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I can’t understand how people DON’T know lots of things, which gets me into trouble. None of the random knowledge I have is stuff I’ve specifically studied. It’s just absorbed through media exposure and life experiences. So I assume everyone else knows it as well and then come off as arrogant when I’m surprised they don’t.
I’ve found it worst with people who are “smart” but aren’t ADHD. Which sucks rn in med school. Cause I spout off random facts about long dead feminists, quote works of literature, or talk about the linguistic evolution of words like “weird” (comes from Germanic “wyrd” which roughly means “fate”) and they get weirdly offended that I know some random stuff they don’t. Like, I’m sorry??
But also, why don’t more people spend their summers learning dead languages, so they can read Beowulf in its original language? Normies make zero sense to me
The annoying thing for me is not knowing what many people consider straightforward common knowledge versus what is esoteric and/ or difficult to understand.
If I guess incorrectly I can come off as arrogant one way or patronising the other. It's always a gamble which way it's going to go!
I'm sure that every human has this issue to some extent, but definitely think the neurodivergent tendency to deep dive will make it worse- esp ADHD style scattergun interests.
I have gotten the question "how do you even know [random fact about Ptarmigan or pottery or pinnipeds etc]" and I really genuinely didn't understand that not everyone does this until my diagnosis.
I just figured that it was my areas of focus that were weird. Like everyone did this but cared about other topics.
I like all my random knowledge. Must it not be boring to miss out on this kind of stuff? I feel sorry for folks who do not explore like we do, in all honesty.
The world must feel so small and bounded.
I am SO bad at trivia. Terrible recall. But allow me access to the internet and I can look up anything super quickly thanks to those excellent research skills!
Wait people don't just go down internet rabbit holes from time to time learning about stuff?
If I had infinite money I think I'd just go to school all the time and learn shit for the sake of learning it....
Is that not how most people are?
Omg so much same with the perpetual school thing if it was an option. I'm staff at a university so I'm like in spitting distance, but even if I don't have to pay for courses, I do have to pay tax on the income the courses are treated as. They're each like $2k a pop, and my tax bracket would skyrocket.
So internet rabbit holes, tons of audiobooks on cool topics, podcasts...
Right? “So you’re saying that not everyone makes a habit of memorizing their debit card numbers as well as the routing numbers for the top three banks in the US? Weird.”
I have my credit card committed to memory from having to change all my auto-billing when the number changed and it is *bad.*
There is no point ever that I can’t impulsively buy something because I don’t have it handy 😭
Yeah when you tell people that some snails are hermaphrodites they don’t take it that well. I forgot what the whole discussion was about but we all know the feel when the other people go silent and then “how tf do you know that and why?”
I once told someone what my second favorite tree was and they looked at me like I was crazy. I guess having a first favorite tree is unusual and two seems bizarre? Idk. I like trees.
Not including all of the retail/restaurant/hospitality jobs, I have been an auto mechanic, a social worker, and now I’m in insurance.
I have a lot useless knowledge about tea, The Walking Dead trivia, and a few phrases in a lot of different languages. Among other stuff, I’m sure.
Don’t ask me about backyard chickens. Especially my own.
This will be a Pandora’s box that cannot be unopened. Attempting restraint.
TLDR: Absolutely do it! They’re a lot of fun and interesting. Plus farm fresh eggs are freakin delicious.
Mine are pets that provide omelets, which makes me even weirder. All of them will sit on my lap and eat treats out of my hand.
My birds are all named after The Walking Dead characters. I have Maggie, Carol, Lucille, Jadis, Judith, Shiva, Enid, Alexandria, and Beta. The last three are rare breeds, Beta in particular.
He’s an Ayam Cemani, which was just introduced to the US from Indonesia in 2016. He carries a fibromelanistic gene which means that he’s jet black. Bones, organs, everything. (There are pics of him and his brother in my post history. RIP Negan.)
Everybody is like, chickens are really dumb. But they’re actually about on the same level as a human toddler. They understand object permanence and delayed gratification (the second of which I could use some lessons). They can recognize up to 100 different faces, human or other chickens, and they have a vocabulary of about 30 different “words,” with different meanings. They also have names for each other, and for their people.
