Reticulating Splines vs Spoon Theory

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Omigosh, WP wasn't emailing me, so I assumed this thread had died. hehe.

@GregCav: I think it's important to use a metaphor that works. I've found over the last week, that having a good metaphor (splines, for me), really helps me understand myself.. why I think the way I do. All the metaphors are similar, with slight differences. Call it splines or an office full of stuff. :)

One thing I like about the words "reticulating" and "splines" is that since they have a vague meaning and are generally unused elsewhere, many people are able to apply them to themselves without getting hung up on the subtle differences between what I would call a "spline" and what they would call a "spline". It ends up meaning "bits of energy and brain things and memories and senses." It seems to be just flexible enough that people can make it fit. I also like that the word seems to work well as a noun, verb, or adjective, so it makes a handy shorthand for my partner for him to quickly know what I mean without going into detail. "I'm having trouble splining," and I'm done. He gets it based on the context whether I mean I'm having trouble parsing what he's saying, or don't have room to do what he's asking me to do.

I believe metaphors are just ways we can model or grapple what otherwise would be hard to think about. In that sense, do what works best. :)

I like the word "spline" too. "I'm splining" - associated with "I'm spinning" (inertia) or "I'm lining" (applying a stopping or starting force).

The analogy that works in my mind is acceleration vs. velocity. When NTs operate by Force=mass x acceleration, I think that their brain splines have a lower mass (not that their stupid or anything, just that there is less tangling) and do it takes less force for them to shift tasks or to enter new tasks or to unwind. Whereas for us Aspies the mass of the splines is very large, so we exert more force, and we tire out.

LOL Amen to that!

Yes, that's exactly how I see it. We're more spline-dependent. According to Bogdashina's book about communication, we're more attached to the details of things and the sensory experiences. We're not willing to let go of all the splines associated with a subject. We're not dumb, in fact, the opposite. Keeping all those splines around makes us potentially more capable of coming up with more intricate, more creative thought. It comes at the cost of becoming overwhelmed, sometimes to the point of not being able to get started. It also comes at the cost of creating and communicating in ways that sometimes NTs can't understand. Because we're too precise, or bring up too many splines, or come up with ideas they never could without all those splines, so they interpret it in weird ways.

(I highly recommend her book BTW. I'm coming up with all kinds of insights as I read it. http://www.amazon.com/Communication-Iss ... 1843102676)

Thanks. First of all, I'm really glad that I seem to understand your theory, and that it does accord with my interior experience. You know that fogginess and fatigue which settles on the brain and moves downward as the day progresses? That's splining.

Also I think I'll get the book.

I have another theory now that boredom, anxiety, and impatience are all proportionate to spline stress.

Yes. :) It also explains special interests, monologging, why NTs think we're "Black and White" thinkers even though I don't think I am, and lots of other things.

[quote="jamgrrl] According to Bogdashina's book about communication, we're more attached to the details of things and the sensory experiences. We're not willing to let go of all the splines associated with a subject. [/quote]

Aspies need the detail because we have difficultes generalising. My collage was challanging for this reason too.

And this is the very reason I can't dislodge (splines = fitted curve) for me. I use splines in AutoCad and I write spline curves in my own software for various purposes.

It's like you and JSBACH are chatting about somthing, I can hear the words but I can't make sense of what's being said. I'm sure you know that feeling

Sorry GregCav. If you we to generate in your head the image / pattern / words that will sync with our discussion then you'll snap into what we are talking about. But for what it's worth I couldn't understand your spliny post at all. Perhaps we live in separate spliny grooves.

Yes, Greg, I can see how if you work with actual splines every day how it would be hard to translate. :)

In another blog post I wrote about a different yet oddly similar concept, cognitive dissonance theory. I needed a shorthand noun to describe what cognitive scientists call "cognitions". i.e. units of individual thoughts, feeling, ideas, beliefs, experiences, facts, and so on. In an effort to make the science accessible and cute, and to comply with my analogy that our minds being like a delicate Rube Goldberg machine, I used the term "cog". This could possibly be applied to an autistic mind, if you modify it to say that autists are more aware of the cogs as separate units, and we tend to collect more of them and are more dependent upon them for doing tasks. See what you think: http://www.lunalindsey.com/2013/08/mind ... nance.html

Splines, as I'm using the term, really are the same thing as cognitions -- separate pieces of thought and memory and senses. But I needed a newish term that fit the computer analogy I was going for. :) "Bits" doesn't really work because those are a smaller unit that doesn't really have an identity as a "thing", and "lines of code" or "subroutine" or "library" or ".dll" are all awkward and might be even more off-putting to people outside the computer industry because they sound technical.

