all Aspies are not mathmagicians

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I am writing an essay on stereotypes and I have to say whether the stereotype is true or false that all Aspies are good at math.

I am a self-diagnosed Aspie and am no good at math.

Can you help me get the information I need to write a persuasive essay? I am not really that good at persuading, but will do my best. This is for my college essay and I have told no one about I being an Aspie. If you think it will help my point, please let me know. It is a small class.

edit: Changed point of view...

Last edited by ayra on 20 Oct 2009, 11:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

http://www.grandin.com/inc/visual.think ... erson.html

http://www.templegrandin.com/templegrandinart.html

.....

Last edited by Roman on 20 Oct 2009, 12:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

well, poll aside, I have two aspie sons, and neither one is overly mathematical. They both do well in mathematics, but it's not as if it comes naturally. Our NT daughter -- it comes relatively naturally to her.

Both of my sons are more visually intellectual. The older one is becoming an urban planner -- a very design-oriented program. My younger one, he's not exactly visually talented (art, etc.), and his one skill at school is languages, but he tends to learn better visually than auditorially.

Did that help, Roman? I just happen to not be good at math and so that was my first thought basis. I am sorry if I offended you.

Failed Algebra once, twice, passed A1 third time, then failed A2.

Failed Geometry.

Had to take 'Business Math' (ie 'How to Balance Your Checkbook') in order to graduate High School. Had to stay up all night and cram to make an A on the final in order to pass the course with a D.

Math Sucks.

But Quantum String Theory is fascinating. Go figure.

Radio DJ: Which sixties pop group was known as the Fab Four?

Butt-Head: Math was always my worst subject.

This pretty much sums it up for me. My GCSE Maths paper was marked as ungraded.

You didn't offend me at all. Why would you? I, myself, am the kind of person who likes making polls and finding out the statistics on various things. So if anything I enjoy what you posted.

The only reason I responded that way is that you probably won't be able to get unbiased results if you make it clear what kind of results you are looking for. But this doesn't offend me. In fact I LIKE this poll, which is why I care enough to make sure results are unbiased.

By the way, good job editting your original message. I also editted out my previous reply in order for that not to skew results either.

Last edited by Roman on 20 Oct 2009, 12:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Have you been studying quantum mechanics and/or string theory only on popular level, or did you actually study textbooks, or research papers? The reason I am asking is that both of these subjects require math, so you must have gotten good on math to study these ..... unless you are only studying them on a level of popular books such as "elegant universe"

I'm okay at math in the way that I'm okay with any subject that I actually put any effort into.

I may not have to study as much as other people, but I wouldn't call myself a math magician. I'm just good at plugging things into a calculator.

One needn't be able to replicate the math in order to understand the concept.

No, you don't need to the maths to understand the physical concepts if you only have a casual interest. But in order to study those subjects at an advanced level, quantum mechanics requires calculus and complex numbers etc. String theory is highly mathematical and requires much more math.

For the record, I voted yes because I am good at maths. However, to confirm the statement in the title of this thread. Not all aspies are good at maths. That is a myth arising out of media portrayals of some autistic people with savant abilities.

I'm ok at math, but it was as much work as talent. Not a 'natural.' Got up to the level necessary for undergrad physics.

One thing that was wierd was that math (calculus stuff) was incomprehensible to me until I found a way to 'translate' it into a form that made sense. I flunked it twice, but after staring at the book every day for hours for months I suddenly 'got' it and sailed through the next 4-5 classes. I think more people could be better at math if it wasn't taught my math 'naturals' (they don't think in normal ways IMO).

The 'good at math' myth seems to come from the view that it's only ok to be abnormal if there is some 'compensating' quality. 'Cus otherwise, you know, the person's existence is just a pathetic tragedy. Johnny's gotta be good at something, 'cus otherwise he doesn't have an value at all, nope, nada. Better off dead. Oh wait, maybe there are other ways to be valuable, what a concept. Maybe abstract societal value is only important when looking at someone as an abstract person, as opposed to an actual human you might know in a human way.

Ballastexinstenz's blog has some really good points about that (but I can't remember the titles ATM).

Yeah, I'm good at math. I'm not necessarily good at math class, but I'm just bad at school in general.
My main problem in math class is that I have to show my work... Which takes exponentially longer than just doing the problem in my head.(Calculus included.)

...When I think of a random number, it comes out prime.




Incidentally, the thread's title, "all Aspies are not mathmagicians", is incorrect. To say that all are not is to say that none are. Well, I am.

I am a math major. The more time I spend doing abstract theoretical math, the more I fumble at number crunching. I can manipulate symbols and write proofs; I can explain things on a conceptual level, but don't ask me to take a definite integral or invert a matrix since I tend to lose negative signs and neglect terms, despite my efforts to cancel out terms or use commutativity to get easy-to-do sums/products.

I'm really lousy in maths. I began having problems in elementary school, and there are still things on that level I don't get (fractions). I get addition, subtraction, multiplication and division (a little hard) and percent. All the rest, I don't get it at all.
I only passed junior high because my teacher pitied my effort in the last half year, I shouldn't have passed based on my understanding of the subject, and in high school I didn't.

Not all Aspies are great at maths.