Noticing patterns more than other people - apparently creepy

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lvpin
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21 Mar 2020, 9:43 pm

So I was with my friends in college and was describing an area I was in the college to my friends. In the process I mentioned it was where one of them used to sit when we first joined last august... several months ago. He was a bit creeped out that I knew and then I, not quite catching on, said I remembered a lot more before detailing many different aspects of his routine before we became friends, such as where he would walk and when before spouting off I used to make a game of predicting and accurately guessing when he would come around the corner. I then realised the mood, and in order to make sure my intentions weren't understood, I explained I notice patterns in what people do and then am able to predict what they will do next and that most people do things in patterns and I find the patterns exciting and interesting, retaining them for a long time before giving more examples of people in our area. Turns out no one else does that or related and what makes it worse is that they know I usually have an awful memory.

Basically I remember patterns and such details about people, not taking them in actively but just in the background and remembering it really well and quickly. This means that while I might struggle in class or to remember plot lines only a week after I saw them I will know the route to someone's house because of some passing glances at different stages or end up knowing people's time tables based on random sights of them over the school day. Are any of you like this, picking up patterns even when you aren't trying to and did you know this would be considered 'creepy'. It's a good thing I'm a non threatening person....



dragonsanddemons
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21 Mar 2020, 9:54 pm

I'm kind of the opposite, I'm usually so lost in my own head that I don't notice details like that. Plus I'm faceblind so I don't realize that it's the same person coming into the coffee shop around nine each morning if they've changed their clothes, hairstyle, etc. I feel stupid/oblivious when people point out patterns I haven't noticed. I confess I would probably feel creeped out at first if someone knew my daily routines and such, but I'd be okay with it once you explained that you do that with random people and it wasn't just me.


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IsabellaLinton
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21 Mar 2020, 9:59 pm

dragonsanddemons wrote:
I'm kind of the opposite, I'm usually so lost in my own head that I don't notice details like that. Plus I'm faceblind so I don't realize that it's the same person coming into the coffee shop around nine each morning if they've changed their clothes, hairstyle, etc. I feel stupid/oblivious when people point out patterns I haven't noticed. I confess I would probably feel creeped out at first if someone knew my daily routines and such, but I'd be okay with it once you explained that you do that with random people and it wasn't just me.


This exactly. I do notice number patterns, but I'm not aware of my own patterns or those of other people.

I think it's interesting though, Ivpin. It sounds like a special skill you have.



lvpin
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21 Mar 2020, 10:03 pm

dragonsanddemons wrote:
I'm kind of the opposite, I'm usually so lost in my own head that I don't notice details like that. Plus I'm faceblind so I don't realize that it's the same person coming into the coffee shop around nine each morning if they've changed their clothes, hairstyle, etc. I feel stupid/oblivious when people point out patterns I haven't noticed. I confess I would probably feel creeped out at first if someone knew my daily routines and such, but I'd be okay with it once you explained that you do that with random people and it wasn't just me.


I think I've heard face blindness as something that happens a lot with people in the spectrum, my sister certainly has difficulty telling people's faces apart. I tend to notice those details you mentioned a lot because I often compliment others and I'm thankful that he explained to me it was really creepy and not to mention this fun fact about myself to others because, if they are not a close friend they might think it is something I plan out and even I know that would be weird.



lvpin
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21 Mar 2020, 10:04 pm

IsabellaLinton wrote:
dragonsanddemons wrote:
I'm kind of the opposite, I'm usually so lost in my own head that I don't notice details like that. Plus I'm faceblind so I don't realize that it's the same person coming into the coffee shop around nine each morning if they've changed their clothes, hairstyle, etc. I feel stupid/oblivious when people point out patterns I haven't noticed. I confess I would probably feel creeped out at first if someone knew my daily routines and such, but I'd be okay with it once you explained that you do that with random people and it wasn't just me.


This exactly. I do notice number patterns, but I'm not aware of my own patterns or those of other people.

I think it's interesting though, Ivpin. It sounds like a special skill you have.


Oh do you think? I have no idea what I would do with it though haha



Dear_one
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22 Mar 2020, 2:53 am

You might want to write a paper about personal activity patterns. I've never heard of them being predicted before. I see patterns, too, but more related to physics and engineering. When I see a domestic cat being fed, I sense a rare wild cat being starved.



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22 Mar 2020, 5:15 am

That was one of the ASD questions an assessment: knowing others' routines. I am not that way but my ASD-like BFF is. I had a childhood friend who "admitted" he could remember what clothing folks wore on occasion going back decades. His conspiratorial whisper implied that others found this creepy. It's not "creepy", it's unusual. I think women who put globs of makeup on are creepy.



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22 Mar 2020, 12:03 pm

The brain is a pattern recognition machine. When people are going blind, they often have vivid hallucinations based on the few signals they get. An astronomer can look at a bunch of dots and know if they are paint spray or star maps, but I cannot. Perhaps the most amazing pattern recognition feat was a 12 yr old boy in Quebec who found a Mayan city. We had always wondered why the Mayan cities were not located in the obvious places, like river junctions. They turn out to be a star map, and our lad noticed that one was still undiscovered. It soon was confirmed.



