I very much go through this. It can be hard looking at all the niche things around my house which I spent so much energy pursuing - specialized photography rigs, magic cards, jewelry making tools+storage, exercise gear, crazy keyboard setups for multiboxing, etc. With all of those came the community aspect. I feel so guilty just disappearing after gaining so much attention and recognition in various areas. I can confidently say I'm paralyzed with some type of fear to get into new things- I know they'll consume me, but then one day I'll wake up and just see it as a source of stress and drop it. If I had infinite money and loved socializing, I'd not be too stuck, but I just can't afford to keep cycling through interests right now. The things which tend to interest me always demand a financial sink.

I absolutely love Tidal as well. Was a long time Spotify subscriber, but their UI/UX decisions, especially for their desktop client, finally frustrated me enough to switch. Had almost no issues moving my playlists over, have a shuffle which actually shuffles, still have daily recommendation playlists, and my favorite part -patch notes; I know what's happening and why. They actually listen to user feedback and make updates based on it.

The only thing I can offer is a small warning. I also was a habitual neck cracker- up until one night where my normal twist had an unfamiliar popping sensation which kind of felt like a muscle snapping. I was then greeted with incredible pain anytime I tried to move my head or just move in general. Had to go to the ER/urgent care that night. The doctor was very straightforward with their advice- there's no reason I should be cracking my neck and I need to stop. I had pulled one of the muscles and it had severely swelled.

I also used to crack my knuckles, elbows, back, etc. I eventually stopped by catching myself in the act, acknowledging that I don't like feeling like I can't control myself, and giving my hands something else to focus on.

Good luck!!

Started working for my current company as tech support. No degree, in a homeless shelter, just good with tech and helping people. It bothered me not understanding how things I supported worked, so I started to teach myself to code and offer ideas for potential fixes when submitting tickets. Ended up being approached and hired by the head of development who allowed me to continue learning on my own. I've been with them for 12 years now, and in the first few years hobbled together the product/feature which became their flagship. Find people who are eager and excited to learn and they'll thrive.

That's been an issue for me as well. DDG is my default search engine, but the majority of the time I have to add the !g as it struggles with context. It'll find plenty of results matching the words I type in, but not quite understand that how those words are arranged matter.

My favorite has been locally hosting Automatic1111's UI. The setup process was super easy and you can get great checkpoints and models on Civitai. This gives me complete control over the models and the generation process. I think it's an expectation thing as well. Learning how to write the correct prompt, adjust the right settings for the loaded checkpoint, and running enough iterations to get what you're looking for can take a bit of patience and time. It may be worth learning how the AI actually 'draws' things to adjust how you're interacting with it and writing prompts. There's actually A LOT of control you gain by locally hosting - controlNet, LORA, checkpoint merging, etc. Definitely look up guides on prompt writing and learn about weights, order, and how negative prompts actually influence generation.

I tend to think world building should explain why certain races in an RPG behave the way they do. If your world building includes reasons why gnomes behave in a way where there is overlap with autistic traits then I don't see the harm.

What traits are you referring to? Are they more isolated and keep to themselves? Explain what happened to their race to encourage that behavior. Also, just because a race is isolated, doesn't mean they want that- sometimes they are forced into isolation and it's not a natural thing for them. Are they tinkerers? How did they get started in that and where do they get materials? How do they contribute to the world as a whole? If there's an option to exclude them outright, then it feels like there might be a hole in the lore of your world.

I personally connect with people easier through games. For me, it removes the feeling that I have to entertain someone through some branching conversation. There's less pressure knowing we're focusing on the same task or goal and conversations feel more natural based on what we're doing or observing. It's also helpful to see how people approach obstacles and how they handle/display their emotions.

This is great. Article explains the method and sample size. This could be a great tool, and I hope it can be applied to any age. Many people who are on the spectrum and are high functioning can go most of their lives without a diagnosis while struggling to understand why the world feels so different to them.

Especially considering platform availability. I think it says more about ToTK being 3rd on a single platform vs the other two being available on multiple platforms.

Any task or activity outside my normal routine takes tremendous mental effort to perform. It can be done and usually turns out to be trivial, but taking that first step can take hours to months. If it's a new activity, it becomes much easier if I have a friend with me.

It's different in some ways. Most of my friends are gay and they have specific apps for specific things. It seems very straightforward to find people to hook up with, but that's different than dating and looking for a relationship. Just like most people, many have various issues most likely stemming from society being lame about sexuality and such. They'll find someone who seems entirely put together and then get slammed with issues relating to abandonment, insecurities about their masculinity, or crazy jealousy.... So pretty much normal stuff.