Big Picture

I feel like I have the opposite problem. I see the big picture as a default, it’s the details I’m blind to and that get me every time.

I'm not sure if what you describe is really an inability to get the big picture or the lack of available information to really base decisions on.

For me it's hard to make that kind of decisions because other people can't plan well and their estimates are notoriously wrong and forget to take into account a lot of things.

But what I'm really good at it seeing the bigger picture in the sense of knowing the interdependences between things. If I see a requirement I don't just follow it point by point. I think about what how it fits into the whole and where things can go wrong and ask if people have considered that. (90% of time the answer is no)

So I consider seeing the big picture and the details my strength, but like you I struggle to plan ahead long-term or estimate things because I don't feel confident with the amount of information available to make such guesses.

Towards the end of my degree, we were tasked with writing out detailed 5 year plans and I managed to write out six months before I got super annoyed with the assignment and started writing in vague, idiotic shit that had nothing to do with reality.

For one, I have no friggin clue what I want to do in five years. I will be a completely different person. Secondly, my field of work is fickle af and you cannot plan anything further ahead than a couple of months because the market is fucked and clients are scared of spending money even during prosperous periods.

So I felt like that exercise was brain dead and I have felt that way during every consultant program I have partaken in the hopes that I could learn something from them. 5 year plans are for people who don't live in the real world or robots.

For someone like me who cannot plan shit to save my life and mostly live on impulse and adjusting myself to my present reality all the time, I see that type of planning as unserious and unrealistic.

That said, I do like well made plans for projects that have a shorter time frame, where the focus is on one project and how it can best be completed before the deadline and in-between other projects. I vibe hard with that shit because it makes sense, it is urgent to an extent and it is real.

Long term planning is a task that requires executive function. Is it difficult for you and that's why you dislike it or is your distaste for it a separate issue?

Pretty sure it is a people are different trait, although it is pretty easy to get distracted by the small details.

I used to do the small detailed work which was great, and had managers that asked for estimates and ignored them and others than listened and used them, but of course estimates are estimates. Now I do project management and do my best to use the longest possible estimate, sometimes offering to add extra, because it is necessary to know when things are most likely to be done so something else that is dependent on it being done is ready. Barely anything actually meets exact deadlines of course, but planning ahead helps with keeping things from being so overwhelmed that they can't be done.

But I can't do both the details and the big picture at the same time. One or the other on a particular day for personal stuff and one or the other for longer periods of time at work.

Same thing with “5 year plans”. I literally cannot do it because 1. All my plans involve “have money to do thing” and 2. You could easily get cancer and die in 5 years (or other big changes).

For me, any kind of long term planning is likely to be interrupted by the unexpected but if I don't have something to work towards then I will just be stuck in a daily loop of 'doing something tomorrow' and then never doing anything because everything will get done 'tomorrow'. I have just accepted that ADHD is going to reduce my productivity for necessary things and hobbies by few hours out of every day compared to the average person and work around that.

Your second to last paragraph is 1,000% my life-playbook

Investing in long term is easy? 💀

Ok, that statement aside, I actually don't know if for me this is due to ADHD or autism. I'm still undiagnosed for both but I always thought this was my autism thing. For me, I'm the person that can't see the big picture. I like doing the work because it's the smaller pieces that usually have a clear objective. I don't understand things like "aligning with the mission" or the wacko lingo 'cause I can't see it. It's kind of like mental math for me. I can't do it. I struggle imagining the numbers in my head—like how I can't collage together everything needed for a successful project. Sometimes out of nowhere I'll get a eureka moment but I for the life of me can never be a project manager.

Regarding 5 year plans, they are only effective if they focus on things that are within the realm of your control. Of course you can’t know if you will or won’t have cancer or money, but regardless you could commit to learning a new skill, leveraging that skill, and further monetizing that skill, etc.

This sounds more to me like unstructured planning versus not sticking with it.

I also notice there’s a conflation of “useless managers” with “inability to plan / execute,” which I have seen many times are very different (but potentially overlapping) issues. It sounds like you have an extremely low tolerance for poor management, which doesn’t exist at every organization. Knowing this about yourself is vitally important in picking a place where you can grow and thrive.

I think a more functional way to think about planning is it is defining targets to aim for not trying to predict the future. If you decide to drive to Disneyland then get in the car the odds of ending up there are much higher than if you just start driving with no destination in mind. The purpose of setting a timeline is to create urgency.

For me there is currently a goal of visiting Japan. So I can start thinking about the things I can make reasonable guesses about. Cost of plane tickets, hotels, daily food cost. I can then add those things up with some buffer to make a budget. Now that I have a general idea of how much money I need I can work on how I will save up that much money. This will never be perfect, but it will get you closer to reality than not breaking down the problem.

Important consideration: NEVER makes plans based on your best or worst days. You need to spend time judging what you can do on average and plan around that.

I think it might actually be a Neurodivergent thing. I also have always struggled with "long term plans". If investment (401K etc) wasn't easy I wouldn't do it at all.

Never really considered that, honestly. The " big picture" to me was always the most important. I need THIS to happen. So THIS is what I'm focusing on until it's done. Even if THAT shows up and is actually more important, it can fuck off until THIS is done.