How do smart Aspies think differently to smart NTs?
ADHD here, so not sure if that counts...
I find with myself I am able to pick up the material faster than my classmates in some situations and slower in other cases.
When I am truly concentrating, I learn the material well the first time around and usually retain it quite well. However, on a bad day, I can read and re-read the same passage and not retain any of it. Studying, particularly before I started taking medication, was always hit and miss. Sometimes I could do it, other times I could not. While it's still like that even now, at least on meds I don't just fall asleep anymore when the material gets difficult.
// Edit: I should also add that the amount of studying I need to do is considerably less than my classmates if I am interested in the material and able to concentrate. This allows me the free time to pursue my interests and study what I want to study.
_________________
I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy every minute of it.
Mummy_of_Peanut
Veteran
Joined: 20 Feb 2011
Age: 51
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,564
Location: Bonnie Scotland
For me, the main difference was that I never needed to study at school or universtity and still manged to be one of the top pupils. The teachers thought I was a swat, which couldn't have been further from the truth. However, I pulled out of university before the final year (after getting a basic degree) as I couldn't handle the thought of waht was expected in the final year (liaising with professors, doing even more presentations, people stuff). Academically, there was no reason for me not being able to get an honours degree. An NT would have stayed on for the senior honours year (unless they had a social phobia, or some other issue).
It's a long time since I did any studying but I too picked up things very quickly. I never took much notice in lectures, often completing unrelated assignments. I would read upthe lecture notes later, in my own time.
I have a useless memory but am good at understanding and working from first principles.
Not true in my case. I have to think very hard before I open my mouth or I will put my foot in it.
simfish
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Joined: 6 Jun 2006
Age: 115
Gender: Male
Posts: 62
Location: Redmond,WA
Interesting - how would you describe the "autistic inertia"?
Bloodheart
Veteran
Joined: 17 Jan 2011
Age: 40
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,194
Location: Newcastle, England.
I think aspies are better with learning things instinctively or that we internalize and process new information easier. At least that was always my impression.
I always found school impossible because even in top classes it seemed to take my class mates all lesson to pick-up something I grasped within a few minutes, and they seemed to struggle with applying knowledge and putting things in their own words. We seem to grasp better understanding and so we may be more likely to be thinking a few steps ahead too.
I think NT's think one dimensionally, they take information as they get it, where as our brains take an idea and flip it round, dissect it, pull it apart and see how else it may fit together or where else it may fit. So we become more intimately aware of the information we take-in so can apply it easier elsewhere.
_________________
Bloodheart
Good-looking girls break hearts, and goodhearted girls mend them.
Interesting - how would you describe the "autistic inertia"?
It's mostly a need for intense focus. Almost an emotional need. There's also the sense that my focus is either "on" or "off" with nothing in between. I can't really do things "half-assed" the way NT's can.
-Detail oriented approach to tasks which may result in missing the “bigger picture”
-Difficulty seeing “parts-to-whole” and “whole-to-parts” relationships
I think both groups are needed. NTs would not have the hyper-focus, detail-oriented persistence/patience to allow for discovery. And without NTs to put these parts together we would be missing the big picture.
I think this is a generalisation. I am a smart NT working in a technical field. I am very detail orientated where I need to be which is actually what I like, in particular working the unknown out, but can step back to generalisation or dealing with something at a concept where its expedient. I think its more about what you like and find rewarding doing. I find it exciting to work things out for myself, find problems, learn things by observation and experimentation, and then apply that to an end.
I have worked with plenty of people I now recognise as having Aspergers traits. I don't see any particularly different way in approaching tasks..but I can see where and how they deal with things like office politics and interpersonal relationships differently.
Similar Topics | |
---|---|
Finding other Aspies at college? |
11 Mar 2024, 2:30 pm |
How can I help this relationship be good and last?(aspies) |
22 Jan 2024, 12:29 pm |
Accommodations for Aspies in Court Litigation |
11 Apr 2024, 3:32 pm |