Why #linkybrains means so much.
Forever I’ve thought I was weird, nerdy and my ‘inability’ to see things like most people was a problem. Then doug_scott and others came out and described it.
Point: It’s not my ability to be normal that’s broken it’s the fact that I cannot be normal. And that is not a BAD THING. I have always been this way. Many other #linkybrains seem to feel the same.
I’m going to write up a longer post about the the impact of #linkybrain patterns on my life and work later but the HUGE standout points are:
Freedom — the whole point of setting up companies for me is to take something everyone else says will not work or don’t understand and make it real but on my own terms. Being wrong is not a problem but more often than not that doesn’t happen.
Work / life balance — this doesn’t exist for me, and doesn’t need to. My brain is always on and enquiring, everything I see is processed and filed away and allows the linky effect of applying different learnings across a whole spectrum of knowledge and how it applies to different things. I have never understood those who don’t do this. What are they thinking about — football/house prices/politics maybe?
Which gives rise to….
Too many ideas. People want less ideas and more execution, but ideas are how what keep you motivated and ticking — take the ideas away and you might as well get a normal job. Which will kill a Linky. Its this mental activity that gives me relentless energy and obsession around things.
The ’wordiness’ Chris Tottman describes in point 9 — people don’t know why you are talking about something or what it means. I have people who came to work for me because of the energy that comes from this stream of consciousness regardless of what they would be doing. These are real people who quit jobs and came to work for me without either of us really knowing why! And they don’t leave.
I’m obsessive. If I exercise I go all out, if I don’t I don’t do any. So its run every day AND ht the gym AND go swimming or don’t do anything. If I start a business it’s all I can think about. And it goes in 2/3 year cycles.
Meetings are mostly a complete waste of fucking time. Especially if organised by someone else. The worst example is meetings to define culture. Save me from those. Please.
Connecting people endlessly, meeting interesting people and understanding who they should meet, helping people find opportunities for no reward or purpose. Because you can — not because you should.
Vision problems. Take an idea for something and quickly join the dots of who, what and how in short order and then get frustrated when people cannot see it. I used to think this was because I couldn’t explain it but it’s because most people need to go through everything and rationalise each dot, process and person IN ORDER. (Which is of course because you cannot explain it. Maybe I should give this law a name :-)
LinkyLaw 1 — You see the answer and can’t get others to see it because they don’t yet even understand the question.
Are the more of these?
Read these: This post by doug_scott was like the sun bursting through the fog for me. Then Chris Tottman wrote this amazing post followed by Alex Dunsdon with this one and I immediately knew there must be others.
Al
