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elbowgrease
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19 Nov 2017, 10:49 am

I, for one, am not trying to make a blanket generalization. Or establish a superiority/ inferiority thing.
And I don't think you're pointing a finger at me, or making it personal.
I basically agree, that it isn't really productive or beneficial to establish a mood of "better than because..." and it seems like anything that follows that could easily become something not so different than establishing a superiority complex based on things like color, gender, religion, etc.
It is interesting, though, that there seem to be a lot of incredibly intelligent aspies. And that it's really not an ego thing, it's just the truth sometimes. For me, it's one of the defining characteristics, it's one of the things that I deal with, without which most of my other "symptoms" could be coming from anywhere. Sociopath, ADHD, depression, anxiety... All of those things lack something, they all miss something. Some of them are really far off the mark (I AM NOT a sociopath). Even if you combine all of them, they still don't make sense, and they don't account for a high iq.
Asperger's does, or seems to rather often. I'm certainly not an authority, I'm not even very experienced at thinking of myself this way. And we're all different, we're all dealing with different things...
My iq is weird. If it's tested without including numbers math it can start to look ridiculously high, if you include math it drops down well below average. So it's almost irrelevant, other than as an example that I really can't do math.
But smart, as far as grades go, is something positive for me. I have to remind myself of it sometimes just to feel a bit better about myself, but I can't even take any pride from it because I didn't have to work at it at all. As long as I do the work (and it's not math), my grades are the highest in the class. Consistently. I don't even have to try. It's not challenging, and it never has been, and that has caused problems, including getting me put on an extreme amount of Ritalin because I was so far ahead of the class that I really didn't know what was going on in the class anymore.
It almost feels like, every time I take a class, it's the same class again. Over and over. There isn't any new information. I just keep having to study the Greeks and the Romans over and over again. And I keep failing the same math class over and over again.
That's excessively negative, and too broad of a generalization to be true, but it's a lot like that. And it's been really, really frustrating.
But, being smart has been a fact of life. Often being the smartest person in the room. That's just the way it is, usually. It's one of the few really positive aspects of my life. It's why I was able to soak up ten years of music theory in about six months, but it's also why I can't talk to anyone about music theory.
One of my favorite things to do is read, but I can't afford to buy books because I can read over a thousand pages in a day, on a good day.
So it's another part of it that really isn't fun. It can be torture. And that's a part of the reality for me. It's a part of why I identified with Asperger's. It's a thing that none of the other (rather ugly and painful) labels I've been given actually account for. And I know that it's different for everybody, but it's a part of how it is for me. A part of being an aspie is being the smartest guy in the room, and being unable to communicate. Unable to function on some really basic levels, and unable to explain why that is, or convince anyone that I'm having a problem. Sometimes it's like my tongue is nailed to the roof of my mouth, or I stutter because I have eighteen different thoughts I'm trying to get out at the same time.

Sorry for that big long rant. I hope that makes some kind of sense.
I haven't even had coffee yet this morning.



Trev038
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20 Nov 2017, 1:38 pm

My grandmother keeps telling me I must have been a child prodigy in some way (very advanced for my age with numbers and language, when I was around 4). And that would be why I was bored as hell at school.

Turned out I was just an Aspie with ADHD.

Oh yeah, at work I'm better than most at solving problems, and memorising long numbers. Still no one (that I know of) has ever suspected I was autistic.

Some people who saw only that side of me told me they were jealous of my skills. But they really shouldn't.



TheSpectrum
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20 Nov 2017, 2:14 pm

Yes.


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rowan_nichol
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20 Nov 2017, 3:16 pm

No. We balance each other with the strong and weak points on our profiles.



CockneyRebel
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21 Nov 2017, 12:22 am

I don't know. I don't know how smart the average NT is.


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xatrix26
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21 Nov 2017, 4:27 am

CockneyRebel wrote:
I don't know. I don't know how smart the average NT is.


They're quite disappointing mate. Add to that mix the usual arrogance and ignorance and you've got one irritating individual.


