Doing things your own way

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This has probably been the biggest frustration of all for me in work and in school. I just prefer to do things my own way, and sometimes I need to do things my own way. But it seems like the whole system of school/work now is just based on following instructions and being compliant with processes and procedures. Just do what you are told, follow procedure, never mind if it doesn't make sense, or if there's a better way or a faster way. Never mind if there's a way to do things that is less stressful for me. You must OBEY. Because there's usually some really insecure person giving out instructions who will take personal offense if you don't do it exactly the way they asked.

i once failed a driver's test because the tester told me to turn right from a parking space and i backed up first to get a better turning angle. i sometimes do things my own way, but often, especially where emotions are involved, i'm happy to take advice from my husband.

I do things my own way. Mostly because I'm kind of cut off from other people.

I have a problem with authority so if someone tells me to do something a certain way, it just gets my back up and my brain will automatically start trying to see if there's a better way than what they said - yeah I know, I'm reticent!

One would get much further with me by asking me to do _____, not telling me.

When I was at work at the coffee shop towards the end of when I was there I was doing everything my own way and I had the mental attitude of 'I dare you to tell me it's wrong' - I say if the job is getting done that's what matters, not how it got done. I had my whole work station set up the way I wanted it - the way that I found most efficient. One day a supervisor actually started moving things like the straws around in my work area, I nearly lost it, but right after she left I put everything back I didn't go around rearranging other peoples' work areas so I'd appreciate it if no-one did it to me! If me getting a job done efficiently is a problem for some in there, well sorry to hear it!

Yeah I've got alot of peeves against some people in there, thank G*d I don't have to deal with that BS anymore.

in my main hobby, I do things a bit differently from textbook, and get objectively superior results. I make no apologies in that regard.

your teachers are frightened and caught in a machine just as you are. Many of them would love to be able to teach for real but daren't. They're measured and evaluated pretty relentlessly and if their students don't measure up, they're punished. So they play it very very safe -- learn this now, learn that now, do it this way. All designed for maximum passing rates. Because somewhere, some band of legislators who can barely read have decided the teachers must be held accountable, and if you're going to do that, you have to have some sort of benchmark.

The teachers mind you going your own way much less if it's clear that you won't make them look bad by doing it. That, or find the alcoholic teachers who've already said fuckit.

Absolutely. Hence why teamwork is generally not an aspie strong point. I find if confronted with teamwork I generally recede as others just pile in. Let them get on with it I say. Generally they pile in way too quickly and don't allow for the necessary planning to do it properly. I'm big on planning but don't really like collaborative planning much. I tend to get a lot more into the detail of things and other people find that somewhat daunting, preferring to skip lightly over the details. What they call planning is what I would call a social chat.

I hate it when I am forced to do something someone elses way, though I also hate it when I can't figure out how to do something on my own.

Hehe. I once slammed on the brakes when the driving-test officer told me to stop and I could see no painted limit lines, stop signs or traffic lights in the immediate vicinity. It seemed the only logical choice given the lack of evidence at hand. The officer's wide-brimmed hat was knocked askew when it tapped the car visor. Luckily, I didn't fail the test (this was when the world was still black-and-white, and officers just laughed at people instead of Tasering them). Tip to officers: Aspies are sometimes literal, especial under stress.

I always do things my own way!

I can be very innovative when I do things my way.

^^^ That's the beauty of being autistic. Being able to see and do things others cannot because you're so outside the box you can't even see the box from where you're standing.

I have been quite successful in my career for this reason alone. And as such, the powers that be usualy forgive my oddness.

I do things my own way even if I'm not supposed to. In that case I will do it my way, then go back and make it **appear** that I did it the way I was instructed to.

I'm a slow learner, with a poor memory.

I have to understand something in order to use it. Which made engineering at collage challanging, but for the things I learned, they stay with me for a lifetime.

When I read, or hear instructions "Do this, now do this, now do this, and your done!!". That teaches me nothing. I have to understand the "what", the "why", and if possible, the "why not", in order to understand the process and interaction of the parts.

Once I understand it, I can usualy invent a quicker or better way of doing the same thing. I can reverse the calculation, use any part of them, or remake a new formula based on some other objective.

l like to do things my way. Allot of instructions that are given to me at work are just not logical.

Work rules: Put only six items per bag when bagging customers purchases. This is not logical, why would I put only six's pencil's in a big bag or try to fit six big items in a bag that is to small to fit six items.

Driving rules: Always stop at stop sign. I live in a small town. At night everyone is in bed, if I go for a drive and no else is on the road why do I have to stop? Well, I don't...it's just stupid.

Social Rule: I should not wear the same pair of pants more then once per week at work. Once again, stupid rule. If I want to wear the same pair of pants every day of the week no one else has any business saying that I shouldn't.

Social rule: When someone sneezes say " Bless You" Why? It's not like the person who sneezed is going to die or something. Why not say "Wow" that was quite the sneeze, I bet you feel better now.

Just tell them you bought multiple pairs all the same, if they think it's an issue of hygiene/not laundering them in between wearings..

At the coffee shop I worked at we wore uniforms - sometimes the one assistant manger would go around pointing out who hadn't washed their uniform and the one time she got me, I guess I had gotten some small amount of mud on the cuffs of my pants from walking home in the rain the day before... I hadn't noticed. (And behind a counter no customer would see it anyway!) The kicker is that I was only given one pair of pants and one shirt! Well at the time I lived in an apartment with no laundry facilities, and when I would wash my shirt by hand sometimes the next day it wasn't even dry! So I thought eff it - if she thinks I'm walking all the way to a laundromat just to wash & dry one pair of pants she's dreaming!

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