Defeatism, or "Learned Helplessness".

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Executive dysfunction is a symptom (e.g., not a diagnosis) that may signal a host of mental health or neurological conditions.  Some common causes of executive dysfunction include:

• Attention deficit hyperactivity (ADHD) and other developmental disabilities
• Dementia (i.e., Alzheimer’s, fronto-temporal dementia, vascular dementia, et cetera)
• Depression
• Drug addiction
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
• Schizophrenia
• Traumatic brain injuries, tumors, and other forms of brain damage. Imaging scans suggest damage to the basal ganglia and/or frontal cortex often affects executive functioning

Executive dysfunctioning can also be context dependent -- distraction, exhaustion, boredom, and stress can all undermine executive functioning.  Thus, executive dysfunction does not necessarily arise from neurological damage or alterations to the brain's 'wiring'.

No doubt.....

Isn't selecting behaviors and monitoring to achieve goals just another way of saying decision making and prioritizing?

Therein lies one of the differences between AS and "normal" people.

There are some things that "normal" people can do without conscious effort and having to "learn it"----that people with AS must make a conscious effort with, and "learn."

Especially in the realm of socialization.

I had no idea that people could do those things unconsciously. That is pretty wild. I just realized something. Maybe the fact that we do it consciously is a factor in the EF fatigue and EF overloads that I often struggle so much with.

"Intuition" can be employed in "executive function"----but, most of the time, it is not.

"Executive function" can be said to be a very practical thing, actually. Very empirically-based.

My standard way to bypass poor executive functioning are routines. My body and mind just remember the sequence of movements required to do X. It saves mental energy.

The "routines" can make what is "conscious" "unconscious."

Unfortunately, I don't have a routine for cleaning my apartament. Every item I pick requires a full consideration of "what should I do with it?"
It sucks.

For me ,it's organising and planning that are weaknesses . Multi step tasks can be hard. I have both a serious mental illness and Asperger's.
The EF problems were there before I became seriously mentally ill. Hence school reports mentioning my being disorganised and messy .

I had special interests as a child, I believe this allowed me to reach a level of mastery and practice persistence and resilience in the face of the unknown. Small successes like those childhood special interests gave me an opportunity to practice the EF skills that I struggled with, but in the SI context I experienced a positive association to counteract the more negative associations.

I think these things helped me later on, in these areas of interest I got to practice/experience never doubting my knowledge or gowing tired of learning more, the practical application was a bit more difficult, but persistence was on my side.

These are the things autistic children need to help shape their adulthood in a way that supports independence in its relative forms.

For as difficult as life could get, I knew I had steel running through my spine, I knew I was capable of things that set me apart, even if only I knew of these capabilities and I experienced this only in specific areas.
Perhaps part of it was growing up early.

That was a more common experience once upon a time, it was the norm. I believe that pendulum has swung too far in the other direction now. Perhaps it is good naturedness/selfishness/lack of options that lead caregivers to over compensate for children with disabilities, but I believe through this inaction its adding on more layers of disability through learned helplessness.

Much like the ABA styles diverting energy towards external directives that overtax executive functioning and divert the focus away from suitable long term independence practices/internal directives.

Life on the spectrum can be difficult enough on it's own, without ever being overloaded by the areas I have to unlearn helplessness in while relying on EF that's usually on strike.