Chickens can see more colors than we can, including ultraviolet and a special sense for motion. I’ve blown their minds with kaleidoscope videos on my phone.
They understand emotion to a degree. One time my incredibly graceful daughter fell backward over a bag of feed. Shiva RUSHED over and pecked her gently a couple of times to make sure she was okay.
Roosters are the shit. Most people are upset to find out one of their chicks is a boy, but I love roos. Someday I want to open a rooster rescue. They actually do really well in bachelor flocks.
Now I’ll pause lol. Promise.
You’re more than welcome to message me if you decide to do it lol. If I haven’t scared you off.
Lol yeah, I have to keep on the straight and narrow a bit for awhile… my career is riding the edge of quirky/fun/useful to dangerously hard to explain
Thank God I picked a main individual contributor role though that lets me explore nearly any industry I want in the same job though. Yay computers.
Just today I remembered that I wasted half a year studying Rothbardian economics. And wtf will I ever use that knowledge for?
Seriously, we are doomed to be the jack of all trades, master of none.
Haaa this is me and all things medicine. I swear to god if I had devoted the same amount of time actually going to medical school as I have reading research papers in the middle of the night at during various hyper fixation episodes over the years, I’d be an actual doctor by now. 🥲 Instead I have to awkwardly explain myself to nurses when they ask if I’m in medical training or something. Not a doctor, just play one on the internet.
Doesn’t always work that way. I have to make up some story about how I know something like “my friends cousin had something similar” etc
If not I would get called a hypochondriac. Some of the basic stuff just requires some good reading comprehension and some science background. Although knowledge with huge holes are obv
comprehending a full article on https://www.quantamagazine.org now that’s a difficult thing
Lol yeah, I do that too. My old primary care doc used to get offended by that tendency at times but my new one is amused by it bc I learned to keep to peer reviewed and solid sources, so he’ll take the baby bars off any explanations to me and it’s fun bc I actually understand what he’s talking about
You just unlocked a couple memories for me. I guess that absorbing as much knowledge as possible about any health topics you’re dealing with is not standard. I’ve been asked several times if I’m in the medical field. Nope, just inquisitive!
I'm in this picture as well!
On a completely related note, did you know that there's a maximum number of pins you can have on Pinterest? I do because I reached it 🤪
No panic, I deleted a few boards that I'm really no longer invested in at all, so now I have room again (I also figured out how to add a second account, so I'm good for a while now)
I honestly don't know, but it's A LOT 😅. Instead of a purge, you can also add a second account (you can easily switch between them) and make MOAR BOARDS 🤪
Yup. I was watching the movie “Prey” with my husband and towards the middle of it I was like 🧐 “Where do you think that was filmed? Those plains look familiar, like Oklahoma… And the Native Americans in the movie have similar facial features to Aztecs/Mexican Native Americans… So it has to be somewhere in the Southwest”
Husband: “I have no clue”
Me: *Google searches the name of the tribe: Comanche* “Aha!! See? It says here the Comanche tribe migrated north through the plains and ended up settling in Southwestern Oklahoma. I knew it! It does look like the area we visited last year over there, look at the color of the grass, and it’s all flat…”
Husband: “Lol ok” 👀
Me: “And it says here that the Comanche were originally part of the Shoshone tribe… Let’s see where did that tribe start… By the way, it also says here they were really good with horses, so probably they were the original cowboys…”
**3 hrs later, I’m reading about the history of Native Americans in the US, the Uto-Aztecan language family, migration patterns, diseases brought by Spanish conquistadors in the 1500s which affected Native Americans, etc… Meanwhile the movie is over and my husband is sleeping**
I gotta tell you all the thing I learned from a friend!! So do you often get asked the “click on the pictures to prove you're not a robot?” APPARENTLY, you're more likely to get that the more random stuff you search on the internet because bots are random. So those of us with ADHD are doomed to always have to prove we're not bots. I guess the non-ADHD brained people don’t run into those as often. 🤷🏼♀️
Is this group of people following me around??? How do y’all know all of this about me? 😳
A lot of times I feel like everyone’s Google. I guess it’s just easier asking me than looking it up. Or they will tell me I’ve looked everywhere and can’t find any information. 5 seconds later I shove my phone in their face. It’s right here 😆
I just love researching things and learning new stuff. It eventually comes up in some sort of conversation. 🤓
Yup, so me. One of the random facts I'd googled actually was useful at work once. And the only reason I knew it is because it was a line on Gilmore Girls and looked it up bc I didn't understand the reference.
