Thanks for this. I just bought 2 Barbara Sher books for my Kindle and plan to take them in soon. I did a bit of Googling on this scanner thing and realized…that’s me and someone acknowledges that some people are fundamentally different. In talking to a friend of mine awhile back who I think is in this group, he mentioned of others, “they can’t zoom out like we do.” I feel like I fight all the time. I exceeded the measurement of the IQ test I took in high school, but at the same time, I’m having problems getting through tech interviews because I just don’t think “that” way. For straight analytical work, I’m positively glacial. But, my strength has been having a strong sense of when we’re doing things that aren’t productive and keeping people efficient. I often see the problems before we even start. I once described the difference in thinking as in choosing a car, some people want to see a spec sheet; I say “throw me the keys”.
They say the split brain theories are myths, but I think we can’t escape the fact that some people are much more non-verbal. I had serious difficulty in school because I was forced to follow defined steps in problem solving. I often already “felt” the answer, but proceeding through the steps was the problem. I’m finding the interview process in our industry (I’m a software engineer) filters out people like me…but I’ve moved into being the lead engineer in my last 2 jobs shortly after getting them.
I’ve been following Joe for the last couple of weeks. I’ve felt the underlying problem he’s describing for quite some time now. I read The End of Work some time back, and it’s always been there in the back of my mind that it’s happening. We’re reaching a point where capitalism doesn’t want most people, but I don’t know how it will continue to feed itself. It reminds me of an ouroboros.
As for the scanner thing, another problem of mine is that I learn how to do things and then do nothing with them because I lose interest as soon as I fully understand them. I was an art major and also an English major for some time before I finished Computer Science. I sometimes feel dead inside because I don’t do much creative anymore but I still feel as though I never specialize enough in the computer stuff to satisfy everyone. Maybe I’m not the problem.
