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cberg
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20 Feb 2016, 6:26 am

Yes


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XFilesGeek
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20 Feb 2016, 8:48 am

Humanities.


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20 Feb 2016, 10:57 am

Science


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zkydz
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20 Feb 2016, 10:59 am

Fnord wrote:
Science
Mmm - but it's poetry in motion
And when she turned her eyes to me
As deep as any ocean
As sweet as any harmony
Mmm - but she blinded me with science........


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XFilesGeek
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20 Feb 2016, 11:03 am

zkydz wrote:
Fnord wrote:
Science
Mmm - but it's poetry in motion
And when she turned her eyes to me
As deep as any ocean
As sweet as any harmony
Mmm - but she blinded me with science........


:wtg:


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GGPViper
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20 Feb 2016, 11:19 am

A little bit of both. I have a master's degree in Political Science, which is - despite the explicit "science" title - probably is more like 50/50 between science and humanities, at least in my country.

On the one hand, I focused on scientific theory and statistics when at the university, and I've worked for years in health care, where the application of science has been a regular part of my job. One the other hand, I have a lot of interest in - and done a lot of reading on - history and religion, both of which tend to belong to the humanities.



AuroraBorealisGazer
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20 Feb 2016, 11:58 am

Both. I'm all kinds of nerdy.
The best is when the two meet. For instance, A lot of the artwork I like is based on things in science and nature. And I love the Northern Lights, rocks and minerals, because they are beautiful as well as fascinating in how they occur.



Punkrockaspie
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20 Feb 2016, 1:14 pm

Jimothy1669 wrote:
Actual savantism is very rare, but having a particular intense interest (and often, therefore, aptitude) in humanities subjects is quite common. I was talking about this at an autism meet up at my university this week, and we were discussing how there is a strange gender essentialism that pervades autism in the popular consciousness and even in research. There is a belief that autism is more likely to affect boys, there is the "extreme male brain" theory, and as a consequence lots of the discussion in the literature, particularly on "systemising" focusses on typically male ways of systemising (fascination with trains, maths, etc). In reality, there are systems and patterns to be found in all areas of academic study, and I know a number of autistic girls/women whose areas of expertise are linguistics, for instance.

It's also not at all unusual for autistic people to struggle with maths - I would think that mathematical ability is normally distributed, just as it is in the NT population.


Thank you for your reply. OK. Apologies for not using "savant" in its excruciatingly correct, technical medical/neurological meaning. No I wasn't talking about "actual savantism". I am sorry now that I used the term at all. Being autistic, and only for a short time on Wrong Planet in contact with others with ASD (and that for the first time), I thought I could just relax and use "savant" as a synonym for "special interest", because in the literature and the material online I have been reading the technical definition of "savant" gets diluted and interchanged for "special interest". With this thread I was more just wondering if there were Aspies out there, who, like me, had the humanities as their "special interest". It's nice to know that I am not the only one. There would appear to be no term for the forensic approach we Aspies (quite unlike NTs) take to the interest that obsesses us. I can't stay away from my "special interest" for a day; no matter how busy I might be with other things, I have to do some work on it every single day or I start stressing out. Even going for hours on end during the day without devoting time to it stresses me out. If I had my way, I would spend every waking moment on it to the exclusion of all else. In lieu of proper terminology, "savant" was the closest word in the lexicon of my mental data base to describe the approach we take to our interest. (And English is such a limited language; we need more words.)

As far as the distribution of autism across the sexes goes, I do read in the material wherewith I have thus far acquainted myself (and I'm just now for the first time starting a course of intensive reading on autism) that autism is described as affecting males more than females. The issue could be easily settled by a census of people on the spectrum and the results would then show if there was any correlation between sex and autism or not. But I will leave this to others as demographics is not my field. Live long and prosper!


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Unfortunate_Aspie_
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20 Feb 2016, 1:55 pm

DevilKisses wrote:
Unfortunate_Aspie_ wrote:
zkydz wrote:
The older I get, the more I go into the sciences, maths. Pretty much toasted on humanity.

