Math and numbers or art and creativity?

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Those are just some vague examples I picked out, but I'm sure you get what I mean.

The question is which one are Aspies known for? Because before I knew much about Aspergers, it always seemed that Aspies were very mathematical. Then when I was diagnosed, books and other sources said that Aspies were more oriented towards creative things and bad at math.

I myself, though young, am an award winning artist who is learning Mandarin Chinese and has created her own language (still in progress of course, but it's very advanced already!) I can sing, write novels and poetry. Anything artistic, that isn't 3-dimensional.
But all other Aspies I have met in real life (save for just one) are on robotics teams and are math wizards.

They do overlap, of course. My Dad is amazing with numbers, but he remembers them all with colour with wicked strong synesthesia, and I myself am very logical and good at solving puzzles.

What about you guys?

I am an engineer so i have to say that math wins out for me. Although, I have played several instruments throughout my life and often color/draw to relax.

I have also read that mathematics and music are very closely linked to one another so, often people will have aptitudes in both. I don't know how true this is however.

Awkwardly, I'm both. I went with the maths because that probably is stronger, but as well as maths and computers I'm a writer and I've dabbled with music. I can say that the creativity took a bit longer to develop.

Math and creativity aren't mutually exclusive. Famous example- Albert Einstein: Was the theory of relativity born of math or imagining riding a beam of light? Both.

In school, my best subjects were math, science, art, and music. I have found that many NT scientists and engineers, people with some autistic traits or in BAP, are also talented in art and music, so I have always thought that these abilities go together instead of being mutually eggsclusive.

Math and creativity.

I'm a mathematician who's weakness is in numbers. What I do is creative, is math, and is not just manipulating numbers.

Math is far more than you learn in high school.

The only way I'm good at numbers is when I'm trying to remember phone numbers or random dates (none that I need to study for school though lol). I'm more of a right-brained person, especially with music.

I am not sure you would call this creativity but most games I am pretty good at strategy

Hm.... this has been on my mind as I have been learning more about autism and aspergers.

I am and have always been highly successful at every subject in school, but it seems that science and especially math are the most revered, particularly because I'm a girl...(?) Anything mathematical or numerical in nature just makes sense to me.

However, even though it makes sense to me and I excel at it, I have no real interest in math. I have never had any particular interest physics, engineering, or anything related. I consider my self "artsy" and have always had an interest in scrapbooking, drawing, writing, painting rocks, making bracelets, making handmade gifts and birthday cards, or anything of the sort. EDIT: I also play piano and and VERY intune with music - musical theory makes perfect sense to me. I am also very into dance and musical theatre, and have been avidly taking classes and studying ballet, tap, jazz, and many other styles for many years. (I started taking ballet in first grade.)

Even though I am "good" with numbers and do not struggle with math or get confused by figures on any level, I don't particularly ENJOY using them, nor am I attracted to activities or jobs that involve them. I'd MUCH prefer writing over math, even though math is more straightforward and requires much less thought.

Last edited by banana247 on 19 Mar 2012, 8:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I can't say that I'm good at math because I'm horrible at it. I'm not exactly artistic but I have an artistic mind. I like creative writing and things like that so I guess I'm more on the artistic side. Mind you, when I do left brain/right brain tests I'm usually slightly more left brained. I'm usually somewhere in the middle though.

What's your field? I am a topology guy, and I am always trying to explain to people that maths isn't just about numbers. Heck, sometimes even number theory isn't about numbers!

A female good at artistic performance could easily hide from being identified with AS. So there's a data systematic bias

Think of people that are really into a few subject, and don't care for other stuff nor social interaction.

Starting this thread is a bad way to find this out, because I'd expect from people to overestimate their creativity. Especially when using a vague definition such as "art", because it would allow people to fit many things into that and the result would be that everyone would seem more artistic than he actually is. Even from the answers, you can see that.

My personal expectations would be:
I'd expect interest in logical things from Aspies, therefore I'd expect higher than average interest in maths (although interest is different from ability, it still has a significant effect on ability).
Also, dyscalculia is co-morbid with Aspergers (I'm not sure), so that would reduce the number of people who love maths, although dyscalculia is compatible with good math ability, it might discourage it.
Music ability should be irrelevant. Probably same goes for ability to draw.
I'm not sure if fascination in arts is variable between people, and if yes, then what determines it. I know that some of the forms of art are equal to the opposite of social awkwardness, and we can't even appreciate them.
Also, latent inhibition is positively related with autism and negatively related with creativity, therefore I'd expect Aspies to be a little less creative than average people.

Overall, I'd expect more Aspies who prefer maths, related to average people who prefer maths. This poll can't test that, because it might be so that 80% of the average people would vote "art". Or they might be 40%, but the point is that we must compare our results to that number, and we don't have it. Just comparing the number of votes for the first option to the number of votes for the second option won't work, unfortunately.

Both.

Have been into drawing and painting.

But also designe games as a hobby which involves both visual artistic thinking, and mathmatical thinking.

I'd like to play an instrument but its never been a part of my life. Mathematics was a bit of a flop even tho it was enjoyable due to poor teachers, and a messed up education system. I can't draw, I can't sing... I have no defining ability's. You could say I have no talent for anything that would set myself apart from aspies, or NT's.

My one good quality is in problem solving. I often do things that seem quarky and/or amazing to others. A couple weeks ago my sisters phone wouldn't boot so I sharpened a lollipop and used it to reset the power button, ignoring the recommendations of dismantling the phone. Also recently I entered a friends daughters house, fixed 3 computers - fixed their network issues, helped their daughter (in high school) spell... Then took a bunch of cookies and left. But I think this stems from an aspie's natural problem solving skills, such as the ability to diagnose and/or find issues much rapidly compared to others. Highly impressive, but lacking in usefulness.

Discrete as a whole. Specifically where I want to go is I want to get a PhD in mathematical logic, but so far I've just generalized in discrete. I've found myself optimizing my brain for graph theory though.

Point-set topology, algebraic topology, or something different? Or all of the above is another possibility. I've done some point-set topology, and when am less burnt out and unable to take care of myself will be teaching myself some algebraic topology.