Irritating questions

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A question that I find immensely irritating to be asked is "How do you know that?". I have, as do probably many others on the autistic spectrum, certain special interests that I pursue, often to the point of 'obsession'. What makes it irritating is that the answer is so obvious - "I've heard and/or read about it at some stage, i.e. the same as any form of knowledge" - and also that we now live in the age of fast and heavy information, where even quite obscure subjects can be learned of via a couple of clicks or taps.

I agree. There can also be an implied "How do you know that?" in that question, as in they think little of me, or think I can't know because I don't have any formal education in that area, because to some people school is the only place to learn things.

I've never been asked that.

I've been asked that a couple of times and it always stops me in my tracks as a completely bizarre question. One of those moments when you realize the person you're talking to lives in a completely different mental world from you.

Sounds like they aren't sure of what you said and want you to cite a source.

I would like to take it as the person is impressed, but that aside and without context I would most likely interpret it as "How do you know ***THAT***" implying that "that" is not important and I shouldn't have bothered to learn it.

In any case, people do not ask me this. Although I was told -as a compliment- that I remember the most "arcane facts." It didn't feel complimentary which is similar to my concern above.

Have had folks say "are you suuuure about that?".

You might wanna give examples of the situations in which folks say this to you.

Are they responding to you stating an academic type fact? Like "Iranian is an Indoeuropean language not related to the Semitic languages like Arabic and Hebrew".

Or are these social realm common sense type conversations in which you say something like "its a bad idea to offer a beer to a traffic cop who just pulled you over"?

If its the former it may be that they just want you to cite a source. To which you could respond that "its just common knowledge. Have heard and read it many times, but you can check it on the web right now if you want."




If its the later then ...gawd knows. I wouldn't know HOW to respond to someone who would doubt that statement! Lol!

That sounds like the usual reason. There are a lot of unreliable sources out there, and people who "know" things that violate logic and evidence. The meaning may be "I'd like to believe that, but I need more than your word on it." It is the conversational equivalent of checking the footnotes and references.

There was also the time I was taking down people's info, and a guy started to spell the name of his town. I wrote and recited it along with him. He was amazed, and asked how I knew it. "I like maps" I mumbled.

ME: “You need to set ‘Elevation’ to the correct angle off the horizon, and ‘Azimuth’ to the relative ground bearing of the satellite from our location, and not the ship’s latitude and longitude. You also need to update these settings every 4 to 6 hours as long as the ship is moving.”

HE: “What comic book did you get THAT from?”

ME: “The SPAWAR manual for satellite communications, of course.”

HE: “Well, f*** that! You’ll set them the way I tell you, mister, and throw that f*****g manual overboard, too!”

Sure, I followed the order (we had many copies of the same manual) ... after entering the order in the logbook and getting the group leader (“HE”) to sign it. Then the Captain wanted to know why his conversation with his wife back in the States was suddenly cut off...

I can't remember what I said ( it was a fact or something useful ) but I got an incredulous 'How the f**k do you know that?' response. It was my brother who said it and it suddenly dawned on me exactly what he thought of me , it opened my eyes a bit but not enough.

Good one. I once got my boss fired for not knowing his job in a startup division. I told his boss to call someone else I knew in the business to check on my story. Then, the top boss got worried that I didn't have credentials either, so he flew us both to Reno for a week long course. I told him that I'd had to pay attention for one afternoon, but he'd seen my marks. I couldn't explain how I knew the work so well, I'd just read everything I could, and done some work for my own projects.

I used to get asked that question when I was younger. Little did I know it was most often meant as a cheap shot at me. So as a kid and through high school, I used to naively cite the source, only to have people laugh at me in response, which I could never find an explanation for. In college, no one asked me that question, probably because college is about learning. It returned to a slight extent after college, although laughter was replaced by quizzical looks.

Today, I give a terse one-word response: "Wikipedia". Apparently nowadays, it's somewhat acceptable to read random Wikipedia articles to pass time, among all but the most hardcore NT adults. Not as "cool" as, say, reading celebrity gossip or sports scores, but passable enough for people to simply shrug off, rather than mock you for it.

If people are judging others poorly based on their knowledge, the odds are pretty good that one party has Dunning-Kruger syndrome going on. Rational debates should be capable of resolution, or a reduction to basic assumptions.

I'm asked "How did you know that?" quite frequently, and it's frustrating because I read so much that I can't always recall the exact book, author or reference. There's always a smirk, as if the things I know are too obscure to be relevant.

The other question I'm asked quite often is "What made you think of that?", if I change topics. My mind makes so many quick connections and associations between ideas that a conversation on one theme can easily bring me to another, seemingly unrelated subject. I can trace the links using stream of consciousness or synaesthesia, but others just stare at me like I have three heads.

More of a general spirit of confirmation bias coupled with class divisions...

“I believe this, that doofus from the wrong side of the tracks says otherwise, so what I believe simply must be true! A loser like him could never be right, even if he reads it from the encyclopedia.”

When I was 6 IIRC my parents bought the World Book encyclopedia, which I spend hours of my childhood reading. There is even a photo my father took of me reading it hanging in our bedroom today. I wasn't able to memorize it LOL but one day, I discovered that there wasn't a single page of the 20-some volumes that I could turn to and not instantly recognize.