Hyper individualism anyone?

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I have always preferred to choose my own activities and didn't really care what others did. I guess I always had a "live and let live" attitude, i.e. I think I should do my thing and others should do their's. That has often left me in a vacuum, but that hasn't always mattered much.

I've actually found it was the NTs who had the "my way or the highway" attitude towards me, not the other way around. I never understood how going off and pursuing my own interests was such a problem for others. I can't help if I don't like the same things others do, that's just who I am. It's not wrong to have your own interests, even if they aren't everyone else's.

"Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist"
- R.W. Emerson

I have never understood any reason why there would, or should be any such thing as social conventions (beyond the obvious things, like not killing eachother). I believe that the very idea that one could have power or influence over another is (in my mind) an absurdity.

I am not motivated by the 'normal' incentives, such as do X to recieve tangible goods, social status, etc. My main criterion for doing action X is 'does X interest me?' If so, then I will do X. I have never worked a 09-05'er, yet have been able to find more interesting types of employment.

Anyway, enough with the soap-box rant... I would have to say that, all in all, I am a poster-child for the uber-individualist personality type, and see no reason to change (not that I could, even if I saw fit to do so).

I don't care if others peruse their own interests as long as they don't interfere with my own. In terms of society, I would rather be disliked and given freedom than be well loved and denied everything I desire.

There's no freedom in having no access to jobs and other things that you have to be liked in order to get.

Not sure if it's because of AS or just the fact that I've been so rejected by society in life that I embraced the "culture of ME."

Is it the AS or is it how we deal with not fitting in?

One big problem throughout my working life was that I had no concept of the "chain of command" and would speak to the higher-ups just like I would to my cubicle-mate. This worked out ok for me in the end, but often alarmed my bosses. I eventually figured out that they thought I was somehow planning an ambitious coup, but really it is just "my way". No one could have been less ambitious than I was. I just can't play those games, couldn't live with myself if I could. Also, I just refuse to spend valuable time learning about things that repel me just to "have something to say". Just can't do it. Somehow some folks thought I was a horrible person for these traits, but c'est la vie.

This is my single biggest problem in life. I get bored with jobs so fast, I quit my last 10 jobs within a few days. Job interviews are nothing short of excruciating, the mere fact that I am allowing myself to be interviewed by someone who will be making judgments based on what I say drives me insane. I HAVE to follow along and just work for a pay-cheque, like every other sheep, or I will be completely screwed.

Sometimes I consider extreme alternatives, like drug dealing. I have had drug dealer friends who follow no man's rules but their own. They literally do what they want all day, and answer to no one. Problem is, you increase your chance to get robbed, killed and incarcerated.

Sometimes I think I will just pack up a bunch of gear, and live in the wild somewhere. That would be a very rough life, but at least then I could be totally free of man's chains. We are stuck so deep in the mud of this society it makes me sick. Regardless of how much of an individual you are, if you are earning a legal income, you are just a worker ant, and someone else is doing less work, making more money. If you like what you do, awesome. Most people just live by the necessity of wage though. Wageslaves.

I consciously choose to reject a lot of social norms even when they're explained to me, because I find them pointless and idiotic.

Well, society ain't gonna like it no matter what I do, so I may as well do what's gonna make ME like me.

I know how you mean.

NTs have so many stupid rules, I sometimes wonder who has the disorder...

It's not Aspie kids who bully the one kid in class who has a different hairdo. It's not Aspie teens who mercilessly pick on a lower member of their pack because he/she doesn't wear the right pair of shoes, or uses words other than the accepted 'cool' slang words..

Yup - pixies rnt humies and you can tell!!

Here i listen to you all say you'd be individuals if it wernt for the fact that you needed a JOB...

Well bad news folks - individuals DONT need a JOB - get that outta your head - it hurts you by forcing you to fit in - replace it with - individuals need an INCOME...

a JOB is being a wageslave - an INCOME can be achieved with or without a JOB - work for yourself - start a business - find something you like doing and charge for it

Build websites from home in your own time on your own terms like pixie does - perfect aspie income I can sleep odd hours, dress funny, have bare feet, not shave, take a day off, only deal with humies via email, scream if i feel like it etc etc and still pay the bills

INCOME - not JOB - its a humie trap!! !!

Yes. I say f**k society rules and f**k relationship rules. I shouldn't have to follow their rules. I want to be myself and I make my own rules. Who needs sex? Why need it to make the relationship good? Come on, only way to make it good is if your two get along and you both accept each other for who you are and you both spend time together such as going out or vacationing together, taking trips, watching a movie together, playing video games together.

I conform when it suits me. Otherwise, I don't bother any more. I often get pressured into doing things I don't want to do in order to keep friends though (like going out when I don't feel like it, but that's life I guess - you have to compromise). As far as the stuff that I have complete control over and get freedom of choice in, I always choose what I want - never do anything in order to conform to fabricated norms.

As far as jobs go, I'm at uni (and loving it here - the library is like aspie paradise), and outside of that I earn my money from all sorts of obscure areas which I enjoy instead of getting some run of the mill casual job. But I'm able to do this because my parents are supporting me, so I'm lucky.

I have never been able to..even when I tried..so I don't....I have been this way since I was little.

Quoting AnnaLemma:

This is how I was at work and it caused a lot of eye rolling by my co-workers who adhered to a certain protocol. But I think the people at the top enjoyed it. They began to say hello to me first in the halls whenever they saw me. And once, when I was working at a different place, my boss, who was the owner of the company came to me and asked me to take a splinter out of his big toe. Why me? I was kind of shocked by his request, but I could see he was in pain. He said, "Don't worry, my feet don't stink or anything." That made me laugh and I said, "Okay. Put your foot up here on my desk." I think he sensed I was different and now, looking back on his oddness and other behaviors, I think he was Asperger's too.

Living out in the woods... I have been giving that idea some serious thought, as of late.