When I get in the car, I hit the blinker lever by instinct because on a forklift it puts you into forward or reverse gear.

I’m a software developer. I get very agitated when I have to sit next to someone who operates their computer slowly.

There was a time when I looked at LCD screens I saw all the defects.

entering a home or commercial/retail building and noticing everything that needs to be fixed or maintained, listening for running water around fixtures, etc.

I’m in IT. My personal laptop is perennially broken because I. cannot. stop. tinkering.

My job is to do weather observations every half an hour, or when the situation changes drastically enough to warrant an update. I used to get a bit stressed out about noticing the clock approach one of the routine times while not at work (because that’s when I haven’t been keeping an eye on the sky so oh shit now I gotta figure it out fast!), but I think I’ve gotten mostly out of that pavlovian response. Many of my colleagues say that they also get this. But the phone alarm (a manufacturer default) that goes off at that time as a reminder definitely triggers it. Luckily I’ve only heard it like once or twice outside of work.

I used to do order picking in a large warehouse. We used headphones that told you were to go. You could also give verbal commands liek “repeat”. So after a week or so I started “repeat”-ing my mom when I didn’t hear what she said.

Doing Uber in a very red state, I have to bite my tongue when people bring up politics. It’s turned into me not talking about it around friends who share my beliefs for the most part. And it kinda sucks, cause I really did enjoy a good debate.

I’ve been working in high acuity psychiatry for 10 years. I notice when doors don’t click shut behind me and if I don’t hear a solid click or an electric lock whirring sound I get the urge to check the handle, even at home / in my apartment complex. I can feel people behind me on the street if they’re closer than about 20 feet back. I don’t like sitting without a wall behind me (it was weird going back to school and explaining that my ADHD preferential seating accommodation was the back row, not the front).

Decades of working IT in various capacities including a lot of support roles at various levels have led me to usually suspect that anyone coming to to me saying that they can’t get something to work is doing something wrong, regardless if it’s IT or something else completely unrelated.

This is often combined with me trying to suggest possible solutions whenever someone complains or vents. This one drives my wife crazy sometimes and she’s had to teach me that sometimes she just wants emotional support and solidarity rather than possible ways to fix whatever she is venting about.

Decades later I still sort books when I go to a bookstore.

Not a professional thing, but I played lacrosse in high school, and I now have a habit of kicking anything forward that I drop, since we would practice kicking the ball forward to scoop it up.

I think being a professional cook inculcates or at least intensifies an already present hyper vigilance because there’s always something else I could be or should be doing and it’s a nearly constant list of tasks and any moment not filled by a task is filled with thoughts of what am I not doing right now that I should be.

At least Christmas music doesn’t fill me with hate anymore

Not catching things. I worked at a leather shop with a lot of very sharp things.

I will just watch stuff fall. Even if it’s a friend tossing me my keys or something. Watch it sail thru the air and land right on the ground. Then I normally say “don’t throw shit at me” as their regular reminder that my instinct isn’t to catch things.

Also the phrase “heads up” doesn’t encourage me to catch something either. It encourages me to check the position of me feet for possible stabs.

“behind”