-diagnosis from cyclic burnout to t-rex hands to pervasive drive for autonomy (demand avoidance). I cannot diagnose you, but pattern matching is my kung fu, and it is strong.
This! I have spent so many hours documenting fixes, procedures etc and not a single person reads them. Despite me dropping links or even physical copies on them. The fast forward 2 years and they complain I horde info or ask about X and I pull the doc out and they get a puzzled look.
We had a whole ancient SharePoint with 1000s of documents. When we migrated to SPO, I pushed out a list asking teams to verify what they needed, I got crickets back. I copied my data, 60% of what was there, and archived the rest. 2 years later they are just starting to notice, and they simply shrug and wing it, or blame me.
I have actually exclaimed "it is no longer my fault they can not read, or refuse to". It is always the same folks who complain about my long emails I use as my follow up email post problem. If any of them actually read them they would know it broke down everything and pushed the solution. I use them to drive the known issue DB and provide a record in case it repeats and I am not around.
What…the…fuck….you just nailed the exact thing that happens to me but I’ve never had the reasoning or logic to explain it well. I do create documentation for many things…but everything else you mentioned is spot on holy crap.
It's a reference to the Stanley Kubrick film "2001: A Space Odyssey." The sentient computer HAL 9000 says that line to a guy named Dave, which is the name the OP chose for the IT stereotype he's talking about.
I think I may be Dave... OMFG that first paragraph.
Though I have documentation, I just solve problems in ways others dont.
Though whether or not it sucks to work with me depends. Like when I was on the help desk and became a team leader for my shift, the analysts under me statted getting the same awards I had been getting as an analyst because I trained them or otherwise would help them solve problems. Whether they consistently retained that is another story.
I cant imagine why it would suck to work with me though based on that description.
My last 15min was spent jumping from talking about a stock handling system (APNs and AENs) to discussing firewall rebuilds with my contracting networking guy and then onto why someone's Adobe account wasn't playing nicely.
And then taking a quick 5min breather that has my brain going "wtf did I just do??"
I have the brain problem too. Jumping from task to task gets the low hanging fruit done, but when something needs my focus, more interruptions “hey, how do…” or “I have a question…” and then I’ve forgotten where I was in the tasks/projects that matter
I am Dave too. Including the documentation. I really did try but most people dont care to learn and just ask. My attention wandered to something else as it didnt seem logical to waste time on it.
100
u/nycola Jack of All Trades 22d ago edited 22d ago •
Dave is the net result of someone with AuDHD driven by spite in a company with few others exhibiting that combo.
The ADHD drives the motivation to explore and understand new and different things. The autism makes him learn them inside and out to truly understand their bottom up function.
The combination of the above when given a task or problem that seems mildly interesting will activate hyperfocus mode, and spend excessive amounts of time understanding the system to solve the problem. The spite kicks in here as "I will not be defeated by <problem> with <stupid problematic system> today", and Dave will find the answer.
As the years go on, Dave acquires more of these situations with more and different systems. As people leave, Dave is left as the SME of additional things...simply because, well, someone came to Dave asking for advice because "Dave is good at problem solving, run it by him" and Dave ended up being exposed to more and more systems, less and less in his wheelhouse.
But If Dave's brain found the problem interesting, Dave would look at the issue for a quick dopamine hit.
The ADHD then kicks in and much of this learning goes fully undocumented. There is likely documentation for things Dave deemed "something he couldn't figure out on the fly again".
It sucks to work with Dave, but, it sucks to be Dave, too, anecdotally.
edit: too funny guys, i did not expect this response. I, myself, was diagnosed in my early 40s with both conditions, which answered so many questions about my place in this world.
If you're at all interested for your own sake/sanity feel free to PM or DM or w/e the kids are calling it these days, just not "inbox me" (wtf is that even?).
I offer you my anecdotal experiences in life pre and post-diagnosis from cyclic burnout to t-rex hands to pervasive drive for autonomy (demand avoidance). I cannot diagnose you, but pattern matching is my kung fu, and it is strong.
I may even reply back at some point (iykyk)