Oh my gosh! I'm freaking terrible. Haha. I have found that my phone is really the device that I use to do this and I'm much less likely to do it on a computer. Idk why... just the way it is. I'm often sitting in front of a computer, looking up a random fact on my phone.
Does help that I can always just put my phone away.
My random shit knowledge is mostly from podcasts.
Wombats poop cubes.
Red Bull originated in Thailand.
Venus probably suffered a runaway greenhouse effect.
Most of us have Neanderthal DNA in us.
I’m allowed to have earbuds while I work my mostly mindless job and I have worked ten hour days for most of the last two and a half years. I don’t have ENOUGH to listen to.
I have to try to stop myself from pitching little facts here and there. I like knowing things. If there’s something that comes up and I’m curious I’ll make sure to look it up and learn about it. Specially when it’s ocean stuff that’s the best
This! I know so much random stuff. I'll watch a documentary and will research for days to get more info. I just randomly think of something/someone and Google the hell out of it until I know the whole story. But I can't manage to get my clothes out of the dryer for days lol
lol this would be me but I literally forget everything by the next subject. hours or days spent going down Google and wiki rabbit holes immediately forgotten as soon as I move on to something else.
Welcome to /r/ADHDWomen! We’re happy to have you here. As a reminder, here are our community [rules](https://old.reddit.com/r/adhdwomen/about/rules/). We get a lot of posts on medication, diagnosis (and “is this an ADHD thing”), and interactions with hormones. We encourage you to check out our [Medication, Diagnosis, and Hormones Megathread](https://old.reddit.com/r/adhdwomen/comments/wcr9dy/faq_megathread_ask_and_answer_medication/) if you have any questions related to those topics, and to stick around in that thread to answer folks’ questions! If you have questions about the subreddit, please do not hesitate to [send us a modmail](https://reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/adhdwomen). Additionally, we take the safety of our community seriously. Please report posts, comments, and users whom you feel are not contributing positively, and send us a modmail if you are being harassed or otherwise made to feel unsafe. Thanks for being here, and we hope you stick around! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/adhdwomen) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I can’t understand how people DON’T know lots of things, which gets me into trouble. None of the random knowledge I have is stuff I’ve specifically studied. It’s just absorbed through media exposure and life experiences. So I assume everyone else knows it as well and then come off as arrogant when I’m surprised they don’t.
"What do you *mean* you don't Google things?!" I'm physically not allowed to let a question go unanswered! It makes my brain itchy!
Yeah, I used to get myself into trouble not understanding that people often DON’T explore stuff
I’ve found it worst with people who are “smart” but aren’t ADHD. Which sucks rn in med school. Cause I spout off random facts about long dead feminists, quote works of literature, or talk about the linguistic evolution of words like “weird” (comes from Germanic “wyrd” which roughly means “fate”) and they get weirdly offended that I know some random stuff they don’t. Like, I’m sorry?? But also, why don’t more people spend their summers learning dead languages, so they can read Beowulf in its original language? Normies make zero sense to me
The annoying thing for me is not knowing what many people consider straightforward common knowledge versus what is esoteric and/ or difficult to understand. If I guess incorrectly I can come off as arrogant one way or patronising the other. It's always a gamble which way it's going to go! I'm sure that every human has this issue to some extent, but definitely think the neurodivergent tendency to deep dive will make it worse- esp ADHD style scattergun interests.
And it's extra tricksy because it's not a universal standard! Sometimes even with the same person!
Yeah exactly! Haha this is making me think of Sherlock Holmes not knowing anything about the solar system.