It's funny I did something similar to that. I used to LOVE the humanities, and thought I wanted to be a writer even. I was quite good at it towards the end of high school I was sure I would be an English major in college and all that jazz. I took a chem class though- and it blew my mind- threw the doors open and kicked up my old love of chem and the physical sciences.
I tried doing both in college with middling success at that. However, once I started getting heavily into writing and humanities research- I discovered I hated every single part of it. I tried other humanities and pretty much started to loathe them across the board. I fell into science again and haven't looked back since. I had always liked science in a way, but tried not to like it actually because of the autistic stereotype actually :mrgreen: Now, I've come full circle :D

I don't hate the humanities yet, but I convinced myself to hate math for several years because of the autistic stereotype. What made you hate the humanities? They're super interesting to me right now.

For a while I was blocking off my math abilities, so I started suspecting I had some math disability. I later learned that it's common for autistic females to struggle with math. I didn't want to fit that autistic stereotype either. I also realized that the most interesting looking careers involved math. Right now I'm getting back into math. It makes my brain feel way sharper and happier.

Yeah.... autistic stereotypes.... main reason why I (even though I secretely loved it) turned away from scifi as a kid, and some other things. I remember being told I was properly "a girl" or "feminine" enough if I liked those thing (by my mother who hated them and always made fun of everyone else in the family that liked them).
I was already so much of a freak- didn't want to add fuel to the fire. :roll:
It hurt though watching from afar- seeing all the cool science stuff and knowing that I wouldn't or just "shouldn't" be involved.

I tried really hard to be fashionable (sensory issues made that a huge fail) and more importantly I would cry about it. But the little bit of social acceptance I got absolutely evaporated once I mentioned anything science-y.
But I mean I genuinely liked English too. I was actually pretty bad at it at first but after about 5ish years of working exclusively on it I got very good.
However, the only part I really liked was creative writing.
I liked literature; I also liked talking about different interpretations of literature.
In college I took lots of humanities classes. I liked philosophy best- because it was very very abstract. I love abstract things. The more abstract the better in my opinion! Same reason why I liked my math classes.

However, I felt like when I was writing humanities papers it was based off of nothing and just BS opining. I hated that. The interpretations I felt and made about something didn't make them true- just because I thought it didn't make it any more valid than anything else. I basically found the humanities to be the culmination of all the things I hated about NT interaction- the lying, the BSing, the half-truths, the hole-filled logic based on personal feelings. I felt there was no veracity to it. It was just a bunch of people shouting from their various pulpits monologue-ing (in essay form) about how good or right or critical their interpretation was. It felt like a falsehood to me, a fabrication of a view of reality based not on anything substantive but someone's feelings. For example in an art history class I took:
"what the actors in this scene of Ai-wai-wai's sunflower covered floor room should feel and the message the exhibitionist is trying to convey."
I thought it the penultimate of stupidity and drudgery to sit there and write a paper about why a politically dissident chinese man poured sunflowers over some place and then extrapolate what people thought or the what the "vibe" of the scene was.
Such BS. :x :roll:
I mean there is a bit of extrapolation in science too but it has to be grounded in something. With the humanities I just felt like it was consistently talking out of your ass and then saying- oh look this old other maybe dead person ALSO said things out of his/her ass and then god-knows-how somehow got it published... now i'm going to use them as a citation for the lolz/to make my paper sound more legit. :o
Or in a film class- lets talk about the arc of the narration of this film. What is the valence of these long shots in this scene? How does that relate to the overall structure of Mr.XYZ's narrative of dying of cancer? How does this affect the characters and what does that mean for the audience? " :x
It was just so stupid. It was all projecting meaning onto things that really weren't there.
I hated that.
Sorry for the rant, but I really really ended up disliking the humanities because of my involvement in it. I took a lot of different classes (too many actually) and they all just sucked to me. They actually made me angry towards the end because I felt they were just like.... circle-jerks of people espousing fabricated interpretations about s**t and then quoting other people just to make themselves seem justified and adding to their sense self-importance.

