(note: to the reader who’s commented to me about the cat… this has nothing to do with you ;D promise!)

I keep running into the same basic wall when dealing with people: I am not a good teacher. I’m not. Period. There are many possible reasons, both internal and external, why this is. The bottom line, though, is that I cannot teach people my thought process. It never. EVER works. I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t see the world from the same angle as all the rest of the people I know. My brain seems to process the input altogether differently.

This is not, at all, to say that the way my brain processes input from the world is better. In fact there are a great many times when I’m a blithering idiot when it comes to simple things (simple for other people.) For example I don’t remember things well unless there is some sort of trigger which my brain associates with the memory. A great example of this is names and times. I remember faces, but not names. I remember events, but not times (up to and including todays date.)

What I do well, though, is (apparently) whatpeople might call “abstract thinking.” I see a problem (note: I dont usually think of things as “problems”, really, it’s just something that needs to be worked out. there’s none of the negative connotation that I associate with the word “problem” when something can be worked out/through,) I take stock of my resources, and I deal with it if it can be dealt with, or I dont.

It doesnt bother me to try something N times before getting it right. I just do it. It doesnt bother me to do a highly tedious task when it has to be done. It has to be done. And it doesnt bother me to deal with that I’m given and figure it out.

And therin, i think, lies the difference. Most people expect to be handed something that solves all their problems. And it never happens that way. Most people have unstated expectations which are rarely met. I’m happy to get half the answer to a problem and work the other half out. To me thats an intriguing process. It’s fun and rewarding. To most people, I think, its work.

Thats the crux of the problem. Thinking is work. And people dont like work, especially that kind of work. So I cringe when people ask me to teach them something… because they usually dont want to be taught what I know, they want a dictionary of situation and response. I dont have one of those. I’ve never needed one. I can search, I can work, I can evaluate, but most importantly: I can think.

And unfortunately… I can’t teach that…