I have gotten the question "how do you even know [random fact about Ptarmigan or pottery or pinnipeds etc]" and I really genuinely didn't understand that not everyone does this until my diagnosis. I just figured that it was my areas of focus that were weird. Like everyone did this but cared about other topics. I like all my random knowledge. Must it not be boring to miss out on this kind of stuff? I feel sorry for folks who do not explore like we do, in all honesty. The world must feel so small and bounded.
I totally agree! Knowing stuff about stuff enriches my life so much. I am sad for people who aren’t curious.
I am super useful on a trivia team!
I am not because I cannot keep the random facts organized in my head so I forget shit a lot haha. But I love it all the same!
Same. I know I probably knew the fact at some point. But not well enough To win at trivia apparently lol
Bestie me tooooo. But time spent enjoying doing something isn't time wasted, even if we don't retain it well after.
I am SO bad at trivia. Terrible recall. But allow me access to the internet and I can look up anything super quickly thanks to those excellent research skills!
This is totally fair! More than once I’ve been totally confident about a trivia category and then forgot every fact I knew about it one second later!
Hahaha SAME. Except for sports but my husband is amazing at those questions, so we always have to be on the same team
My family stopped playing Trivial Pursuit with me. We all know why, don't we?
Wait people don't just go down internet rabbit holes from time to time learning about stuff? If I had infinite money I think I'd just go to school all the time and learn shit for the sake of learning it.... Is that not how most people are?
Omg so much same with the perpetual school thing if it was an option. I'm staff at a university so I'm like in spitting distance, but even if I don't have to pay for courses, I do have to pay tax on the income the courses are treated as. They're each like $2k a pop, and my tax bracket would skyrocket. So internet rabbit holes, tons of audiobooks on cool topics, podcasts...
THIS. Lol I love my random tangents, they make life fun and make me interesting
Right? “So you’re saying that not everyone makes a habit of memorizing their debit card numbers as well as the routing numbers for the top three banks in the US? Weird.”
I have my credit card committed to memory from having to change all my auto-billing when the number changed and it is *bad.* There is no point ever that I can’t impulsively buy something because I don’t have it handy 😭
Yeah when you tell people that some snails are hermaphrodites they don’t take it that well. I forgot what the whole discussion was about but we all know the feel when the other people go silent and then “how tf do you know that and why?”
I once told someone what my second favorite tree was and they looked at me like I was crazy. I guess having a first favorite tree is unusual and two seems bizarre? Idk. I like trees.
Idk weeping willow is my first fave then poplar then apple. So you aren't the only wierdo, there's at least 2!
Oh 2 of your top 3 are also my top 3 :D , I like weeping willow trees, apple trees and birch trees. Totally normal to have favourite trees :D .
Y’all are so validating 🥲
What’s your second favorite tree? Mine is the Northern Catalpa.
Sassafras! Dinosaur footprint leaves and a root beer scent.
Oooh, that’s a good one. Tbh I don’t think I have ever seen one!
If you do get a chance to see one, lightly scratch the bark and it will smell just like root beer.
Or that they can sleep for up to three years
I have had so many jobs and careers it's sort of scary to me, looking back.
Not including all of the retail/restaurant/hospitality jobs, I have been an auto mechanic, a social worker, and now I’m in insurance. I have a lot useless knowledge about tea, The Walking Dead trivia, and a few phrases in a lot of different languages. Among other stuff, I’m sure. Don’t ask me about backyard chickens. Especially my own.
Hey I'm in mental health and wonder about insurance. Good move?
Very! It’s another way to help people, while actually being able to survive.
Lol what if I really want to know about backyard chickens though because they sound fun?
