Are any of you Savants? If so, what type/skill?

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I have that ability and can easily use it in higher dimensions (when needed). It can be very useful for quantum mechanical research. It took me a while to realize that not everyone could visualize things that way with their mind, I just assumed that was normal to be able to do so. That trait seems to be passed down to male members of my family tree. My father was very visual minded (self taught architect), while both my mother and sister are verbal minded only.

I have heard Nikolai Tesla had an extreme case of being able to visualize inventions and test them with his mind, especially electrical ones.

This is so interesting. If the research is correct, that about 10% of Asperger's Syndrome people have savant abilities, there is so much about this yet to be explored. Mine have attenuated markedly with age (I am nearly 70 now).

@B19 - Can you link me to something that mentions Nigel Richards and Asperger's/Autism? I've always believed he is autistic but I haven't been able to find supporting proof anywhere. Thanks.

Sure, I'll find a link for you. The newspapers here have mentioned it from time to time, though not recently so it may take a bit of finding. Meantime this article is interesting, giving much more detail, a lot of it so very familiar...

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-time ... with-words

It'd be nice if there was such a thing as a writing savant skill. Not that I think I have it, but I can list what I've done in regards to it.

Two years ago, in a six month period, I wrote 40 short stories, reedited 5 screenplays, wrote five novellas and one novel. This month, July, I've written and published 3 books on Amazon - one non-fiction ("You Can't Sleep Here"), and 2 novellas ("Tears of A Clown" and "Stranded in Paradise"). I'm already at work on a new novel; I'm just in the research/collecting data stage. The two months I was hospitalized for a suicide attempt I wrote 32 fairy tales then edited them down to 28 for my fairy tale collection.

When I was in college, in just a one year period, I published 2 poems in the school literary magazine and wrote 3 books. At that time I'd also designed a perpetual motion machine but haven't built it yet because of costs. I also built an amp from parts I found on the street and junkyards because I'd learned how transistors and circuitry works.

I taught myself guitar, keyboards, music engineering, bass, drums, songwriting, music producing, Cubase, midi and have played in a few bands and recorded a few albums, all of which can be found on Amazon. I also wrote, arranged, produced, engineered and performed all the instruments and vocals on a solo album about 3 years ago, as well as designing the cover and doing the photography. That's also on Amazon, too.

I have a blog which has my writing, music, photography, and 67 predictions for the next 10-20 years or so.

I don't think this is savant material, but looking back, it kinda seems like a lot.

Sorry, double post removed.

Savant or not, that is prolific output and pretty darn impressive!

I have tried to find the old aforementioned newspaper articles but because Nigel and Richard/s are such common names,
and articles from the New Zealand Herald aren't individually loaded onto search engines like Google, I can't locate anything readily (but will keep an eye out for you in future).

One new thing I discovered about him today from the net (see link below) is that he trained as an engineer, which I have never seen mentioned in NZ articles (he is always described only as a "professional Scrabble player"):
http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/ ... ord-french

I don't know if I have savant traits, but:

- reading/spelling at adult level at age 3

- started programming at 8 (might have started sooner if I had the opportunity, but did not have access to a computer until then)

- block read and speed read naturally, have never tried developing it beyond my natural ability level though so would never win a speed reading competition

Question for you guys who do this: When you read an entire paragraph/block of text, do you also quickly pick out certain words, as if your brain presented you with some sort of "wordcloud" of what the paragraph contains (like nouns and verbs) so you could read or dismiss the entire block quickly later on?




Same here, but in the 80's we were poor and i didn't get a computer until i was 10, same goes for musical instruments. (If i saw someone today with awesome skill i'd buy them a cheap instrument or a refurbished computer to let their abilities grow, unfortunately i haven't seen anyone yet.)

That is a great explanation. It's mostly unconciously done for me though. I don't know I am block reading unless someone watching me read notices my eyes jumped.

The way it was discovered with me was a teacher was having me read outloud and I skipped a paragraph. She told me I skipped it but I kept insisting I had read it. So she asked me to tell her what it said and I was able to in a mix of verbatim/my own words.




Same here, but in the 80's we were poor and i didn't get a computer until i was 10, same goes for musical instruments. (If i saw someone today with awesome skill i'd buy them a cheap instrument or a refurbished computer to let their abilities grow, unfortunately i haven't seen anyone yet.)[/quote]

Yeah, I picked up playing the guitar quite quickly when I started at age 18. In less than a year I was giving lessons not just taking them.

Greetings. I am unsure if this is called a savant ability or not.

My strong fascination with mental illness has let me memorize several criteria in the DSM-V, and can correct people in the professional field with my ability. My psychiatrist said that I knew some sections of the DSM better than she did.

Also, note, my learning disability is because I have working memory problems (short-term) so it's hard for me to memorize things in the first place.

I don't know if I'd really be classified as a savant, but I have an IQ somewhere between 120 and 140, I'm great at math (won 1st place at my state's academic rally in Calculus), and I'm a talented musician (I was in the all state band twice, and I also made the all-national band and got to play at the Kennedy Center). I seem to understand the logic behind math and computer science easier than most people in my classes, and music theory is something that comes naturally to me since it's heavily based on math. I think my musical performance skill is mainly from lots of practice.