How quickly can you learn things?

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I'll either learn things quickly if they interest me, or I'll be slow to learn things if I feel disinterested in the topic. I pretty much don't really have to try to learn things if they interest me, as my brain will just unconsciously process it.

When it comes to something I need to learn in a workplace environment then I learn extremely quickly but social situations of all kinds continue to elude me even at 42 years of age. NTs are utterly and completely frustrating for me and I haven't been able to learn this aspect of human existence.

*sigh*

The social situational dynamic might as well be the next wonder of the world for me.

If I learn a fact that I think would be handy to know, such as the latent heat of water or a metric conversion, I can usually get it into long-term memory in one try. However, if someone is trying to teach me something, and they have left out a basic fact, I retain almost nothing until I have found and filled in the gap.
I am very slow at many social cues, but I think I have found some underlying logic even there, where none is taught.

Same. It goes really quickly if I have an interest for it, and really slow (or not at all) if I don't care about it.

Yeah, when my general knowledge level exceeded U.S. college grad averages, I flunked out of high school. I could never figure out why people needed teachers as well as textbooks. If I have to, I read slower and think about it as I go. I didn't want my curriculum set by a bunch of people who were making such a mess of things overall. I got my engineering at the library, and was invited to lecture to graduating engineers.

I'm just now coming into a more well rounded understanding of a simple online video game I have been playing daily for 2 years. But there's still a lot I haven't learned that the average 8 year old gamer knows.

By the term "learn", I'd take that as the the ability to absorb, understand, store, then re-use information on a process, fact or concept. If that's the case, then it's huuuugely dependent on the subject matter for me: If the subject in question floats by boat to the right degree, then I take the required information in very quickly, without a good deal of effort, and it will stay there. An example would be hearing a song I like and then replicating it on my guitar....From The Ramones to Segovia - The level of complexity wouldn't phase me. If the subject to be learned was something about which I could not muster an ounce of interest let's say politics, then I may as well as try nailing water to a wall. More concisely, and less Aspergically put, I'd say learning is proportional to degree of intrinsic interest.

P.S

Some say that a sign of Asperger syndrome, is a very flowery, verbose way of talking/writing.....Personally, I don't agree...

Yes, I recognise the "easier if you're interested" thing.

Also, for me, the teaching/learning style makes a big difference. I am very good at learning from books or internet research. However, something physical, like learning to use a tool, I can only really learn by trial and error. If someone shows me how to use the tool by demonstrating, I just don't get it. I just can't make the link between seeing their actions and what I should do - "You are doing it with your hands, but I'm going to have to do it using my hands."

I learn some things quickly, and other things not so quickly. Reading and writing I was years ahead of my classes in. Programming came easily but math was always hard.

It really depends on my interest level.

I'm very slow at learning how to build a table.

I'm pretty fast at learning about history. I've been excellent at dates since about the first grade.

Three months into painting classes, I was told I was advanced.
Whole lifetime trying to figure out social skills? Still can't quite get it.

Unfortunately for me, I won't necessarily pick it up quickly just because I'm interested. I tend to even pick up things more or less immediately or not at all/ only through trying for a very long time and not necessarily have a strong grasp on it. Sometimes it feels like I don't ever truly learn, I just either understand it right away or never/close to never/really struggle with it or mix it up

I have absolutely no doubt that you were told this. Advanced skill sets such as artistry and technical understanding comes quite easy for Autistics like us but social dynamics will continue to elude us forever and ever. It is one of life's great contradictions with us isn't it?

By the way, I love looking at painted works and the more realistic the better. I was never much for expressionism but realism fascinates me endlessly. And while I can't paint and I'm sure you could paint far better than I, I still enjoy staring at paintings none the less.

Bravo!

Learning is my "special interest"

Discovering how something works has always been a fascinating experience for me. It led me into the Computer Networking career field just because all I ever wanted to do since consistent and reliable access to a computer with an internet connection back in the '90s was learn everything I could about how computers work and speak to each other. I believe the primary reason behind this was the amount of information absorption stimulation that occurs when given such a tool as a computer and the ability to share knowledge with the entire human population.

Before the internet access became available we had this newer computer with cd-rom games and of all of what we had available I preferred to load the encyclopedia Britannica(Like wikipedia but offline basically). Built into this program was a simple maze trivia game. Answer questions from various topics from multiple choice to advance through and uncover the minimap of the maze as you advanced through increasingly deeper knowledge questions as you go through more levels. I could play this for hours on end, memorizing the correct answers if I got any wrong so if the random generator asked again I would get it correct and advance through the maze quicker.

From this I don't tend to think about things when I process and store information, I focus on understanding each sentence/paragraph and before moving onto the next if there is any doubt as in what was trying to be conveyed and if I understood it properly I will go back and read through it again. As many authors are terrible at writing I learned to filter out most of the erroneous(Author Bias) or filler data(Useless information) and focus on what is important, what exactly that is I don't know how to explain any better than I trust my discretion.

So using the best learning tools available in known human history all of the knowledge is there just waiting to be filtered from the noise, deciding what is noise and what is of interest is life.

Like others said learning then requires only a peaked interest, from there it can snowball into obsessive fascination into learning every possible fact or theory about a subject, or it gets shelved for later usage or further expansion should the need arise. This happens very quickly for me and my data centers of knowledge are ever growing.

I'm also deeply committed to sharing or teaching information as the sharing of knowledge is why we enjoy the benefits of the lives we have this day. If I am capable of teaching another person about a subject successfully, then I can finally consider my information about the subject as mastered.

The human mind and the resources to always be learning and bettering oneself helps gives me drive.

"The brain continues to surprise us with its magnificent complexity. Groundbreaking research that combines neuroscience with math tells us that our brain creates neural structures with up to 11 dimensions when it processes information. By "dimensions," they mean abstract mathematical spaces, not other physical realms. Still, the researchers "found a world that we had never imagined," said Henry Markram, director of the Blue Brain Project, which made the discovery."


Source: http://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/our-bra ... scientists

I definitely learn things I am interested in faster than I learn things I don't have any interest in.

I can learn things quite quickly when forced to. This was something that was tested over and over again in grad school exams. However, the retention time that I will have with the subject varies greatly upon my interest in the subject matter. If I like the material (or have a special use for it), I will retain it long term. Otherwise, it will waver over time and I will need to relearn it to be able to use it again. This process is independent from my memorization skills.