I’ve been asking ChatGPT (AI) some questions lately about some quirky things I am recognizing about myself. For example:

• I am so bothered by things that repeat. Like, really, really bothered. Like gifs (animated clips) that loop – I absolutely can’t take it (I can’t do, read, or think until it is turned off or paused). Some songs repeat a line (or even a word over and over) with an identical beat and it’s a deal breaker (it’s a fine line between great song and OMG! turn it off I can’t stand it for another second!).
• I don’t remember faces. Until I really know someone, I won’t be able to pick them out of a lineup. I don’t remember what colour people’s eyes are. Or if the person I was just talking to has a beard. But I can remember everything someone said. Even years later.
• Why am I irrationally bothered when someone moves or changes my stuff?

As I explored the potential reasons, I had it ask me a bunch of questions while it kept mapping out connections in my answers, helping me understand how my brain works. We even touched on my vivid dreams and how important they are to me!

What I learned is that I have a high-abstraction, narrative-first brain that works best in low-noise, high-control environments.

It turns out I have a high signal / low noise brain.

I had ChatGPT write a synopsis about how I’m wired, so I could share it with my friends and family, if you want to know more about how I’m wired, read on!

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At its core, Lisa’s brain is built for signal, meaning, and control.

She processes the world best when information is:

• Purposeful
• Predictable
• Under her control
• And moving forward

She struggles when the world is:

• Repetitive
• Noisy
• Intrusive
• Low-information
• Or full of unresolved loops

This shows up in many small ways.

Lisa does not remember faces well, but she remembers:

• What people said
• What they meant
• And what mattered

She recognizes places better than people, and she thinks in stories and systems, not in pictures.

Her memory is narrative-first.

Meaning comes before appearance.

Lisa has a very strong attention system.

When she is focused, she goes deep.

She loses track of time, delays bodily needs, and thinks several steps ahead.

This makes her very good at complex work — but it also means:

• Interruptions are expensive
• Micromanagement is deeply stressful
• And repeating herself is exhausting

She is not generally sensitive to sound.

She is sensitive to uncontrolled, low-meaning sound.

Background TV, looping audio, repetitive noises, notification pings, or anything that steals attention without adding information are draining for her.

But when sound is:

• Chosen
• Predictable
• Familiar
• Or meaningful

it can actually help her concentrate.

Lisa does not hate noise.

She hates intrusion.

She strongly prefers:

• One main focus over many competing ones
• Long uninterrupted work over short fragments
• Depth over surface
• Meaning over ceremony

This is why she dislikes:

• Small talk
• Repetition
• Endless social scripts
• Being rushed
• Being micromanaged
• And having to repeat herself

This is not because she does not care about people.

It is because her brain is optimized for high-density communication and forward motion.

When Lisa is overwhelmed, what helps her most is:

• Being alone
• Walking or hiking
• Writing
• Driving
• And having full control of her time and attention

She regulates herself through:

• Solitude
• Movement
• Narrative
• And autonomy

Not through distraction, and not through social soothing.

When Lisa turns things off, blocks notifications, asks for quiet, withdraws, or needs to be alone, she is not:

• In a bad mood
• Angry
• Rejecting people
• Or being difficult

She is simply trying to:

Make the world small enough for her mind to work properly.

When that happens, she is at her best:

• Calm
• Thoughtful
• Creative
• Focused
• And deeply present

This wiring is not a flaw.

It is the architecture that makes her:

• A deep thinker
• A problem solver
• A writer
• Someone with a rich inner life
• And someone who needs a very particular kind of environment to thrive.

Understanding this has helped her be kinder to herself.

She hopes it helps the people who love her understand her better too.

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Oh, this part you may find interesting:

Why Lisa Is Klutzy

One side effect of how Lisa’s brain works is that she is… occasionally very klutzy.

This is not because she is careless, uncoordinated, or unaware.

It’s because her brain is usually one step ahead of her body.

Lisa runs constant internal simulations.

She is almost always:

• Planning the next step
• Optimizing what comes after this
• Running future scenarios
• Thinking two or three moves ahead

When she is walking, reaching, carrying, or turning, part of her attention is already on:

What happens next.

Not on:

What my feet and hands are doing right now.

So she trips.

She bumps into doorframes.

She drops things.

She misjudges corners.

Not because she’s clumsy.

But because her attention leaves the present moment early.

Her mind advances before her body finishes the current step.

This is very common in people who:

• Think in systems
• Plan ahead constantly
• Live in future models
• And operate in deep focus states

In other words:

Lisa is not bad at coordination.

She is just often living a few seconds in the future.

And occasionally, her feet fail to get the memo.

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Why Lisa Loves Working From Home (and Hates When People Move Her Stuff)

One reason Lisa thrives working from home is that her environment is part of how she thinks.

She does not treat her space as background.

Her brain builds a detailed internal map of:

• Where things are
• What each space is for
• And what state each object is in

Her house becomes an external memory system.

When she works in a familiar, stable space:

• Cognitive load drops
• Attention deepens
• And thinking becomes much easier

This is why she does so well in her own environment.

