How to not fail at life

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Also, there is something autism-like up with my ex and our daughter. I don't know what it is but on  the suggestion of her teacher we took her to a neurologist who diagnosed her with "pervasive developmental disorder", which is very broad and covers autism spectrum disorders. She is so much like him, it's incredible. Fortunately she also seems to have have a strong sense of empathy, which he lacks.

Objectively I test into autism spectrum disorder fairly strongly, but I don't manifest it in any other way. My ex clearly has something like that going on, as does our daughter, but both compensate for it to the point of being functional. But you can't be around people like this without knowing something is different about them. Well, fuck, it was evident in LO from a very, very early age, as opposed to MO, who was a difficult baby but is clearly free from any of the heritable banes of our nerd family clusterfuck. Being around a totally normal kid like that, also, is a stark and awakening counterpoint to the weirdness of everyone else.

[Captain Utopia]

The thing I find interesting about the OP, is that it starts by identifying with the spag - "other people really suck, don't they?", and then halfway through turns that around into "No, actually, you probably suck more".  And it's stating the obvious to say that if it hadn't included the coddling, then it would have been immediately rejected - the spag wouldn't have bothered to read it.

But that carrot/stick switcheroo is something which the materials we create often lack.  Sure, we can craft a nice looking stick, but will the intended audience get that far if they're not first invested in our carrot?

[P3nT4gR4m]

The thing I find interesting about the OP, is that it starts by identifying with the spag - "other people really suck, don't they?", and then halfway through turns that around into "No, actually, you probably suck more".  And it's stating the obvious to say that if it hadn't included the coddling, then it would have been immediately rejected - the spag wouldn't have bothered to read it.

But that carrot/stick switcheroo is something which the materials we create often lack.  Sure, we can craft a nice looking stick, but will the intended audience get that far if they're not first invested in our carrot?

I think you might just be onto something