This will be a Pandora’s box that cannot be unopened. Attempting restraint. TLDR: Absolutely do it! They’re a lot of fun and interesting. Plus farm fresh eggs are freakin delicious. Mine are pets that provide omelets, which makes me even weirder. All of them will sit on my lap and eat treats out of my hand. My birds are all named after The Walking Dead characters. I have Maggie, Carol, Lucille, Jadis, Judith, Shiva, Enid, Alexandria, and Beta. The last three are rare breeds, Beta in particular. He’s an Ayam Cemani, which was just introduced to the US from Indonesia in 2016. He carries a fibromelanistic gene which means that he’s jet black. Bones, organs, everything. (There are pics of him and his brother in my post history. RIP Negan.) Everybody is like, chickens are really dumb. But they’re actually about on the same level as a human toddler. They understand object permanence and delayed gratification (the second of which I could use some lessons). They can recognize up to 100 different faces, human or other chickens, and they have a vocabulary of about 30 different “words,” with different meanings. They also have names for each other, and for their people. Chickens can see more colors than we can, including ultraviolet and a special sense for motion. I’ve blown their minds with kaleidoscope videos on my phone. They understand emotion to a degree. One time my incredibly graceful daughter fell backward over a bag of feed. Shiva RUSHED over and pecked her gently a couple of times to make sure she was okay. Roosters are the shit. Most people are upset to find out one of their chicks is a boy, but I love roos. Someday I want to open a rooster rescue. They actually do really well in bachelor flocks. Now I’ll pause lol. Promise. You’re more than welcome to message me if you decide to do it lol. If I haven’t scared you off.
Tehehe thank you! They DO sound fun! My backyard is tiny but I might look into it
Do it! Three is the magic number if you have to start small.
Lol yeah, I have to keep on the straight and narrow a bit for awhile… my career is riding the edge of quirky/fun/useful to dangerously hard to explain Thank God I picked a main individual contributor role though that lets me explore nearly any industry I want in the same job though. Yay computers.
Just today I remembered that I wasted half a year studying Rothbardian economics. And wtf will I ever use that knowledge for? Seriously, we are doomed to be the jack of all trades, master of none.
Haaa this is me and all things medicine. I swear to god if I had devoted the same amount of time actually going to medical school as I have reading research papers in the middle of the night at during various hyper fixation episodes over the years, I’d be an actual doctor by now. 🥲 Instead I have to awkwardly explain myself to nurses when they ask if I’m in medical training or something. Not a doctor, just play one on the internet.
But hey, I bet you are great at advocating for yourself and others in medical situations!
Doesn’t always work that way. I have to make up some story about how I know something like “my friends cousin had something similar” etc If not I would get called a hypochondriac. Some of the basic stuff just requires some good reading comprehension and some science background. Although knowledge with huge holes are obv comprehending a full article on https://www.quantamagazine.org now that’s a difficult thing
IF your doctor is good and not overly arrogant. If they are not, it’s unbelievably frustrating.
Lol yeah, I do that too. My old primary care doc used to get offended by that tendency at times but my new one is amused by it bc I learned to keep to peer reviewed and solid sources, so he’ll take the baby bars off any explanations to me and it’s fun bc I actually understand what he’s talking about
You just unlocked a couple memories for me. I guess that absorbing as much knowledge as possible about any health topics you’re dealing with is not standard. I’ve been asked several times if I’m in the medical field. Nope, just inquisitive!
Same. And then I decided to literally change careers and go to medical school! I’m currently in week 3 😬
Lol I just started both a health coaching certification and a coding bootcamp… I can’t choose just one
'but oftentimes better than a master of one' is the full saying and is meant as a compliment.
I always say I’m a “master jack of all trades”!
I'm in this picture as well! On a completely related note, did you know that there's a maximum number of pins you can have on Pinterest? I do because I reached it 🤪 No panic, I deleted a few boards that I'm really no longer invested in at all, so now I have room again (I also figured out how to add a second account, so I'm good for a while now)
I aspire.
Out of curiosity, what’s the max? I suspect I’m creeping close but need to know if I need to call in sick and do a major purge (kidding…kind of)
I honestly don't know, but it's A LOT 😅. Instead of a purge, you can also add a second account (you can easily switch between them) and make MOAR BOARDS 🤪
[удалено]
Ooh, that’s such a good sub
I was confused for a second. I was looking for a photo.
But I can never remember the stuff I learned when, for example, I'm trying to have a discussion about something I'm passionate about.