I went to a lecture about WWII once and some guy took up the entire q&a talking about the Freudian significance of archival records of gas-masks and how this was indicative of the public's subconscious fear of castration- you know as opposed to- they f*****g wore gas masks because of chemical warfare? No? not going to talk about that? okay then. >__>
:roll: :roll: :roll: Ugh- so much humanities academia..
I consider social sciences to be humanities as well- just more tolerable humanities because sometimes they use facts too.

I liked computer science and the hard sciences best. (oh stereotypes here we go...)
But I was terrible at the labs (only the ones with a partner once I got to higher lvls and didn't have a partner I did much better). And the big lecture rooms- nope I was always terrified and felt super exposed...



zkydz
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20 Feb 2016, 2:25 pm

Where I am in life....

f**k the stereotypes. I am embracing it instead of fighting it. I just found out I may be an Aspie (certainly have all the traits, awaiting diagnosis) and since that is new and peering through a different prism, all things before were done from a different perspective, and many, many bad decisions based on NOT embracing my natural tendencies.

I hated being around 'fine artists' because all the loopy crap described above. I always wanted to be a commercial artist. There was freedom of expression and a bit of science in it. The damned computer didn't do everything for you back in those days. I could work alone. I could make things better in a lot of situations.

I used to do technical art for Military Audio/Visual lessons 35 years ago. We had to draw. One company I worked at had a contract for the Bradley Fighting Vehicle (BFV). Tons of drawing highly detailed stuff. It was not easy to take random pics and make it accurate. So, one of the guys there made awesome models. One of the other guys there was a photographer. I figured a way to take an accurate model of the BFV, photograph it from specific angles around and in an arc vertically to create photographic images that were ready for a lightbox and all angles and circles would fit perfectly with mechanical templates. And, it would all the accurate. Had to tell the boss to pony up the money. If he wasn't happy, I would pay the company back for the expenditures. He wound up being very happy because we never got a complaint about the accuracy of the BFV again. Really happy to because I would not have been able to pay for the photographer, the model and the hours I put into lightboxing the photos to create accurate clip art.

BUT, the artsy fartsy photographer got pissy with me because I 'volunteered' him to do a job. Now, this guy was always complaining about not having enough work, but wanted to stay at home and paint. I had to tell him that I did not 'volunteer' him. I was actually looking out for him by suggesting him as a provider, AND if he didn't want to do it, I could find someone who would. It was his to accept or decline. Pissy as*hole.....took the job, but damn....seriously? You get an easy job to do, and you complain? Criminy....And, the kicker? I developed the B/W film myself so that I could control contrast for lightboxing the art. All the putz had to do was turn on 4 lights, move the camera and click the shutter. I had it all marked off and ready to go for him.

Now, the model builder just said, "Oh yeah, buy the model, let me keep it and I will build it for free."

Artsy fartsy == pain in the ass, even when they get what they want. Hell, I had one art director that would call me for overnight jobs because I could do things with the damned cameras that his full time staff couldn't do to create 'camera ready mechanical art and manual color separations' as fast or clean as I could. Now, maybe I understand why he had me come in when nobody else was around.

Practical == let's find a win win.

35 years ago...shoulda took notice and switched at that age.

20 years ago...should remembered and made the change when my schooling was being paid for.

Now..ain't gonna get that golden opportunity again. So, having to do it the hard way.

But, Science and maths do not get pissy. They do not lie to me. They do not let me down. And, when I let them down, Maths and Science does not mind at all.


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zkydz
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20 Feb 2016, 2:37 pm

Breaking this up so it's not too long...well....maybe....

Punkrockaspie wrote:
There would appear to be no term for the forensic approach we Aspies (quite unlike NTs) take to the interest that obsesses us.
"Forensic Approach." Going in my database. So accurate.

Punkrockaspie wrote:
There would appear to be no term for the forensic approach we Aspies (quite unlike NTs) take to the interest that obsesses us. I can't stay away from my "special interest" for a day; no matter how busy I might be with other things, I have to do some work on it every single day or I start stressing out. Even going for hours on end during the day without devoting time to it stresses me out.
Happened to me this week. I got taken out of the home on a job. Ugggghhhh, just to start with. Good place to work, so don't get me wrong. I just didn't want to be out of my house, away from my special interests. At this time, it is Maths. I have moved out of models to the point I have now, two unfinished projects. One just needs a couple of hours and it's all finished. Just can't get back on that at this time. Anyway, the whole time I was working out of the house, I was doing mental math images. By that I mean, figuring ways to find areas of odd shaped areas.

