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The information on Groklaw is not intended to constitute legal advice. While Mark is a lawyer and he has asked other lawyers and law students to contribute articles, all of these articles are offered to help educate, not to provide specific legal advice. They are not your lawyers.

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You may have just done my family a big favor... | 627 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
You may have just done my family a big favor...
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, November 03 2012 @ 04:41 AM EDT
Well, I've been through the medical mills, and with rather little to show for it.

The main takeaway lesson is to just scrap the "come on, it can't be that hard" kind of rationalization in particular in connection with procrastination. Drugs can push the thresholds around a bit and help getting over a temporary deadlock, but they are also pushing personality in directions that were bad to start with.

The only thing that works is playing with open cards. If you don't interface with the rest of the world "as you should" and it turns out that you can't effectively change that, remember that an interface consists of two parts. And at least the part of the world that you daily interface with can be involved in making things work.

The problem with a clinical diagnosis is that it triggers the "pity mechanisms" where people stop having expectations from you, turning you into inferior baggage. When indeed what is needed is the will to check out different approaches to meeting or exceeding expectations.

I don't know the situation of your nephew. Whatever his problems are, I don't think you can go wrong much by giving him enough leeway to develop in directions that interest him. In today's amusement society, it is rather easy to deadlock on entirely unproductive endeavors that don't add to any skills you have.

Especially people with autistic traits, however, can obsess about skills that are sought after, even if they can't tackle tasks in a structured and plannable way.

I am currently letting myself be paid (admittedly, rather badly) by other volunteers working on GNU LilyPond, a free software music typesetting program.

The initial "problem description" was posted in this article, and I had enough to offer here that so far, this appeal worked out to the interest of all.

While the arrangement is likely to break down/peter out, it does spell out one scenario where I was able to tell people "I'll do whatever catches my fancy, and you pass me money with no strings attached as long as you are satisfied with the results, no plans, no promises".

It's not easy finding a employer willing to do that sort of deal, of course. And obviously it will only work when this kind of haphazard work ethics is compensated by an uncommon degree of skills, turning the arrangement into a net win.

So be sure that you don't waste the entirety of your nephew's time and energy on becoming "normal". The results will likely be sub-par. And if he wants to compete in the real world, he will need to be better at some things than others to make up for it. Be sure to leave breathing room for that as well.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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