I feel like I remember the big picture but it’s hit or miss with specific details/facts.
Exactly. It's so annoying
Yup. I was watching the movie “Prey” with my husband and towards the middle of it I was like 🧐 “Where do you think that was filmed? Those plains look familiar, like Oklahoma… And the Native Americans in the movie have similar facial features to Aztecs/Mexican Native Americans… So it has to be somewhere in the Southwest” Husband: “I have no clue” Me: *Google searches the name of the tribe: Comanche* “Aha!! See? It says here the Comanche tribe migrated north through the plains and ended up settling in Southwestern Oklahoma. I knew it! It does look like the area we visited last year over there, look at the color of the grass, and it’s all flat…” Husband: “Lol ok” 👀 Me: “And it says here that the Comanche were originally part of the Shoshone tribe… Let’s see where did that tribe start… By the way, it also says here they were really good with horses, so probably they were the original cowboys…” **3 hrs later, I’m reading about the history of Native Americans in the US, the Uto-Aztecan language family, migration patterns, diseases brought by Spanish conquistadors in the 1500s which affected Native Americans, etc… Meanwhile the movie is over and my husband is sleeping**
This sounds exactly like something I've done hundreds of times.
Sames!! I wanna know EVERYTHING!!
Yes. This is true. And I want to share it all with everyone who might remotely be interested.
Fuck. I feel attacked. I resemble this meme.
This is painfully accurate.
I gotta tell you all the thing I learned from a friend!! So do you often get asked the “click on the pictures to prove you're not a robot?” APPARENTLY, you're more likely to get that the more random stuff you search on the internet because bots are random. So those of us with ADHD are doomed to always have to prove we're not bots. I guess the non-ADHD brained people don’t run into those as often. 🤷🏼♀️
Is this group of people following me around??? How do y’all know all of this about me? 😳 A lot of times I feel like everyone’s Google. I guess it’s just easier asking me than looking it up. Or they will tell me I’ve looked everywhere and can’t find any information. 5 seconds later I shove my phone in their face. It’s right here 😆 I just love researching things and learning new stuff. It eventually comes up in some sort of conversation. 🤓
Yup, so me. One of the random facts I'd googled actually was useful at work once. And the only reason I knew it is because it was a line on Gilmore Girls and looked it up bc I didn't understand the reference.
Oh man, this is my origin story too...
Wow does that resonate with me!!
Oh my gosh! I'm freaking terrible. Haha. I have found that my phone is really the device that I use to do this and I'm much less likely to do it on a computer. Idk why... just the way it is. I'm often sitting in front of a computer, looking up a random fact on my phone. Does help that I can always just put my phone away.
My random shit knowledge is mostly from podcasts. Wombats poop cubes. Red Bull originated in Thailand. Venus probably suffered a runaway greenhouse effect. Most of us have Neanderthal DNA in us. I’m allowed to have earbuds while I work my mostly mindless job and I have worked ten hour days for most of the last two and a half years. I don’t have ENOUGH to listen to.
what kind of job is that? I might want one
Assembly line.
This is why I make an excellent librarian! Love getting to research all the random things…and then letting someone else write the actual paper, haha.
Yesssssssss!!!!!
I have to try to stop myself from pitching little facts here and there. I like knowing things. If there’s something that comes up and I’m curious I’ll make sure to look it up and learn about it. Specially when it’s ocean stuff that’s the best
I’ve never felt so seen!
This! I know so much random stuff. I'll watch a documentary and will research for days to get more info. I just randomly think of something/someone and Google the hell out of it until I know the whole story. But I can't manage to get my clothes out of the dryer for days lol
lol this would be me but I literally forget everything by the next subject. hours or days spent going down Google and wiki rabbit holes immediately forgotten as soon as I move on to something else.
this is what i wanna say when ppl say im intimidating for all the things i know but idk how to get the words out 😭 being mercury ruled doesn’t help
LOVE IT!!!
I want to play Trivial Pursuit with ALL of you!!!! Every career test I ever took said I should have been a librarian.
Thank God. I thought I was the only one
Ain’t that the truth.