I'm coining a new term for Aspies: "Wizard of Oz Syndro

Post Reply New Topic

If you didn't see the movie the idea is a figure who SEEMS much smarter/intellectual/etc but in reality is quite below average but projects greater intellect thru subterfuge, superficiality, or distorting their ability.

I take myself, always called a genius, but I was barely able to get decent grades in school (to get an A I would practically study 24/7). I have very disorganized thinking, terrible planning, short term memory, etc.

Why? I was able to get a cursory knowledge of arcane subjects and talk about them. Despite having an Engineering degree I can barely solve any problem of difficulty or design something. Despite being A MATH INSTRUCTOR IN COLLEGE - I get a very embarrassing score on the GRE and was rejected from many grad programs. BUT YET I WAS A COLLEGE INSTRUCTOR FOR YEARS! I taught computers as well.

I work in software now, I can ace any interview with my knowledge of minutiae but I have a severe difficulty in writing any substantial code. I think ADHD has a role in this as well.

I do pick up skills like car repair and carpentry, and eventually become great at it, but it takes me forever to complete the task or I'll leave things unfinished(big issue).

At one time people told me I would be the next Einstein - this came from a few teachers and principals! In reality now I can't even keep a job, and with my work history I may be case for disability!

A wizard is not real though.

I seem to need a brain and a heart. I think I have courage enough though.

What "abilities" do aspies have anyway? Makes us sound like mutants or super human beings. This is a Hollywood stereotype, like the fast adding Rain Man or Adam with his living room planetarium.

I see it simply as a different way of thinking for quite a few people across the spectrum.

Different perspectives offer a wide range of unique ideals and solutions, unexplored conventional ways of thinking, so to speak. This is 'why' deservedly or not, a label of genius is conferred to these types of people.

I.Q and grades are part of a weed out process; flawed criteria BUT still, the most efficient way society has come up with to allocate limited resources.

I think there are some wizards behind the proverbial curtain, limited in power, needing help, grateful for the help, and knowing full well; they aint all THAT.

I consider myself an average dude. And, now and then, i can come up with a decent ideal.

It is, what it is.

TheSunAlsoRises

I think I get what you are saying.

It's like my son. He didn't say much until 18 months, but by the age of 2.5, it was like talking to an advanced 5 or 6 year old. He used very long, complicated sentences and big words. He sounded really smart. Until you actually broke down what he was saying, and he really wasn't saying anything very substantial at all. Now, don't get me wrong, my son is smart. But the impression that he gave as a toddler was that he may be "genius smart" which he is not.

The difference is that the wizard was deliberately tricking people, as do sociopaths. The difference for people on the spectrum is that they are merely trying to cope and survive in a world that is not suited to their neurology.

Sometimes I think I seem smarter than I really am, but other times I feel like I do not have the ability to convey how smart I really am. How weird is that?

I never tried to trick anyone into thinking I'm smart. When you are in 4th grade in the 1970s and just mention the word "microprocessor" you are going to be labeled.

Having said that, many of you ladies and gentlemen are a bag of chipz and all dat.

In which case, do ur thang, baby. Do ur thang!! !! !

TheSunAlsoRises

As for me, I grew up with a lot of the people around me assuming that because of my autistic behaviour and the ADHD that I had low average or even below average intelligence. At age 17/18, some teachers still baby-talked me.

I also got bad grades at school because often I didn't manage to speak/make my voice work when asked a question unexpectedly and during written tests, the teachers just pretended that they didn't understand a word of my essays and analyses, claiming they didn't make sense albeit my conclusions were always correct (some even going as far as to think that I must have copied my conclusions from somewhere).

In truth, I have a high IQ and I understand much more than people give me credit for.

Come to think of it, oddly, I often do get overestimated when it comes to empathy and even ASD professionals figure I have way more intuitive understanding of empathy during conversations than I actually posses. Wizard of Oz Syndrome seems right for me when it comes to empathy.

I feel clueless when even professionals who should offer explicit explanations just go "you know why/how" and "I'm sure you understand that" and whatever.

I suppose the term "wizard" isn't entirely unfitting, since special interests often fall outside the realm of mainstream practicality. In that regard, guilty as charged...

To do well in academic subjects, you need some type of vested interest in what you're doing (even if subconscious). So if you don't then what good is it to you? And forget about not sitting still - humans didn't evolve by sitting still, because if they did, they'd be dead. So a lot of the "can't be sedentary" part of ADD is crap.

This is much the case with my history - I didn't really care for any particular subject, and by the time I was *literally* drowning in AP courses in high school, I got mostly B's. And forget the SAT1-2/AP Exams, average-to-fail on those. If you've taken any or all of those, they're all the same, designed to weed out those with vested interests in the subject from those without. In addition, my learning is strictly pattern-based. So (especially on tests) "roadblocks" placed to intentionally BLOCK pattern recognition usually had a negative result.

And colleges are an outrage. I went to a big one (Pitt) and learned absolutely nothing practical. I'm certainly not going to waste more of my time (and more money I don't have) trying to find something that I love to study when I can just do it on my own.

And personally, codewriting SUCKS. Yes there are people who can crank out code like soda from a machine, but very few who can get that done in reasonable amounts of time. Unless I'm already paid to do it, I can not sit there for half the day coding. In the first place, CS as a major is not exactly biased towards AS, as if you are in a situation where you commute to school and work up to 40 hours a week, doesn't leave enough time to learn and code properly. One of my instructors used to brag about falling asleep on the commode at work while doing his homework - yeah, good for him...

I have to add that a lot of you guys may be like...... Yoda.

By the looks of Yoda, one would not think he had the phenomenal intellect and prowess that he had.

It depends.

TheSunAlsoRises