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22 Mar 2020, 5:14 pm

I do this sort of thing sometimes. I think that most NTs pay very little attention to anything (although I guess they do pay attention to a bunch of stuff that I filter out as irrelevant). This is definitely one of those incomprehensible social rules things. I have gotten the impression from talking to a bunch of NT women that they would notice, and would assume that any other NT woman would notice, exactly what people are wearing and would judge someone for wearing the same thing twice in a week. So there is some way in which paying lots of attention to other people is fine.
Yet noticing the sorts of patterns people fall into which you mention NTs think of as creepy.

I think it is well recognized that autistic people are often vastly superior to NTs at pattern recognition.

Given that most of machine learning is just very complex pattern matching, I like to joke that it is called 'artificial intelligence' becuase it allows NTs access to abilities that some autistic people have naturally.


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NotaHero
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22 Mar 2020, 6:32 pm

I definitely do this, plus I remember random facts and details very well. Unfortunately I'm a big awkward guy so have to do my best to bite my tongue even when I think it's a really interesting connection as I don't want to make it look like i am obsessed with them.

I have in the past been guilty of doing this through fixating and I accept why those times ended badly, but I only recently realised that it could be taken as that by other people as they wouldn't realise that this was just my mind's natural level and this knowledge was the same as with other people. Because I knew I wasn't giving them any special attention I would just point out things I remembered and noticed about them, but never thought they might see it another way. I can now see that some people must think I was being creepy when I've done this, but as this was the way I was with with everyone (particularly with people I just didn't care about) and went most of my life without the slightest notion it could be seen that way.



lvpin
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23 Mar 2020, 5:16 am

rundembear wrote:
I do this sort of thing sometimes. I think that most NTs pay very little attention to anything (although I guess they do pay attention to a bunch of stuff that I filter out as irrelevant). This is definitely one of those incomprehensible social rules things. I have gotten the impression from talking to a bunch of NT women that they would notice, and would assume that any other NT woman would notice, exactly what people are wearing and would judge someone for wearing the same thing twice in a week. So there is some way in which paying lots of attention to other people is fine.
Yet noticing the sorts of patterns people fall into which you mention NTs think of as creepy.

I think it is well recognized that autistic people are often vastly superior to NTs at pattern recognition.

Given that most of machine learning is just very complex pattern matching, I like to joke that it is called 'artificial intelligence' because it allows NTs access to abilities that some autistic people have naturally.


Ah yes I remembered that NTs judge if you wear the same thing twice. I think I was made fun of for it before, or someone else was because as a rule, even when inconvenient, I never wear the same thing twice in a week. I guess it is just a case of in some circumstances it's deemed ok but in other ones it is not.



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23 Mar 2020, 5:52 am

I see patterns in people, but learned long ago to keep that information to myself.

Seeing the patterns in my own behavior has come rather late in life.


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23 Mar 2020, 6:29 am

Yup that's me too, I put it down in my case, to survival reasons.
Skills that were essential to learn in childhood as the consequences of not being able to roughly predict social outcomes were quite a strong motivating factor.
Yes it creeps people out, but that's how I am, I tend not to communicate about it in regular life.



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23 Mar 2020, 6:42 am

I was once astounded by a set of instructions on how to pass a math exam. No math was used, just a canny understanding of the patterns of the tests. To me, it was far more complicated, but to someone with a mental block for numbers, it was the only way. People navigate through life by an amazing array of basic concepts.
In "Lila" Robert Persig describes sailing into a port at night, convinced all the way that he was seeing small errors in his observations, until he docked and learned he was in another city.
People will often deduce a whole pattern from just a few pieces, and find it very convincing. See "Conspiracy Theory." Some are true, but they can't all be.



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26 Mar 2020, 10:33 am

people bahaviour ,, definitely part of my pattern recognition. but only if a reason or a threat exists..
unfortunately that consists of entire situations or circumstances , usually based on negative effects am seeing develop around me. Find it hard not to make extrapolations based on observations .
became hard not to see repeated patterns . Has often preserved my own safety. Seeing logical repeated conclusions to these patterns. Became obvious to me. Often wondered how others were not able to see these same things. But noticing it was not socially acceptable , and this ability became physically draining . So limiting this , not being easy. Helps me to get through the day but it is not something that seems to not able to be turn off . Focusing on what is immediately in front of my hands ... helps with distraction . Had helped police one summer recently ,Closing down 2 hidden in plain site Homes involved in serious meth production.And Temporarily clean up a entire 4 block crime area, but they did fall down on the logical conclusion part , which has been obvious to more than just
myself . And now the place where problem initially originated still exists , In my immediate locale.


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26 Mar 2020, 11:34 am

I've always noticed pattern's and when a picture is not straight .