Hyperdivergent.com
My new digital asset adventure
A friend called me a hustler the other day, and I took his word as a compliment. My father pushed my siblings and me out the door to sell at early ages. For me, it was seeds door to door, then throwing newspapers, and from there it was a sideways promotion to selling Avon. I wasn’t great at selling, trust me. But I did learn how to write and research as I aged, and that vocation has paid me well. Especially with my current selling sidelines.
About a year ago, I started writing about digital assets here on Substack, and I based my research on my personal experience of selling a website for a hefty sum in 2008. But that fortunate event occurred sixteen years ago, and what happened then is not happening now. Instead of just writing about digital assets, I figured I'd step out and actually build more digital assets so I could share my current experiences.
I will underline this new adventure with the fact that I am a diagnosed autistic individual, and my therapist feels I also need some testing in the ADHD arena. One diagnosis is enough in my book. Since family members and friends who scoffed at my "Asperger syndrome (AS)" diagnosis are no longer around for any number of reasons, I can fully embrace my idiosyncrasies and unmask around remaining family members and friends. I do maintain a semblance of normalcy in public, especially at the local grocery store. Just know that I really do not “work well with others”, even when walking down aisles filled with food items. Probably especially then.
That Asperger’s Syndrome diagnosis meant I was a "high functioning" autistic person, but we all have since learned that there are no hierarchical levels in autism. I agree with that assessment, because I cannot function as a "high-level" autist for any continual length of time. I crash and burn as often as any other neurodivergent individual, and other days are (in my book) pure perfection.
One of my characteristics includes a penchant for "special interests." I can go down a rabbit hole on a daily basis, but I cannot, for the life of me, stick to just one subject. After some meditation on how I can write about digital assets and mixing it up with my special interests, I decided to create an "umbrella" for those interests here at Substack.
Now you can find me at "Hyperdivergent.com", which leads you straight to my Substack account (meaning right here where you are now). My umbrella covers the following subjects:
Poetry: I'm a published poet, and I started my "published poet" career back in 1994. Although this interest waxes and wanes, I'm about to be published again in August and I actively write new poetry on the daily.
Genealogy: I've been engrossed in this topic since I was a teen. Back then, there were no computers or digital records. Much has changed, and yet nothing has changed in my interest, especially in Virginia genealogy, where both sides of my family landed as colonists.
Gardening: I've gardened most of my life but became serious about it when my mother died in 2014. I obtained my certification as a Master Gardener after her death, mainly because she was a Master Gardener, and I didn't want to screw up her gardens. Dad did that all on his own with his weed killer penchant.
Planning: I became an expert over my lifetime at planning events. That skill served me well when I worked as a Main Street Manager in 2010. It wasn't the job that I was geared for, but it was a culmination of all the minute details that fascinate me.
Hustling: I'm learning how to buy and sell domain names. I'm also a “Top Rated” seller on eBay with a 100% positive rating. Quite a different story from my packet of seeds and Avon days, and there are stories to tell about these ventures.
There you have it. Five special interests under the umbrella of Hyperdivergent. One for each day of the week. I can't say I'll post something about these interests every day, but I'm tempted. It just feels juicy.
PS — I have deleted the paid side of the subscriptions for this newsletter because I want to share my learnings and my mistakes. Free. For the foreseeable future. I wouldn’t mind if you shared my site with interested friends, though…