Is this a typical AS/NT or an IDIOT/NT interaction?

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I was at Costco today ordering a "Chocolate covered ice cream bar with roasted almonds"(I memorized the entire description from the sign above the cashiers so that I would order it "perfectly".), and before I ordered, the cashier was approaching the cash register and yelled back "Am I going to get a break today?" and then after readying herself at the cash register, she then frustratingly mentioned "There are 6 people in the back." (referring to employees in the back) as if implying there was a connection between this statement and the previous statement. But, I had no clue what it was.

After going through the purchasing ritual, I pondered on purpose of the "There are 6 people in the back" statement and I thought of the possibilities ... "Is she implying they have too many workers?", "Is she saying too many are slacking off?", "Did she simply think it was interesting they had that many workers working and thought I'd find it interesting for some weird reason?" and it didn't click until about 20 seconds later when I realized that, doh, she was implying that any one of those workers back there could've easily taken over her cashier position and allow her to take a break they presumably were withholding from her.

I recounted what the cashier said to my mom and she understood what she implied within 2 seconds. And, my mom's IQ is about 20-30 points below mine.

Did my thinking process seem aspergian or ultimately NT, but just slow/idiotic?

Last edited by swbluto on 15 May 2011, 1:33 am, edited 2 times in total.

I think you were looking into it too much. I would say slow if she was really implying one of those workers could have taken the register. Idiotic? No.

After 2 years on WP, I'm going with Aspergian. I think the NT default is an assumption of social connection. The AS default is an assumption of information exchange.

When you start with an assumption of information exchange, what she said makes little sense because the number of people in the back is not information you need or would care about. So you are puzzled.

When you start with an assumption of social connection, you see she was looking for commiseration- that you understood how annoying her situation was and others in the back could have helped her out.


It's not about intelligence. It's about which default assumption you start with.

For me common sense is not really common sense but mostly based on experience. By experience I would know not to take a break if there is a whole line of customers waiting unless someone relieves me. However one time during a gasoline shortage I went inside the store to pay for my gas after I pumped it but I should have reparked the car in order to pay for the gas rather than blocking the line and making everyone wait.

I think you just considered all the possibilities. Most people could stand to do this more often. This is the line of thinking that people use to connect plastic bags and the Biblical Apocalypse. It's sort of like learning a language, where instead of memorizing many different words, you have to memorize many different situations.

I've met some pretty stupid people in my day. I can tell you they wouldn't try to figure it out if they didn't get it. They'd just present a goofy smile or something, and regurgitate a canned response that fits a lot of situations. The fact that you want to understand what was being said tells me you are a curious person, and curious people tend to not be complete idiots. The fact that it wasn't obvious to you what she was saying would hint at AS.

I interpreted "6 people in the back" meaning 6 customers already waiting on their order and it was close to shutting time.

I think the problem here is thinking too far outside of the box.

Don't think of yourself as stupid. It was just a misinterpretation.

I thought that she was implying that one of them could take over when I read it. OK............

I wouldn't have understood what she meant either. I didn't realize it until after I read the last sentence of that paragraph. I was thinking something along the lines of "there's plenty of people back there, I can't possibly be needed here."

Oh I must be stupid then because I wouldn't even bother trying to figure it out because I wouldn't find it important. I wouldn't think it mattered what she was trying to imply because who cares. I am not the one working there and I am getting my order so why would it matter what the cashier was trying to imply about her co workers? What does that have to do with me?

The woman couldn't work the register and prepare the ice cream bar at the same time, so she hinted that one of the slackers could prepare your order.

Your way of thinking was aspergian. After I read your story, it took me about 15 seconds to figure out what the connection between the cashier girl and six workers was (and this was before reading about you using the 'social connection' reasoning).

At first I was thinking that there were six other customers that were behind you, and that she was the only person working.

This was my first interpretation too. Then I realized she meant six in the back and wondered why.

You're in a difficult situation, out in public trying to negotiate a social transaction. You're forced to multitask and you don't get right away what the person says. Makes perfect sense to me that you'd have to think about it for a while before you figured it out. That kind of stuff happens to me too. Usually I fish the information out of my memory of the incident--sometimes even fishing the words out of the raw sound "recorded" data.

I don't see why you are using "idiot" as a term to describe yourself, though. The connotation of "willful ignorance and hostility" just doesn't apply to the situation at all. You just had a basic overload and it took you a while to work through the data. Pretty common on the spectrum.

This happens ALL the time. People will say something and I can see 2 or more possible interpretations and I have no idea which one they intended, even upon later reflection. Many times, I can get an "inkling", but there are many times when it's fairly opaque to me when NTs I know get it right away.

This was actually the inspiration for a question I posted on another site,

"What factors could underlie the ability to generate the semantic possibilities of communication, but an inability to deduce the likeliest possibility and subsequently not knowing what the other person intends to mean? (Or maybe vice versa...)"

Someone answered at one time, "I don't think that's a problem. I call that creativity!", and I thought... yeah, she doesn't understand how problematic this problem is in the communication process in everyday life.

Last week, I was at the leisure centre, just before my daughter's swimming lesson. I bought a pair of verruca socks for my daughter and paid for them using a £10 note. They were £5, so the man behind the counter was giving me £5 back. He asked if I would like a £5 note or if I needed coins. I said that I didn't mind and was a little confused at the question. It was a few minutes before I realised he meant that I might need a coin for the locker. I'm sure this sort of thing happens to me more often than with most people.