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QuantumChemist
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21 Nov 2017, 11:02 am

Based on earning a PhD in synthetic chemistry at a large university, I would have to say yes to the original question.

Does it make me feel happier than a NT? No. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. There are many things I wish I did not know about at all. It has taken me a long time to figure out a means to forget those things on purpose.

Does it make me a better person than an NT? No. I have to be careful on what I can create with my mind. I have a Dr. Frankenstein side that sometimes works it way loose from my control when I am bullied. For this, I am no saint, more like a monster. Unfortunately, that is the hand of fate I was dealt with. As my late father used to say "Life is what you make of it from what you have been given to work with".



firemonkey
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21 Nov 2017, 11:16 am

My sister and I are both reasonably intelligent. She is NT. I am most likely not . She is a respected principal with Gensler. I have never worked . She has quite a few friends. I have none.



Daniel89
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21 Nov 2017, 11:39 am

One thing that annoys me if people only see our strengths so have high expectations of us but ignore our weaknesses.



firemonkey
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21 Nov 2017, 11:49 am

At comparable levels I wonder who does more with their intelligence,or is it very much even Stevens?



QuantumChemist
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21 Nov 2017, 2:44 pm

firemonkey wrote:
At comparable levels I wonder who does more with their intelligence,or is it very much even Stevens?


The answer depends greatly upon the people themselves. But, there is something that can favor one side. Aspies do have a tenancy to hyper-focus on a subject matter for long periods of time, an ability that few NTs have mastered. Some NTs can do it, but usually they are restricted to short bursts before losing focus on the subject. (I saw that happen many times in grad school while studying for cume exams.) Those that can use that skill to an advantage in their work have more of a chance of using their intelligence correctly than those who cannot.



firemonkey
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21 Nov 2017, 4:38 pm

QuantumChemist wrote:
firemonkey wrote:
At comparable levels I wonder who does more with their intelligence,or is it very much even Stevens?


The answer depends greatly upon the people themselves. But, there is something that can favor one side. Aspies do have a tenancy to hyper-focus on a subject matter for long periods of time, an ability that few NTs have mastered. Some NTs can do it, but usually they are restricted to short bursts before losing focus on the subject. (I saw that happen many times in grad school while studying for cume exams.) Those that can use that skill to an advantage in their work have more of a chance of using their intelligence correctly than those who cannot.


Then again unless an Aspie can get into employment where such isn't of major importance their EQ and social skills deficits will have a detrimental effect on job progression. Ergo they won't do as well as their intelligence might indicate.



QuantumChemist
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21 Nov 2017, 6:07 pm

firemonkey wrote:
QuantumChemist wrote:
firemonkey wrote:
At comparable levels I wonder who does more with their intelligence,or is it very much even Stevens?


The answer depends greatly upon the people themselves. But, there is something that can favor one side. Aspies do have a tenancy to hyper-focus on a subject matter for long periods of time, an ability that few NTs have mastered. Some NTs can do it, but usually they are restricted to short bursts before losing focus on the subject. (I saw that happen many times in grad school while studying for cume exams.) Those that can use that skill to an advantage in their work have more of a chance of using their intelligence correctly than those who cannot.


Then again unless an Aspie can get into employment where such isn't of major importance their EQ and social skills deficits will have a detrimental effect on job progression. Ergo they won't do as well as their intelligence might indicate.


True, that does greatly depend on what type of career that they are going into. If it is in a job that requires a ton of socialization, the advantage goes to the NTs hands down. We have all seen people kiss their way up the ladder (brown-nosing), whether or not the person is actually fit for the advancement. I deal with it in higher education every day. It is the least fun part of my job.

If the job does not involve much socialization (more isolation), the advantage goes to the NDs. Usually those type of jobs do not involve as much brown-nosing and that blocks some NTs from wanting to work in those areas. It can be a challenge to find a job like that anymore though. The key is to be able to get one's foot in the door on a job, any job, to get experience on the resume.



ZachGoodwin
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21 Nov 2017, 6:08 pm

No.