The Stack of STIQS: The Innate Operating System that Makes You Exceptional

Every human is born with what I call a Stack of STIQS - Strengths, Traits, Idiosyncrasies, Quirks, and Skills. This theoretical framework explains how I see the difference between what makes us excellent and what makes us exceptional. It emerged from my work understanding how both nearly normal and neurodivergent brains, including my own, process and interact with the world in our own unique ways.

The Chooser gets to Choose.

Your Stack of STIQS is uniquely yours but you don't get to choose them. You do, however, get to choose whether to carry them like a burden, a heavy weight strapped to your back, or to ignite them and use the light and energy they create to illuminate things in the way that only you can.

Think of your Stack of STIQS as your personal operating system.

These aren't characteristics you choose or develop - they're your factory settings:

• Strengths: Your innate abilities that come naturally and powerfully

• Traits: The core characteristics that define how you move through the world

• Idiosyncrasies: Your unique ways of processing and responding

• Quirks: Those distinctive features others might see as odd but serve a purpose

• Skills: Both the innate and learned capabilities you've developed

We can either carry our STIQS as burdens on our backs or toss them into what I call the cosmic bonfire - where they combine with others' STIQS to create energy and light. When analytical strengths meet creative traits, when systematic processing meets intuitive thinking, we can achieve things none of us could alone.

Understanding your Stack of STIQS requires more than self-reflection.

It requires an Empire of Empathy - gathering perspectives from others who can see aspects of ourselves that we can't. These outside viewpoints help us understand how our STIQS manifest in ways we might not recognize.

The goal isn't to build a "better" Stack of STIQS - it's to understand and work with the one you have. Your quirks aren't flaws to be fixed but features to be leveraged. Your idiosyncrasies aren't problems to be solved but tools to be utilized. What looks like chaos in one person might be their most efficient state. What presents as attention to detail in one might manifest as analysis paralysis in another.

When we understand our Stack of STIQS, we can create environments where these elements work together optimally. Instead of forcing ourselves into someone else's mold, we can develop systems that work with our natural tendencies rather than against them.

What this year has taught me: Introducing My Stack of STIQS in Action

Throughout the past years of caregiving, I witnessed how each element of my STIQS manifested exactly when needed.

My strengths - the ability to process complex medical information rapidly, to communicate effectively with healthcare providers, to advocate fiercely when necessary. These weren't new capabilities I developed under pressure; they were fundamental parts of who I've always been.

My traits - the analytical mind that could track medications and symptoms, the emotional resilience that allowed me to be present while maintaining clarity, the stubborn determination that kept me going when exhaustion set in.

My idiosyncrasies - the obsessive attention to detail that others might view as excessive but ensured nothing was missed, the need to understand every aspect of her care that some might see as controlling but guaranteed she received exactly what she needed especially when her voice was gone.

My quirks - the ability to hyperfocus for extended periods, the tendency to process information through patterns and connections, the capacity to function on minimal sleep when necessary. The ability to be so completely in the moment that everything outside of that hospital room disappeared. The reality that once I crashed it would be completely but until that point, I was on.

My skills - both learned and innate, from medical knowledge accumulated through years of curiosity to the intuitive understanding of what she needed even when she couldn't express it.

These elements weren't activated by the crisis - they were revealed by it. Like a photo developing in a darkroom, the image was always there; the circumstances simply made it visible.

Understanding your Stack of STIQS is the first step toward conscious choice:

Will you carry these elements as burdens, or will you throw them into the cosmic bonfire where they can light the way for both you and others?