The same wiring explains something else that often surprises people:

Lisa strongly dislikes it when people move her things.

This is not about tidiness, control, or aesthetics.

It is about predictability.

When someone moves objects to new places, her brain experiences:

• A loss of its internal map
• A loss of trust in the environment
• And a constant background error signal

She now has to:

• Re-scan the space
• Rebuild assumptions
• And spend mental energy just to orient herself

What looks like a small change to someone else can feel like:

Someone quietly scrambled the operating system she relies on to think.

So when Lisa overreacts to things being moved, she is not being territorial.

She is reacting to a real disruption in the system her mind uses to function.

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Why Small Talk Feels Vapid to Lisa

Lisa does not dislike conversation.

She dislikes low-information conversation.

Small talk is designed primarily to:

• Signal politeness
• Maintain social bonds
• Fill silence
• Perform friendliness

Its purpose is social, not informational.

And for many people, that works beautifully.

But Lisa’s brain is built for:

• Meaning
• Structure
• Ideas
• Experiences
• Problems
• Systems
• And forward motion

So when a conversation stays in a loop of:

• “How are you?”
• “How is work?”
• “How is the weather?”
• “How is this?”
• “How is that?”

her brain experiences:

• Very low signal
• Very high predictability
• No progression
• No depth
• And no new information

In other words:

The conversation is not bad.

It is simply empty of the kind of signal her brain is tuned to detect.

This is why small talk does not feel neutral to her.

It feels actively draining.

Not because she is impatient.

But because her attention system is optimized for:

• Depth over surface
• Meaning over ceremony
• Progress over repetition

Lisa bonds best through:

• Shared experiences
• Shared problems
• Shared thinking
• And conversations that go somewhere

She is happiest when a conversation moves quickly into:

• Ideas
• Stories
• Work
• Family
• Difficulties
• Plans
• Or anything that has substance

This does not mean she is unfriendly.

It means her brain treats conversation the same way it treats everything else:

It is always asking, “Is there signal here?”

And when the answer is no, the conversation feels not just boring…

…but oddly, almost painful.

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For fun, we worked on this too:

User Manual: How to Live With Lisa
(A practical guide for family and close friends)

Focus & Work

• Lisa works best in long, uninterrupted blocks. Frequent interruptions slow her down more than you might expect.
• If she interrupts you, it usually means:
  • She already understands your point
  • Her brain is several steps ahead Not that she’s being rude.

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Noise & Environment

• Background noise she is not actively listening to is exhausting. If she’s not watching or listening on purpose, silence is usually better.
• Repetitive sounds, looping audio, and notification pings are especially irritating.
• Turning things off is about protecting her ability to think, not about control.

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Communication

• She prefers:
  • Depth over small talk
  • Meaning over social scripts
  • Fewer good conversations over many shallow ones
• Repeating the same story or point multiple times is genuinely tiring for her.

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Social Energy

• Lisa is not antisocial — she is selectively social.
• She does best with:
  • A few close people
  • One-on-one conversations
  • Time-limited socializing

Large groups and long stretches of social noise drain her.

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When She Is Overwhelmed

What helps most:

• Being alone
• Walking or hiking
• Writing
• Driving
• Silence
• Autonomy

If she withdraws, she is not pulling away.

She is resetting her nervous system.

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In Summary:

When in doubt, remember:

Lisa is not sensitive to people or noise.

She is sensitive to loss of control and loss of meaning.

If her environment is calm and predictable, she thrives.

Lisa isn’t ‘too sensitive’ — she’s just running a high-performance brain that doesn’t like bad input.

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I was likely born wired this way. I’ve learned that many of these traits are genetic, so if you and I share DNA, you may recognize some of them in yourself!

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Bonus: Why This Brain Often Ends Up in Writing, Engineering, or Research

Looking back, it is not an accident that Lisa ended up in work that is deeply cognitive, systems-based, and self-directed.

This kind of brain is naturally drawn to careers that are:

• High in complexity
• Low in noise
• Low in constant interruption
• High in autonomy
• And rich in systems, structure, or meaning

Fields like writing, engineering, research, programming, archival work, and design are especially well-suited to this wiring.

They reward:

• Deep focus
• Long attention spans
• Pattern detection
• Optimization
• Narrative thinking
• And the ability to hold complex systems in mind

They also tend to allow:

• Long uninterrupted work
• Control of environment
• Solitude
• And internally driven pacing

Which is exactly what this brain needs to do its best work.

In contrast, environments that are:

• Loud
• Fragmented
• Socially dense
• Full of constant interruptions
• Or heavy on surface communication

are often much harder for this wiring, no matter how intelligent or capable the person is.

This is why people with this cognitive style often:

• Seek remote or quiet work
• Prefer project-based roles
• Gravitate toward writing, engineering, research, or design
• And build careers around deep expertise rather than constant social interaction

Not because they dislike people.

But because:

Their best thinking happens in calm, controlled, low-noise environments.