Finding Things Out

Post Reply New Topic

Whenever I encounter something I don't recognise, on almost any subject - even things I don't like, like soap operas for instance - I have to find out about it. Not necessarily find out a lot about it, just enough to know where it came from and what it is. With the internet, Google, Wikipedia, and so on always accessible, this is very easy to do and I am almost always successful. And I enjoy it.

Most people - people with ASDs emphatically included - don't seem to do this and I don't understand why. To me it seems very peculiar that anyone should be comfortable ignoring things they don't recognise.

So here's a poll. When you see something new, do you research it?
I've left the answers intentionally vague (it being very hard to define exactly what "a new thing" is) but roughly speaking:

Almost always - >90% of the time, you look up just about everything.
Often - more than half the time.
Sometimes - less than half the time.
Rarely - <10% of the time, you don't look up much.

I recognise the limitations of polling.

I am always reading and looking up stuff on the internet, I just have to know about well anything. Wikipedia is soo addictive.

I look stuff up all the time... Whenever I don't know. I'm pretty obsessive in that respect... I will look it up later if I'm not near a computer at the time.

There have been many occasions that I've been in a group and someone will bring something obscure up, and I will comment on it... the words "How do you know that?" have been asked of me many times.

Someone said "Ignorance is Bliss"... I don't agree.
(BTW: I had to look that saying up and the "someone" appears to have been Thomas Gray)

I always look up a movie after I watch it, a song after I listen to it, a video after I play it ect. and I always do a bit of research on anything I know next to nothing of that I've just heard about.

Curiosity gets the better of me most of the time, so I research things quite often.

Yes, and it can be very time consuming since delving a little deeper into something can then reveal ever more things I wish to know about.

At the very least, I'll do a Google and/or Wikipedia search. At the very most, I'll dedicate a few years to my research.

I like to research new things I hear about as well. Sometimes it really pays off because I discover a new interest or hobby.

I can't imagine a time in which I haven't looked up something I don't know. It doesn't matter what it is, I have to google it. I hate not knowing something. I almost always have my laptop or my cell phone with me so I can just use one of them to do a tiny bit of research. I often have conversations with family members while I'm in the living room on my laptop so it's easy to research something while still talking to them and then I can add more to the conversation.

Heh. Limitations of polling aside, I'm glad to be wrong!

If it involves my job, i look it up immediately - i'm getting paid to know.
If it involves everyday life, If it is interesting i look it up immediately.

The cure against being worried/afraid and ignorance is knowledge, and it helps your intuition to grow as well.