Executive Function (why simple things are fun)

[Fruiteloop]

I have a brother who likes to make stuff.
He is very mechanically driven.
me on the other hand,
I wondered why he was so interested in simple things.

I cannot fully explain it but I think it has to do with executive function.

I am not saying that I am more interested in complex things where I make them or anything.
I just have no desire to make things I find do not give me a sense of novelty about them.
Yes I made some things but I never made anything I had the imagination for like those I've seen on tv
I've always been like: if I cannot build a rocket ship then why bother, and if I need to build one what are the requirements, I need to study them.

So I guess its not so much for me a problem of can I make stuff,
rather its been a meta problem of can I make what I will find cool.

I speculate that making stuff has fixed set points then where you get into the flow.
You see something you think is cool and try to make it succeeding or failing.

I have failed so many times because those things I found cool were to much for me to plan out.
Yet my brother has made many simple objects he finds cool as toys to play with.
Me I rather want to know why things are the way they are being intuitive.
This creates a whole mess for me because I understand things out there exist I cannot make which I find cool.

The closest analogy is art.
I cannot create art but I can collect art and think about art I'd like to have.
My brother in this analogy creates better pictures than I do but not the ones I am interested in.
This then makes me think about what art is and why it happened and why it instils certain feelings in me.

Back to executive functioning.
I do not have high ability to make stuff requiring planning.
Once I research how something is done I forget about it because the novelty wore off.
I never really get into a flow state but I think allot of what I would like to make.

Sometimes that is frustrating but I am almost in a state of local maximum.

Local maximum is the high hill on a plane but not the highest hill.
I am somewhat on a lower hill but can see higher ones I just do not have the Executive function to reach them.
In my notebooks I often stair at the paper for hours not really getting anywhere just make doodles of my ideas.
They are too complex for me to draw and I am not good at drawing.
Always I turn them inside myself to look for possibilities I missed.

An example is the Rubik's cube, I never solved it by myself.
I know an algorithm exists for it but then it pointless unless you solve it by yourself.

If there was a way to increase executive function I would do it because I be able to do things by myself and get into a flow state.

But then I might reach a local maximum and lose all my ideas I thought was cool to begin with.

Things would be better if I had money, money help out allot.
Then I could experiment just a little bit.
But I am fine with where I am at since the emotional part of feeling depressed went away.

I just need feedback and Executive functioning is self feedback.

Those with high executive functioning can think out what is needed to do then do it.
But this relates to peaks and valleys of what you can do at each level and resources.
My situation is just one level of what happens at a certain ability.
Flow states happen given ranges of what a person can do.

 

[Fruiteloop]

I guess I forgot to say:

When in the flow state everything seems simple because it is at our level.

That would be the fun part.

 

[John K]

@Fruiteloop what would you say are your strengths, the things you are best at?

 

[Fruiteloop]

@Fruiteloop what would you say are your strengths, the things you are best at?

I do not know for sure.

I study but am I good at it?

*

Thinking about thinking.

not so much designing

I practiced writing my ideas down, communicating them to others.

I know many facts about abstract things and common things.

Sometimes I recognize patterns in subject areas others do not see.

Many tests I took I tried to understand the theory behind them.

IQ, MBTI, OCEAN, general psychology

I take atomoxetine which is a norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor.

This reduced my anxiety more than half.

several other meds I take as well.

 

[John K]

Something I learnt working in a large multi-national company is that people develop themselves far better if they focus on building up what they are already doing reasonably well rather than trying to develop things they are not so good at. You get the reward of seeing results and progress quickly and that's both a confidence booster and springboard to jump off.

In forum here, you have a natural way of expressing interesting thoughts in a number of different directions, and you come at them with both thought and feeling. Maybe seeing that as one of your strengths and thinking of projects that use these skills may give you your own equivalent of what your brother makes. It doesn't need perfectionism - when it comes to art for example, I'd often rather see a picture with deep meaning that's not particularly well made technically than some picture that's technically perfect but lacks any significance.