Doesn't PRACTICE MAKE PERFECT? There's no "ceiling"

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...learning social skills, is there?

A few people think Aspies can only learn so many social skills, and that there's a point where we can't improve ourselves any further.

Isn't that a load of hogwash?

They think we eventually "hit a wall" to learning more social skills. I flat out refuse to believe that. I think we may "run through a vat of molasses" in learning social skills, as we always have.

Can we keep learning more social skills with no upper limit whatsoever?

(I would hope so.)

i accidentally voted no when i wanted to vote yes. I do think there is a limit to how much one can learn. eventually you'll reach a point where you simply can't learn any more because your brain can't process information quickly enough to allow for any increase in social ability. the problem is that there are some things NT's can do subconsciously that we can't. for example: reading emotion, NT's can read emotion without having to think about it whereas we have to consciously work it through in our mind based on what we've learnt so far. this takes much more work, and eventually you'll reach a point where you simply can't process fast enough to allow for any improvement.

now i'm not saying that aspies can't appear normal, lead normal lives, or what have you. i'm saying that there is a limit to what each individual can learn and apply to daily living.

I think there is no "ceiling" to what we can learn.
I do think at some points in time, aspies will be slower than their peers, but by practicing, you will get better. Sure, there will always be something out there that you won't understand, and there always will be. So you will always be learning those things to stay at a NT person's pace.

i guess i could elaborate on my post.

the way i see it is your social ability could be represented by a curve similar to y=-1/x. so there is a ceiling, a maximum level of ability, that you can learn, but you don't necessarily stop improving. so you can keep learning and keep improving but you'll never get past that maximum point. of course everyone's potential is different so some people may be able to seem normal to others with enough practise and the right coaching, but others will always seem different.

if you think there's no limit to how much we can learn, do you believe a severely autistic person can learn as much as someone who's mildly AS? i think most people can improve significantly in the right environment, but there is a limit to how much each person can learn, and it's different for everyone.

Practice makes perfect only if one practices a correct practice.

If one practices incorrectly if only embeds the practice incorrectly.

Here, I got an idea...let's change the title to "Practice makes Better"

How's that?

Sure it doesn't sound as nice but it is more accurate.

Imho there's a difference between knowing/learning and being able to apply all that knowledge in every situation all the time.

Yes. There are many obvious instances where it takes a lot of physical practice to execute with one's body what one might have already learned in their brain.
IE) dancing, yoga, riding a bicycle, playing any musical instrument, juggling,
crossing a busy street with traffic coming from both directions, et cetera.

Also, learning to do something in one instance doesn't mean one can do it in all instances. To accomplish that one needs to practice the what ever in a multitude of environments under a multitude of environmental stressors.

Every Aspie has an upper limit in what they can learn socially. However, this can increase as we get older, and our brains develop and mature. Probably not in terms of catching up with NTs, but better than we'd done when we were younger. That doesn't eliminate the necessity to learn particular social skills, but it should get easier with time. So yes, there is a ceiling, but it gets higher.

At least the ceiling gets higher, Max Headway.

Still, I'll face innumerable extra difficulties thanks to Asperger's, so I hope that by the 2020s, we will have age-reversal booths of some sort that will let us choose what age we want to go forward, or back, to. I doubt it'll change our heights, but I've met a 12-year-old who was as tall as myself. I'd choose 10, but that might be stretching it. (The tallest woman in the world who died in her mere 50s was 6'0" when she was 10. She was most likely picked on for being a freak of nature.) Therefore, I could (and hopefully will) be happy at 12.

Then I'll not be mistreated for having Aspie tendencies anymore, because my social skills would exceed that of my peers. Would be nice for civilization to not only discover clinical immortality, but also a "fountain of youth" (albeit a booth of youth.)

There's a limit, but it's different for everyone. We don't all have our brains identically sourced from a production line after all. I know If we did, I'd probably restore mine to factory settings.

That said most people with AS will never reach their limit because they learn social skills too slowly. I probably need a few centuries to find mine.

The brain is a physical organ, everyone's is different and each can only be improved upon so much. Perhaps one day we'll remove those limits with technology, but for now they exist.

I think most people are capable of a lot more than they do achieve though.

I voted no, but I'll never learn much because I refuse to get any practice.

It's a dangerous notion grade schools and parents put into childrens' minds that the sky is the limit for everybody, if only you try. That is not the case and it is a tremendous disservice to implant unrealistic expectations if the talent is not there. Ditto with the OP's topic. Some with Asperger's are going to have more ability than others, it's the way of the world. Does that mean to not bother trying whatsoever? No, but it is important to realign your expectations to more realistically match your skill set.

I should also add, the development of social skills for those with AS would be tremendously hastened if only everyone was given the necessary assistance acquired. The research and effective methods of treatment are out there, however governments balk at outlaying any sort of cash for specialized treatment. That's flat out fucken stupid, because it ends up costing more in the long run through lost wages due to underachievement and disability payments.

Let me illustrate something for those that know anything about functions in mathematics. NT social skills is f(x) and Aspie social skills is g(x), where x is effort and the function's value represents returns.

f(x) = 10x
g(x) = 2x

No matter what, in both functions, as x approaches infinity, so does the value. Even though f(x) increases 5 times quicker than g(x), they both reach infinity when x reaches infinity. And infinity is infinity. Infinity squared is infinity.

In other words, we can always learn more. Part of the thing that makes brains great is that we (the homunculus, if you will) can train them. What once took time to think through now becomes instinct, gut reaction. We can train ourselves do to better, and there is never a limiting value - no horizontal asymptote. The only limit is effort, how much you choose to increase x.

To borrow from a music teacher's 101...

"Practice makes permanent; only perfect practice makes perfect."

One can practice a skill; with refinement and confidence, that skill will improve. It may not be perfect, but it depends on the amount of understanding, analysis and implementation that determines one's upper limit. In terms of total skills, I don't think there is general limit - different expressions of ASDs may preclude certain skills from being effective, and unless kept current other skills will likely decline as a result, but I don't think one ever stops learning... I hope not; I would think at that point I'd rather be dead.


M.