Complicated is easy, simple is hard.

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If I was given a math question, that is solve for X in the following equation, I'd do pretty good at it. But if somebody asks me to divide 6 by 4, then I would fail. If somebody asks me what the number of neutrons is for lithium (3.941) and how many shells it has (2) then I'd be fine. But if somebody asks me 'Do you want chicken or tuna for lunch?' then it would take me forever. If I was giving a map of Africa, I could point out from memory the natural range of the cheetah, but if someone asks me to tie my shoes, then I can't do it.

Are you the same way? If so, how?

I don't really have trouble with simple questions, but I do have trouble with decision making. I can never make simple decisions unless I have the answer planned out or something.

I have trouble with the obvious, not the simple, but the obvious... I also can't do things that are abstract without first being explained in great deal how to do them, such as integration for example. And that is why I now have a tutor for my math courses.

Yes. I overthink every damn thing. Which causes problems doing the simple things.

I have to use my intellect to remember and recall the reasons behind something... I just don't memorize info... I memorize the reasons. Which makes recollection very slow.

It's a big problem when I try to teach math to kids. I make the simple mistakes, and then explain over their heads...

I tend to draw a blank when responding to qualitative questions. For instance, when I went for my first visit to the psychologist to be evaluated for AS, I had to fill out a form of background information. One of the questions asked me to describe my relationship to my parents. Complete blank.

All I could do was make a list of things - (They are my parents. I visit them once a week. We chat.)

On the other hand, I have no problem with questions of specification - (Have you ever had x? Where do you live? What's 6 times 7?)

It's about developmental sequences, and the question is flawed.
The experts are wrong. There is no correct sequence.

Like the idea that you need to crawl before you can walk. My sister's kid didn't really crawl properly or walk properly. She just got up one day and started running. She is in college now, totally NT, no issues at all.

Or my thing with memorizing the multiplication tables.
I stunk at it and never really learned them, and this was not a problem for me.
But when they introduced the binary system, I got it instantly, in one lecture.
I found a spot to hook it in my brain, custom made and ready to go. The rest of the class was still struggling with it a year later.
The truth is that memorizing the multiplication tables IS NOT MATH AT ALL. It's just a crutch, for math-phobes. For me, it was a barrier to math.
The problem is that most elementary teachers are math-phobic and needed this crutch themselves. Lacking a Theory of Mind, they need to believe that everyone is just like them.

The point is, there ain't no such thing. Your developmental sequence is not "wrong." It's just different. Everyone is different.

yes, yes, yes, yes, to nearly everything written in this thread, it's actually uncanny.

I overthink till it can become a paralysis...It takes me forever to make a decision for something really simple, because I have to think it...I can't do nimble, and at the shops I often miscount coins...but if given the chance to zone in I can think something different...but then again to get there I confuse myself and my surroundings...can't see the forest from the trees

I never got very far in math in school, because they kept me in the basic classes to try to teach me stuff I just never got (i.e. multiplication tables, etc.) When they finally let me try some Algebra, Geometry it was like my brain just responded. I loved it, and the classes were boring only because they couldn't show me this stuff fast enough. I got excellent grades. But by then I was ready to graduate, so I never went any further. I did go on to some Logic and Astronomy courses that I also did very well in. But, my basic math skills still stink.

Speaking of developmental sequences and fascist math teachers,

This is another part of the argument against standard public education. The kind of personality that is normally attracted to the job of elementary teaching is the kind of person that has no business being within 1000 feet of an Autistic child. The kids have enough problems without being at the mercy of someone so rigidly NT. Yes, I can make such a generalization about a self-selected group. The majority of elementary teachers are attracted to the job for a reason.

My major was Special Ed (back in the stone age, totally outdated now) and some of our classes were shared with the future mainstream teachers of America. They struck me as the most bland, colorless, mindless bunch of people I had ever known, but I had not yet figured out why.
One day, while a professor was lecturing about how "teachers are powerful... teachers can make a difference..." she illustrated her point by asking how many of us were there due to the influence of a special teacher; in other words, "How many of you are here today because you were, at some point, the teacher's pet?" Every hand in the room went up except for mine. THIS, I realized that day, is raw material, and the reason that school sucks.

It's an exclusive little club. Members are identified and nurchured from early childhood. They are never in their lives even asked to think outside the box or to question authority. It's all they know. They're the good little girls who always do everything the teacher wants.

I can spend hours talking about theoretical physics, matter, energy, spiritual and human evolution.. 30 minutes on the phone with my mom talking about the family and local (where she lives, not me) gossip and I want to rip all of my hair out, I also can't seem to figure out how to tell her what she wants to know about me and my kids, to add to her gossip with other people I assume, for some reason I just can't figure out what I am supposed to be telling them, she says how is everybody there and I say, "fine".

I can't figure out how to call (or find) a repairman to fix my dryer but I can take it apart and figure out how to fix it myself.

I can go to the grocery store and buy a bunch of random items and make amazing meals from scratch with no recipe and absolutely no plan whatsoever, but I can't take a recipe and figure out what to buy, how to follow the simple (obvious to me) instructions without getting totally confused and turned upside down (often resulting in meltdown)

I can invent something out of nothing, but I can't follow another persons directions. I can buy something that needs to be assembled and figure out how to do it, but I can't follow the directions provided.

Ha Ha - this thread is the story of my life.

Also, does anyone have opposite preferences to society as a whole? For example, I prefer the winter to the summer. I love the atmosphere of the countryside in the winter (in the UK).

Things that most people take for granted took me forever to learn. I didn't learn how to tie my shoes until I was 10 and I was 40 before I learned to tie a tie. I did learn how to calculate square roots when I was 7 and I learned how a multiply a number by 99 in my head.