50 years old - is Aspergers diagnosis worth it?

richardsw16 said:

I'm currently working with engineers who can't stop fiddling with projects to reach their nirvana.

Well, that is their aspie tendencies coming out to play. Do you see obsessional attention to detail? poor communication skills? better understadning of things rather than people? A lot of engineers are on the spectrum but their environments have usually worked out how to accomodate them - it is common to separate man-management duties from technical subject matter experts and it is common to recognise technical skills as at least as important as political skills. I have also found that two undiagnosed aspies can be a recipe for fireworks - before I was diagnosed I was driven to tears by another who I comprehensively failed to get on with. In hindsight, it was sooo explainable and understandable. I am learning to be utterly patient and calm when dealing with others - particularly with people who I think are on the spectrum. There is no point in getting worked up. Listening is also a skill that we are not good at - if someone is being resistant to your ideas then there may well be a valid reason but they sometimes can't communicate that reason well.

Regimented regimes are bad. A previous boss was ex-forces and I couldn't work with him because he treated everyone the same and tried to enforce process as more important than the actual product. Good processes are essential and serve to help the process along. Bad processes become ends in themselves.

Thanks for the book tip - I think it might be useful for my current situation ("resting" between jobs!)

richardsw16 said:

I'm currently working with engineers who can't stop fiddling with projects to reach their nirvana.

Well, that is their aspie tendencies coming out to play. Do you see obsessional attention to detail? poor communication skills? better understadning of things rather than people? A lot of engineers are on the spectrum but their environments have usually worked out how to accomodate them - it is common to separate man-management duties from technical subject matter experts and it is common to recognise technical skills as at least as important as political skills. I have also found that two undiagnosed aspies can be a recipe for fireworks - before I was diagnosed I was driven to tears by another who I comprehensively failed to get on with. In hindsight, it was sooo explainable and understandable. I am learning to be utterly patient and calm when dealing with others - particularly with people who I think are on the spectrum. There is no point in getting worked up. Listening is also a skill that we are not good at - if someone is being resistant to your ideas then there may well be a valid reason but they sometimes can't communicate that reason well.

Regimented regimes are bad. A previous boss was ex-forces and I couldn't work with him because he treated everyone the same and tried to enforce process as more important than the actual product. Good processes are essential and serve to help the process along. Bad processes become ends in themselves.

Thanks for the book tip - I think it might be useful for my current situation ("resting" between jobs!)