Extreme obsession = Extreme disinterest?

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As an aspie, it's typical to have a few extreme obsessions - is it also typical to have a lot of apathy or disinterest in other things?

For example, one of my obsessions is music, so I go all out with music, analyzing, playing, listening, studying, etc...

However, I'm pretty much apathetic about the specifications of the next car my parents are planning to get me so I can travel to college. (Commuting at least half an hour one way) I don't want the latest model, I don't even know that many types of cars. I don't care for it, so as long as I have one that won't break down. My dad, discussing with car owners (who he'll buy the car from), often tends to get a laugh from saying all his son cares about in a car is a CD player (my last car, really poor, had a cassette; not compatible with me), and the car works.

Just for an example, there's a lot of popular things that most NT's would be into that I wouldn't care at all for

That's an interesting point; I'm like that too, and it's never occurred to me but perhaps it is like two sides of the same coin.

I'm the same way. I don't have much interest in most "life" stuff.

That's why I have so much trouble looking after myself with out constant help from NTs. So I get sad when my NT friends talk about things essential to life and I have little grasp or interest in what they are talking about.

Kind of like of entrepreneur (nonspecialist), it's about skimming and merely making a good enough decision about the car.

Yes. You only want to spend effort on the areas of fascination.

This has been the reason I just coasted through school and never could get myself to do homework. I think public school is a horrible environment for someone on the spectrum.

I've never thought of it like that but it's definitely true. Everything that's not related to my interests, my main concern is that it works, and doesn't annoy me and then I could care less.

This is why as individuals our career choices tend to be so limited. If the school system is a horrible environment for people with AS, its worse when you're thrown into the workplace and forced to sink or swim.

I do think school curriculums should be individually tailored for youth with AS, especially beyond the Elementary school level, so they can be groomed and trained for career specifics in areas where they can be most effective and least stressed.

I probably do have an extreme disinterest, but I am not interested in it enough to discover what it is.

I am strongly apathetic with regards to sports. I always have been.

We as people with Asperger's can be entrepreneurs. Not all of us, and not as some kind of dry obligation, but as a rich green opportunity.

Now the failure rate for new businesses is 80%, I don't want to sugarcoat it one iota. And the biggest reason for failure is undercapitalization.

But, one advantage we bring to a table, is that we do not take for granted something 'working out.' We are used to puzzling out and thinking through a situation.

So, if the question were: What demographics of a community and what lease price make for a successful tanning studio? I would actually give a slight nod to a person with Asperger's.

Yes!
I was thinking about this earlier today. I'm much the same way. I do have my obsessive interests and those cycle around with me quite a lot. But on the hand, I seem to also have "anti-obsessive" interests in where I just cannot focus on these things nor even fake my interest in(probably a good example is popular music with me. I just can't get into it and any information I collect about it tends to fall back out of my head and I forget quickly).

Dnous,

I similarly share your strong like/dislike binary with interests. I have similar obsessions with music, games, puzzles, problems, etc. I take this one step further, where I become completely interested with a particular song, and once I have it "all figured out" musically, lyrically, creatively, I become quickly bored with it.

It has taken me living with a wonderful, caring and responsible woman who has challenged me to stay focused on the mundane aspects of life, and assume more responsibility in what I am doing.

I'm afraid I'd have to agree to this. Even without a diagnosis, when I was moved to private school I was provided with more understanding. Due to smaller class sizes my teachers were able to get to know me better (they recognized that I was very different from other students) and in such they made more of an effort to accommodate me. Because of all of this, my grade average shot up by about 30%. Because of the lack of support in post secondary systems I've been forced to design my own very strange approach to getting into my chosen career path too. I want to go to med school, I HAVE to go to med school, I know everything there is to know, I've been practicing sutures on bananas since I was fifteen (when I found out that I could order suture kits online from supply companies. And my sutures, they are perfect), instead of looking at magazines I look at brain scans, and instead of watching chick flicks I watch surgical videos, but with the way the post-secondary system is structured I know there's no way I'm going to get a bio degree (I don't even want a bio degree, the classes they make you take on plant structures and botany makes me want to fall asleep and are meant to phase out as many people as they can) so I've decided with going the very unconventional route of getting a BA in Drama and for all of my option classes and over the summers I've taken the classes recommended by the admissions committee. I know I'm going to have no issue acing my MCAT, and the drama classes I've been taking have definitely helped my social skills so they're kind of a bonus for my interview.
I'm not sure if anybody gets what I'm trying to say, but I spent too long typing this to not post it.

Oh, Wow, RawSugar, I wish you all the best! Finally, at age forty-seven, I feel I've acquired the skills that if I was timewarped back to age 16 or 17, I might become a doctor. I'm probably going to do some other things at this point: writing, art, political activism, entrepreneurship (and in just very straightforward fashion, create some alright jobs). Although studying to be an EMT is not completely out of the question. Makes a good counterpoint to more solitary, cerebral pursuits, don't you think? And it's something I really believe in.

Okay, I read years ago in a book on getting into medical school, and they said, hey, if you want to study, for example, anthropology in your undergrad years, by all means, you're not going to get a chance in medical school. You might as well pick it up when you can, as long as you have the recommended courses and the good MCAT.

In the recent EVERY PATIENT TELLS A STORY by Lisa Sanders, she talks about the decline of the hands-on physical exam because what's rewarded during clinical rounds is being able to summarize the latest research.

I've always thought that a person with Asperger's could do really well in surgery, because it lends itself to someone who's perfectionist in their work, who kind of sweats the details, and who has a systematic approach. That you hold pretty firmly in your mind what's happening, and not everyone does that.

I've always heard that the weed-out class is organic chemistry and that organic II is much harder than organic I. The solution: experiment with different methods of prestudying. It's obvious. And it works so well it's almost cheating! It's also showing off, which is a reason you can't really do it in high school. But in college, the stakes are high enough that it's worth it. And you can just be low-key and matter-of-fact about it.


PS Sometime with your permission, I'd like to pitch you on influenza research. That's a big interest of mine.

Perhaps we aren't specifically targeting subjects to have extreme disinterests in. It's most likely the extreme obsessions that leave little time for anything else. Much of the time, I'm in to what I like and what I'm doing; only very rarely am I among the majority in TV/music/movies/life experiences I have dealt with and therefore am able to talk about. When some interest of mine is also found among large number of NTs, the reason for my interest is usually radically different than theirs.