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My name’s Jimmy. I’m born and raised in Alaska, but I’ve lived all over the country. I’m 32, what I would consider accomplishments in my life are getting my pilot license in 6 months at 19, two seasons commercial fishing (set-netting) on the waters of Tikahtnu (the true Denai’na name for Cook Inlet in Alaska), teaching myself how to cultivate fungi of all kinds and building/operating a fairly advanced amateur mycological laboratory, hitch hiking the west coast (and hopping a freight train 3/4 of the way across Nevada), growing a thousand pounds of cannabis during one season with my dearly departed canine companion Dozer (legally in the mountains of California), developing myself as a successful professional diver and capable mariner, diving up enough money to buy my own airplane and flying it from Maryland to Alaska (across several Canadian borders during the onset of the confusion of COVID) in April of 2020 and doubling my investment once I had to sell it.

I’ve reinvested those funds into a 75 year old wooden sailboat: triple planked New Zealand kauri, built in New Zealand (best wooden boat builders in history, I believe), cutter rigged ketch, double ender, deep full keel true old school blue water vessel. Exceptional displacement of 34,000 pounds, which is extreme for a vessel of 35 feet Length on Deck. I plan on developing her as my own private research vessel and primary residence. My current goal is devoting my life to the protection of the Tongass National Forest, which I was born into the heart of, on the second to last day of 1988 on a rural logging island to a rugged logging family.



I’m not an ordinary person, and I’d say my greatest talent is taking a bigger leap of faith than the last one (that most likely destroyed me as a human and forced me to re-evaluate and re-build myself).

I consider myself to be very misanthropic, I tend to approve of animals much more than humans (I’m sure this would be widely echoed here?). I taught myself to play music on nylon stringed instruments and have developed a unique flamenco style. I’ll probably post some videos at some point and see what you legends think. I love music, to me it’s as close as we can get to communicating with whatever it is that supersedes us all.

I don’t know what else to write about myself right now without revealing myself as a narcissist. I’ve never been diagnosed with Asperger’s and I don’t expect I ever will be, and I don’t need to be. I’ve never been a part of a community like this and I’m looking forward to some deeper conversation and unraveling of this thing we one day woke up into. Thanks for being here everyone, talk to you soon

Welcome to WP!

Is it true that most people in Alaska have pilot's licenses?

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Welcome. I love your sailing vessel!

Welcome to WP!

But, I'm unclear why you're here. When you say:

Are you saying you don't think you are an Aspie, or that you do think you are an Aspie but see no compelling reason to get a formal assessment to make it "official"? (There are folk of both of those persuasions on WP.)

The majority of people aren’t but Alaska has vastly more pilots per capita than any other state. I think Montana comes in second. With 200 hours of flight time and after seeing the Atlantic to the Pacific, it makes complete sense why this is the case. Alaska has the best landscape of anywhere in North America, in my opinion (landslide victory)



Thanks Double Retired. I’m saying I believe I have Asperger’s but I don’t feel any reason to get a formal assessment to make it official. I think trying to apply an umbrella term to it such as Asperger’s is possibly inaccurate, but necessary just the same. I have a distrust for psychology and psychiatry, as I was misdiagnosed with ADD and medicated with Adderall from age 13 to 19. I remember telling my uncle that I thought I had Asperger’s long ago, but he assured me I didn’t because he knew someone who had it and I wasn’t like him. Maybe it takes one to know one. I dug into it again recently and I have no need to have a professional reassure or doubt me, worst case scenario is I’m wrong and I’m some other kind of weird.

I hope that doesn’t sound defensive, I don’t mean it to sound that way, dry text



Thanks Mountain Goat, she’s a real deal one of a kind Superboat, and I dare say my destiny. Still a lot of work refitting her. So far I’ve repainted the bottom, that picture was when I was done, and I’ve rebuilt a surprise decayed section of the deck, stripped the entire cabin of a million layers of paint and this tenacious material called dynel, and now I’ve fiberglassed the cabin to waterproof it and will continue to prepare it for paint. Amazing process when you devote yourself to a wooden boat, but not for the faint of heart, only for those who are very familiar with failure

It looks a lot of work, but worth it!

welcome. A life of adventure, for sure. glad you are with us

You sound too extroverted and daring to be aspergers, but maybe that just being born in Alaska. Most people with Autistic traits are introverted, anxiety prone, and far from adventurous. I'm wondering if Richard Branson is aspergers now? What ever he is, maybe thats what you are. some other kind of weird.

