The stereotype that those with ASD tend not to see the whole

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This ^^^. In the beginning, I sense the whole, like a shadow or an obscure scent, but then I have to cover every detail in order for the whole to become really apparent to me. It means that I can grasp ideas and the general consequences immediately, but it takes me longer than others to get all the details in order so that everything is clear. It's non-linear thinking, and in the end (after much trial and error), I come up with something no one has seen before.

It's great, and frustrating.

I am definitely a "can't see the forest for the trees" kind of person. Very detail-oriented, difficulty with gestalt. It is not conducive to getting things done because I get sucked into some tiny part of a project and forget about the rest.

I'm able to focus on both the big picture and the small details.

I want to know what is on the other side of the picture too. Can someone please just put the picture in front of a mirror so we can see the whole thing at once?

I sometimes miss the big picture.

This week I decided to give a homeless guy a ride back to his van from the alcohol treatment program we go to because he'd walked a long way to get there.

I was just being nice and no one else offered him a ride. In the end I could be making a big mistake.

There are reasons why some people are homeless. It isn't because they simply lost their jobs. Some people are genuinely schizophrenic and are probably dangerous.

I need to be more aware and not let those kind of people in my car (and in my life).

By seeing the big picture I see the whole system, and then I can see what the smaller steps are. It would greatly increase my independence and I would need less help, or no help at all to do things.

When I go traveling independently (a few weeks ago I went to Japan and I arranged everything myself successfully) I start with the sentence: "I want to go to Japan." I ask myself the question: "What is needed to realize that?" My own answer would be: "First I need to arrange a flying ticket and a hotel." The following questions would be: "How do I arrange a flying ticket? What information do I need? Where do I book?" And about the hotel: "What hotel do I pick? When will I be in Japan?" and so on, and so on.

I both see the big picture, and I break it down into smaller steps, until I can't break it further down anymore. It is similar to programming.

At work I want to learn to see the big picture about school administration. But the former bosses and team managers think that I am not able to learn that. They give as little information as possible, so that I cannot build a whole system in my head with reverse engineering. Instead of letting me doing reverse engineering, it is better to teach me things.

Socially, in my immediate environment, I don't see the big picture. Mum does and she's NT. She's amazing, it's like still having a grown up around for the way that she manages people's needs. Eg my stepdad will need to use the computer. I will need to not have an Apple computer on because of the light. She figures both our needs out and tells my stepdad to work in the other room.

But when it comes to the real big picture, I use my specialist interest in football to guide me though the world of academics, the world of rock and roll etc, so I know all the cool and artistic sort of world there is out there, as well as having a good understanding of Irish and world history, knowledge of the Irish language etc.

An average fan in my position would be stuck on knowing about football, a few rebel songs and Republican 20th century politics, maybe a sprinkling of Republican history before that.

I think my advice for aspies who can't see beyond their specialist interest is to use the specialist interest to guide your knowledge on other things. To use a cliché example of a specialist interest (trainspotting), don't just learn about train routes but learn about the places to which they go, the invention of the train along the way, the lives of the people who invented new trains and the life of Stephenson, the life of the guys who invented the train before him, how trains are represented in the media etc etc…

And yes for my friends on here lol... look up the novel/movie Trainspotting...

This came up here some years ago too, and some of us talked about us seeing the details and the absolute big picture, while NTs see the smaller big picture.

One area where I definitely see the big picture are issues involving environment and biotopes.

I think how you described it is pretty accurate. A shadow of a subject, a detailed focus, then an unique overview. Neurotypical people seem to take a linear path of starting from basics and moving on slowly learning more. But sometimes I'll be working with neurotypicals and find that I have a much higher understanding of a subject but I'm missing crucial information I missed at the basics. Or I'll see a problem coming and they'll be frustrated at me because they think I'm trying to pull a problem out of nowhere. Then when it happens they're shocked. Always trust the pattern recognition of an autistic person lol

^^ Totally. My therapist says NTs tend to do bottom down and don't go far down. She says I do bottom up and then when I get there it is a deep powerful understanding of the system. At work, a team test indicated strategic thinking as one of my top strengths which surprised me given the cultural (BS) feedback I usually receive (double whammy of Autistic while female). I also see/hear/feel the train coming and propose solutions but am too often doubted. Once at work I found a person of influence who acted upon my findings and that was satisfying, but mostly I was dismissed or even discredited by power-monging peers or superiors.

I see the small details that make up the whole. The issue being that I focus so much on the details that the whole can be overwhelming if there's too many details making it up. I see both though. I'm at my best in functioning when there's few details making up the whole. One way I can seem to circumvent this is via the "looking glass" in that viewing from afar, I miss a lot of the mostly useless details that a person shouldn't focus on so much, which leads to being less overwhelmed; a human from afar is mostly just a figure.

I actually like talking to people from a distance for this reason (several yards away), and I can even make eye contact fine. Of course, this is impractical for most, but it's something funny I figured out.

I also very detailed-oriented and like to tackle life by focussing on and digesting one small bit on a time, e.g. organising personal admin, or trying to understand a new topic that I am learning about.

I guess sometimes this takes a while and so I am slow to reach the big picture, but usually get there eventually.

This is probably a details-first approach to life... is this the same thing as 'weak central coherence'?
I feel it should be called 'excellent attention to details' rather than 'weak central coherence'!

One thing I notice is that if I am unwell (e.g. a cold etc.), I feel a bit like understanding/tackling the 'big picture' (e.g. organising personal admin or learning a new topic) is a bigger challenge than usual for me, so I then really need to break it down the challenge into a small piece or detail that I can focus on, one at a time, in the hope that the 'big picture' will emerge at the end. Anyone else find that they become even more details-focussed when they're slightly unwell?

I don't really know what people mean by seeing details/big picture. They seem to mean the same thing. Like when I posted in PPR in a thread about discrimination being OK if it's against white people, my post sounded so simplistic while others sounded more detailed and knowledgeable. Is it me missing the big picture, or missing the details? In a way you can look at it both ways.

(Please do not derail this thread on to the discussion topic I mentioned from PPR, just keep to the discussion this thread is about, as I was just using it as an example).

Perhaps someone give me an example of noticing details vs the big picture in a simple scenario, so that I can understand more.