Spent all morning working the images in my head out into a cogent set of graphical steps and then codified the formulas. Then talked to my father (electrical engineer and maths whiz and wayyyyy more aspie than myself) to confirm my work. All done without benefit of reference materials. Just taking what I learned and extrapolating to new things in my head.

Made one mistake in the base formula (still working on the formulas and terms). But, he said the work I was doing visually was far beyond the knowledge base I am currently on. That made me feel good because I had solved it in my head graphically, and that is advanced beyond my 'book learning' at this time.

But, this week was such a struggle just to get through the days. Coming home too exhausted to work because I had to prep for the next day. Killed me to have 4 days of non involvement with my special interest.


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20 Feb 2016, 3:29 pm

I now get why some people hate the humanities. In the humanities you're expected to have an opinion on everything. I do have an opinion on a lot of stuff, but for me it takes time for me to form an opinion. I don't usually form one right after I see or hear something. There might be one, but they're usually just "vibes" or imagery. In other words it's not well articulated enough to write an essay about it. I also have a lot of trouble summarizing, highlighting paraphrasing stuff I read. Emphasis on read. I don't have as much trouble with that stuff when I'm listening to lectures or documentaries. If the assignment is on a movie or lecture they will find ways to make it more difficult. Like another poster said they will ask about symbolic reasons for blue curtains, the scene going out of focus or why someone walked by a tree.

Artsy fartsy people are very hit and miss for me. I occasionally get along with them really well and I occasionally can't stand them. What I can't stand is art schools. I tried going into it, but everyone there made me feel like s**t. I'm glad I'm going into optometry instead. There's a way higher chance I can get a job anyways.


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arkatron
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20 Feb 2016, 6:32 pm

I like and do both. OTOH, the scientific method is an excellent tool for exploring and investigating the world. OTOH, the humanities are a fascinating path for the exploration and understanding of the world. I find both broaden my mind in certain directions and promote deep thought, whereas the sciences additionally allow empirically-based investigation of these thoughts.

I don't think of the humanities and sciences as being discrete areas. There's no reason for the two to not be mingled and be the richer for it. To focus exclusively on either, is too narrow-minded for me. Incidentally, I am trained in both, so that works out well for me.


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20 Feb 2016, 7:15 pm

I was excellent at theorems demonstrations, 3D stuffs, logic exercises. But i was never "interested" in math.
Also, at school, they were asking to do equations: copy figures for pages and pages, i hated it and i was "transforming" all the figures because of dyslexia (quite frequent with autism)... 69=96=gp=db :D

I have also shifted interests: languages-poetry-music-science-painting(watching&analizing)-sociology-politics-psychology-litterature

Music, poetry and languages being constant interests since early age.



Dennis Prichard
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20 Feb 2016, 7:38 pm

I'm good at the humanities, but I don't like them.

I'm a big believer in patterns and theories to explain the universe and that is the realm of science.

I guess I'm a self hater.


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20 Feb 2016, 7:42 pm

Unfortunate_Aspie_ wrote:
However, I felt like when I was writing humanities papers it was based off of nothing and just BS opining ... It was just so stupid. It was all projecting meaning onto things that really weren't there.


Ohhh, that is exactly what drove me up the wall about the humanities too. I loved creating my own stuff - creative writing in English and painting/drawing/sculpting in Art - but couldn't stand the 'interpretation' side of either. Why, I wondered, did everything have to have some hidden meaning? I never could figure out how to reliably get an 'A' for essays where I had to interpret a work because making it up made me feel so uncomfortable, like I was being dishonest.

Science appeals to me because it is mostly quantitative. There are ways to measure things precisely.

And yes, I agree that the two disciplines can overlap. If you can write well, for example, it helps a lot with scientific papers. Creative thinking is useful in science, and you can use science to inspire fiction or art.