Welcome aboard and well done for saving something historic.

This video might interest you;

You should fit into WP no matter what a formal assessment would make of you.

But I might have some "bad" news for you. If you went out and got a formal diagnosis right now, if it was a good, credible assessment I doubt it would say you have Asperger's Syndrome.

- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
...because the U.S. uses the DSM for classifying "mental disorders". Asperger's Syndrome was added to the DSM in the 4^th edition in 1994 but the 5^th edition that came out in 2013 folded it in with Autism. So, from 1994-2013 you might have been diagnosed as having Asperger's Syndrome but now the correct diagnosis would more likely be the one I got: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Level 1 (Mild) (with a note that I also met the criteria formerly associated with Asperger's Syndrome).

theprisoner is right that you sound atypically extroverted for an Aspie. But some Aspies are extroverted and there's no reason you couldn't be one. Have you ever had an MBTI personality assessment? You might have an interesting result there that you're not interested in, too. In 2019 Mayhemmed posted a poll on WP asking folk here what their MBTI type was and more than 90% reported they were introverts--versus only about half in the general population. (I am clearly an INTJ with very clear preferences for introversion.)

I respect your assessment, I am at most times definitely not an extrovert, though I get very excited around the right people and I can become one. How I write is also different from how I talk, having the unlimited time helps me put my words in perspective to try to phrase what I’m meaning as well as possible.

My life has been all over the place, but not be design, I’m a very erratic person, and all these things I’ve described that sound like successes are all failures. I tried to get my commercial license at age 19, after I got my private license, but I quickly became overwhelmed and I ended up getting kicked out. So I started life with a useless and expensive private pilot’s license and $50,000 in debt, so I spent the first 5 years or so being homeless or couch surfing and generally being a loser, trying to figure out how to succeed in life when I pretty much started out by spilling my milk. I’m very intelligent, but not in a very applicable way. I can do a lot but I can become overwhelmed easily, and if I get to that point, it’s game over and I throw in the towel and I’m off to try not to think suicidal thoughts and try to find another goal that will guide me to the top of my mountain.

I’ve never been wealthy either, I can’t in any way relate to the Richard Branson reference. Whenever I have money it’s gone, into something else that’s going to die soon. The only way I’ve made it so far with this boat is because of how much I’ve practiced failing. He plane I had bought was all of my money, I damaged my body and hands diving so much here to be able to pay it off, it was the best deal in the country but it was on the other side. I was completely all-in on finishing my commercial rating, but I spent he last of my money on the fuel to fly to Alaska. And my best friend Dozer became paralyzed a week after I got back and I had to put him down. He was the first really close death in my life and the only reason I’m still here right now is because of my family, last year really broke me after being broken so many times, no money no job, living at my parents again, trying to get my mushroom lab functional to where I could sell gourmet mushrooms to local restaurants but man even with my experience and creativity, $2000 scraped up over a summer just isn’t enough to make that a reality. I really tried.

I could keep going on this forever, probably best not to. And while I respect your views that you may not think I have Asperger’s (totally fine with me if I don’t, it’s a matter of time until I’m wrong about everything), I’ve always had a very hard time making eye contact with people when I talk to them unless I force it (I used to get around his by making eye contact with a different person while I was talking to someone but obviously this doesn’t really work), I absolutely love music but I can’t stand live concerts unless it’s someone like Jake Shimabukuro and everyone’s just shutting up and appreciating it, I can’t hold a regular job for more than a couple months, relationships aren’t even something I’m interested in trying anymore. I relate way more to animals and mushrooms than I do people, and though I can understand them, I find it’s very hard for her to understand me. Very little back and forth relation, but sometimes I meet someone and we have their first real conversation and all of a sudden everything feels normal.