Spline actually is technical but it sounds silly so hopefully is more accessible. It also doesn't encourage people to take the computer analogy too literally. As other have pointed out (here and elsewhere), there really are computer applications where curves must be calculated for generating maps and other results, so maybe if you think of it that way? Otherwise, stick with your office analogy. It works great. :)

It does explain special interests.
All those reticulated splines undulating sinuously in your mind, finding and connecting related data, ideas, and concepts. The graceful splines create an irresistible pathway of neural networks and you can't help but wander those intensely interesting networks for months, years, or indefinitely. You have been funneled into a special interest.

jamgrrl: I finaly read your articles about cognition. It's a good one, and very similar to what I've read in psychology articles on cognition.

Marybird: I didn't see any explanation from JSBACH. He said he had a theory, but I can't see where that theory is expressed in any way.

My experience with special interests is something like: Wow, this is interesting, I'm going to learn more about this.

I don't see anything amaizing about that, yet NT's don't usualy get involved in interesting things. Some do, but it's not the norm.

One obvious difference between Aspies and NT's with regard to something interesting; We don't have relationship time, we are free of commitments. NT's place a greater importance on their friends and socialising, than they do on their knowlage of something interesting.

I'm rambling I know, but I'm in rambling mood

Hey, sorry about my "theory." I just asserted various proportions of Aspie qualities to splines without giving the reason why (what my philosophy profs called the "propter quid" -- the reason for the thing). So I just really asserted. I didn't present a theory. I like your avatar by the way.

Hm a lack of relationships isn't it. I'm polyamorous and have many relationships (two partners and three kids, a side relationship, and friends). It's sometimes difficult to find as much time for my special interests as I'd like, but I still am driven to those interests and spend more time on them than NTs. (I also know an extroverted aspie who actually likes spending time with as many people as she can. I'm not nearly that social.)

There's something else driving the special interests that's not related to a need for relationships or making time for people. For me, it seems to be about the splines, or cogs if you will. I am not content to just know the surface of a thing. I don't want to just look at a map. I want to see every intricate curve. I want to understand the "why". I want to see the gory details. If I'm even slightly interested, I want to know how all of it works.

I'm curious if all aspies feel this way, or if it's just how some of us justify something deeper that is the actual unifying thread. Or maybe there is no unifying thread. Maybe we're similar for completely different reasons. :)

I wrote a silly post about spline theory and special interests that sort of explains how I experience special interests.
If something grabs my interest very strongly, it becomes like a mental pathway that I my mind goes to automatically. It becomes a mental routine, I've described it as like a funnel that draws me in to that one interest and it's a comfortable and familiar place in my mind.
I think that describes it best. It starts out as a spark of interest and then becomes a familiar place in my mind that I want to explore over and over even after I've learned all I could about the topic.
I get stuck there and it's hard to pull myself out of that space and think of all the things I need to get done like bills and housework.
A few years ago it was dog breeds, and then my family genealogy, always anything to do with paleoanthropology, and lately, autism.
I think a special interest is to me, a network of ideas and concepts that occupy a comforting space in my brain in an otherwise chaotic world and it's also a perseveration.

I wrote a nice long return post, then had a power failure

So a quick recap.
Thanks JSBACHlover, it suits me well too. And I love Bach, I've partial learned to play Tocata on my keyboards.

I'm not surprised jamgrrl, you're very pretty and love reading your posts.

I'm making a meal of replying tonight, Arrrrggg.
What you and Marybird describe are accurate for me as well.

I've currently got a need to understand broad crested weirs in greater depth. This is my project for this weekend. I've downloaded as many documents, studies and rerferences papers as I could find, and I'll read them all thouroughly, do the math, examine the studies, and completely understand everything about broad crested weirs.

There is a good reason for all this, but it would take a small book to explain it.

I got stuck into 3 dimentional vector mathimatics in a similar vein. For fun, curiosity, and programming some 3d space ships

You're very Aspie, GregCav!

Here's another theory: Groove Theory. NT brain grooves are shallower and many. So they can shift from one topic to another, connect grooves as they wish, compartmentalize, etc. Easy. Aspie brain grooves are deeper, wider, and fewer. So once we are in a groove we explore it fully, and it's hard to climb out of it to shift and connect to other grooves. Because the grooves are bigger, we lack a certain subtlety of whole brain.

Just a theory.