AS-dar... autism radar?

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I am an NT obsessed with autism.

I had a crush on a boy in my class in middle school since he behaves very differently, so I recorded everything I observed about him in my diary. I don't know about autism back then, but now I think ASD would perfectly explain everything in the diary. (I never discussed this with him since we are not close. And people in my country don't know much about autism.)

I also met a guy in a summer camp and suspected he is on the spectrum, and it's later confirmed.

But it's not really a radar thing... I like observing people who don't appear neurotypical and my obsession can last for a very long time. (The diary I kept in middle school lasted for half a year and was very detailed.) And most of the time I end up with the conclusion that the person is just a rare subtype of NT.

okay okay left out a big item here ...A-dar.....hmmm growing up with a non verbal sister...might help this ability ..Going with mom to drop her off at special ed school, regularily gave me broad overveiw of autism and mongoloidism . Having seen what bad reactions poor upbringing could have on a aspie person .. Frightened me away from wishing to be a special ed teacher . Had no clue , about myself
but at one time had a very special kinship moment with my sister ..That our mother squashed almost immefiately . To this day , idk why she did this but she was fairly protective of my non verbal sister.
And almost literally No attention paid to my condition, but in larger families, she could of easily been overwelmed mode 24/7.

I never used to think that it was 'obvious', but at least several people have sussed it out fairly quickly. One person said that my hand movements are a giveaway.

I was in a peer support group today and could just tell this guy sitting beside me was autistic. This guy came in with like 10 pages of typed notes for an informal group. He stimmed with his hands the whole time and he talked about that his parents thought he was deaf(probably central auditory processing disorder though he never mentioned that specifically). The way he spoke with such interest in a specific niche topic gave it away.

After the meeting he mentioned that his parents thought he was autistic and sent him to Toronto as a kid to be diagnosed, and the thought of being autistic was so bad that he fell into a deep depression. I didn't tell him I thought he was autistic but it was really obvious though I think I was the only one in the room to notice. I told him I had autism which kinda shocked him, and then he left. It's kinda sad that the thought of being autistic is so bad that one would become seriously depressed for years.

But yeah I have an ASD radar. My mind is hard wired to see patterns.

Yeah I find it relatively easy to pick up on when someone is autistic. I've had a number of instances where I've clocked someone very quickly and then they've revealed their diagnosis to me. Truth be told I think a lot of formal diagnosis is the same process but wrapped up in a bow. There are benefits to standardisation (reducing bias, making it less important which professional you see) but they're not the benefits that most people think they are (improving or perfecting the accuracy of the diagnosis) and even the reduction of bias is questionable.

I recently suspected that a coworker I met that day was autistic, and then later that day he told me that he was officially diagnosed with Asperger's. I didn't even bring the subject up.

For somebody with classic autism, it's relatively easy to tell that they are autistic.

For somebody with Asperger's-type autism, it's less easy.

I just look at people's eyes. Some people have the 'obvious ASD' stare.

For some reason this question reminds me of the end scene in the Kaufman Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

https://youtu.be/lUXHB5U-Vl4