Detail oriented thinking?

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Hello, WrongPlanet!

I have a question that I have been trying to answer myself, even with the help of the internet, I cannot come up with a good definition of what detail oriented thinking is.

I have come across a lot of literature saying that people on the spectrum, in general, are detail oriented thinking, but what is detail oriented thinking? Could someone also provide examples?

Thanks.

When I think, I like to think out loud, and as I do that, I pick apart every detail, of the issue, thatI have on hand. I also like to pick apart every little detail, of each detail.

I think it's just means we're pedants, and we focus on specifics rather than generalities.

My avatar is a chicken. When I look at it, I see a black and white barred hen with a red comb and yellow legs standing in green grass. I see details.

Most people would just see a chicken.

I hope this helps....

Detail oriented thinking

A style of thought in which the thinker organizes items in terms of categorization, relating them in level of similarity by the levels of similarity between their categorizable attributes. This type of thinker can be prone to an extremely abstract self concept, in which their identity is flexible or undefined except in terms of their stockpiles of knowledge about the categories and attributes of the things they frequently think about.

Another term I like to apply - object oriented thinking (as related to object oriented programming) ---- in which items all descend from more abstract parent-objects. In the most detail oriented thinking possible, this is how the detail categories would be organized. For example: Object -> Vehicle -> Motorcar -> Audi A8.
Entity -> Being -> Animal -> Feline -> Sand Cat


Non detail oriented thinkers would tend to be unversed in the process of assigning categories to all of their knowledge, and thus would tend to be less aware of connections or relations between items. Though, the more I think about what would have to be the opposite of a detail oriented thinker, the more it seems that the less "Detail" oriented one's thoughts are, the literally less frequent one's thoughts would be. "What even is thought, without detail?" is really the question that my mind has.

Detail oriented refers to two things.

The more metaphorical "thinking style" of making small connections and able to predict/plan with detail, and having a detail oriented memory.

And, local processing, which is a cognitive process, that basically means your brain doesn't see the whole picture, but rather parts of it.
I made a thread about that a while ago here:
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt130394.html

It goes like this. You are minor detail oriented. The person you are with is big picture.

Big picture person talks about the movements the person is about to make to get from point A to point C. There will be a mention of a mode of transportation and general routes.

The minor detailed person will inform the big picture person about all the different routes that could be taken, the risks involved with each route, the pros and cons of modes of transportations, how much time it would take if using this route with this mode of transportation vs. this route with another mode of transportation, how much money it would cost and the long term consequences of choosing this way vs. that way. How many miles, the hours and time limits. If you stop at a place too long how it could possibly interrupt your plans and force you to exceed the speed limit if driving a car which could lead to a fatal car crash or take out some unsuspecting pedestrians which could also land you in jail and not only would you take a life but your plans would be thwarted completely.

Big picture person will be either speechless or say...uhhh yeah and walk away. In moments like that, just shrug and continue about your business.

The opposite of macro thinking or strategic thinking would be micro thinking - http://www6.svsu.edu/~efs/microstrategies.htm

Think dots. Let's say you want to make a picture, but instead of lines, you use dots. Each dot is a detail. What if you have three hundred dots, a hundred are light tan, another hundred one tint darker, the last one tint lighter. If you put them together you cease to see the dots. Instead you see someone's nose. Seeing the dots and their different hues are seeing the details, seeing the nose is seeing the big picture.
When I go to the grocery store, I make a point of looking at every price sticker and memorizing how much everything costs. At the check out stand, I add it all up in my head so I know how much it will cost before paying. I think of this as detailed oriented thinking, since I am keeping track of all those items and their prices. Once I glance at a price sticker on a shelf, I commit it immediately to memory. This keeps me from overspending. For some reason, grocery stores are where I memorize best. I zero in on all those prices and nothing keeps me from memorzing them.