Collaborations » Audacious Space Pirates

h1. Tessa 101

_(written by Woozle)_

h2. Key Points

*The super-short oversimplified version*: Tessa often says things which can range into the unbelievable, but (to my best estimation at this point) this is primarily due to communication issues than to being in some way disconnected from reality.

Tessa fully acknowledges having a communication disability, largely due to a combination of high neurodiversity (autism) and high intelligence.

This has caused huge problems for them over the years, including quite recently. While I don't claim to be as smart as Tessa, I appear to be sufficiently analytical to eventually be able to understand what they're on about and explain it in terms that don't require three hours of conversation to understand. I have kind of "one foot in each world", as Harena might put it.

We've talked quite a lot, under a wide variety of circumstances, and I've reached the following conclusions:

* They truly want to engineer social change for the better.

* They are capable of some pretty amazing things...

* ...but like any of us, they need stability and sanity around them in order to function.

* Their environmental requirements for functioning are in some ways markedly different from the standard.

** That is: some conditions that are fine for most people are counterfunctional for Tessa, but also Tessa can function well under some conditions that would be difficult for most people.

I really want to see what happens when they're given the chance to actually build some of the stuff that we've talked about.

On a more immediately practical level, they also have a demonstrated ability for identifying and bringing together talented and caring people, and that in itself has been very valuable to me, on multiple levels.

For all those reasons, I've been acting as Tessa-translator and documenter (especially where technology is involved) as time and our schedules permit.

Kit (Kit#2853 on Discord) also does Tessa-translation; she has known Tessa a bit longer than I have.

h2. Identity

Tessa generally goes by "jakimfett" in most online spaces (it's a fairly obscure _Star Wars_ reference) such as Discord, and also as "@eryn":https://toot.cat/@eryn (one of their middle names) on TootCat.

Tessa has a rather ambiguous and fluid relationship with gender, and generally prefers they/them pronouns.

h2. Communication

Things to keep in mind when Tessa says something that seems significant, unexpected, or unbelievable:

* They also may use words or phrases in unexpected contexts. If you interpret a word as being used a certain way, you may get completely the wrong idea.

* They tend not to "show their work", skipping over a lot of steps between premises and conclusions.

* They are often focused more on communicating a _vision_ of a certain reality (future or present) rather than providing the necessary connecting logic, evidence, or context to make it obviously plausible.

* They sometimes speak in metaphorical terms.

h2. Document History

(This document is a work in progress.)

* *2018-05-29* Document created for Discord DM group; was reviewed by Tessa and Kit, no objections from either.

* *2018-05-30* Added note about Kit; edited some other things.