I do respect your views if you really think I don’t have Asperger’s, I would say if I do it would be mild but still massively life shaping. Either way, if I’m not, I’m another kind of weird and I’ll continue to appreciate you and your space until they make a message board for us Richard Branson types

No I haven’t, I think I may have heard people refer to themselves with terms related to that though. My instinct is that I’m not crazy about it, I don’t need to apply terms to myself, what’s going on with me is between me and Reality and I’m very comfortable with that at this point in my life. I can assure you I’ve always been very introverted. All of these things I’ve done I’ve done by myself, or my dog Dozer. I just get excited sometimes, especially if we start talking about guitars or boats or god help me mushrooms even

All I'm saying is--in the U.S.--they don't call it that anymore. The exact same person with the exact same symptoms who would've been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome in 2000 would not have been diagnosed with it in 2020, they would've been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Level 1 (Mild) in 2020. The nomenclature changed. "Asperger's Syndrome" isn't a formal diagnosis anymore...though you can claim it informally...many do, including me.

And, there are a lot of folk on WP who voluntarily or involuntarily don't have a formal assessment.

Are you curious to do unofficial assessments to reinforce your suspicions without the time, cost, and trouble of a formal assessment? A couple of quick assessment tools are available on the Internet:
-=--Autism-Spectrum Quotient Test
-=--Aspie Quiz ^{Registration is optional!}

Oh okay that makes more sense, thanks for clearing that up. I don’t think I have any desire to be reassured, and I think I’ve already researched enough that my bias would affect the results. I’m satisfied with just interacting with the community here and seeing what happens. I’ve always been the outcast among outcasts, I do well with individuals but I have very little patience to play the politico-social games that the collective ‘people’ play.

While I was diving today I thought more about your reply. I’m aware that Elon Musk revealed himself to have Asperger’s during his SNL monologue. Do you know if he’s diagnosed or not? I imagine he would qualify as the extreme Richard Branson-esque Asperger’s if he does. He’s daring and extremely successful, anxiety prone and very adventurous.

I would propose that the main difference about Elon other than his intellect is his confidence. I have also developed much confidence over my life, though it’s been very painful. When I was traveling through Portland one time I rode the MAX and here was a Native American man who’s tribe only numbered in the 200s, and their language was dying and it never had a formal alphabet. So he created a written language for his tribe’s language, and he carved his tribe’s stories and history in this language across every square inch of several walking sticks he had fashioned. On the top of each of these staves was a phrase in English, a sort of marketing tactic so it would be more desirable by English speakers, and one staff said “Failures are the stepping stones to success.” I’ve carried this with me in my mind, though this truth is very painful. Another favorite quote comes from the book Rum Jungle: “Failure is not the end; it is simply he point of departure for a new expedition.”

We are a combination of ourselves and our environments. I have traveled extensively, I have met very many people and I have a very broad spectrum of experience in this life. Though I judge myself more on my failures than my success, with every fall I ready myself for another leap, each leap bigger than the last and the resulting fall more painful.

Ah damnit I’ve certainly revealed myself as a narcissist by now.

I can say 100% that my experience in both of my hobbies, is that failure is an essential part of learning.

Take model railways as an example. I enjoy designing my own rolling stock in 7mm narrow gauge (0-16.5 to us Brts and 0n30 to those in the USA, and 0e to those in Europe).
Now I have spent years developing skills and "Know how" to think up designs and build the models. As a teenager I was not that good at it. (I was into 00 back then which is similar to H0). But now I am able to think up designs which will work. It has taken ages of trial and error to learn what works and what does not, and my failures taught me more than my successes, as when one has success, one just accepts that it works.
However when one has a failed design, one studies it to find out "Why" the design did not work.

So yes. Failures are valuable! We need to value what they teach us and not be afraid to try!

I like that. Spoken like a true mountain goat. I don’t subscribe to astrology, I find it to be an interesting parlor trick, but I’m a Capricorn and I very much relate to what is written about Capricorn and the goat. Always trying to get to the top of my mountain, sometimes you get close and realize you need to turn back and re-evaluate a new path, otherwise you only fall.