Comments on: I’m an Aspie

By: etbe

etbe — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:12:44 +0000

I have decided not to allow negative comments about random people to remain on my blog. If you want to criticise someone for something bad that they did to you then your own blog MIGHT be an appropriate place, but my blog isn’t.

By: Leon Brooks

Leon Brooks — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:44:50 +0000

I did this quiz, which said “nope.” Well… I strongly suspect that easier ways exist to learn about it than living it.

http://www.rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php

By: Leon Brooks

Leon Brooks — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:14:51 +0000

I’ve been suspected of both Aspieness & HFAness.

I’m a very strong visual learner (visuo-spatial/visuo-temporal) which of course makes IT a paradise as far as I’m concerned (think of photographic memory, but instead of an image for life, you get connections, patterns, the network).

Visual stuff is very fast, not much detail (the -spatial aspect here adds _heaps_ of detail; I essentially collect knowledge, the deputy postmaster (Rae Little) I worked for (as a postie) for a year would refer to me as “a mine of useless information”), so it is easy to mistake for autism, however, I know a full-on autistic boy (in Tambellup, hello from Albany) & this is completely different.

In conversation with my girl in Wisconsin (born one real day after me, my youngest is AnneRose, hers is Amanda Rose, same age as my eldest etc) who is a kinesthetic learner, it’s become kind of obvious that IQ tests span a very narrow field, that there are many _kinds_ of intelligence not measurable by such tests.

In this case, drop a tech problem before us, I’ll come up with a good answer in seconds to minutes, she’ll refuse to even try; drop a social problem, I’ll spend hours or day & come up with a wrong answer, she’ll intuit her way instantly to a good answer & begin using it.

My perspective on @EffC’s remark: “suffering from” neurological variety (as with visuo-spatial stuff) can actually involve possessing an immense advantage.

By: John M

John M — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:05:24 +0000

Congratulations! Having a term, even if it’s somewhat waffling, can be helpful. I have ADHD, and it’s caused some problems, but overall I’m rather proud. The benefits of vastly increased attention span (sometimes) and intelligence and creativity I call my “super powers.” Autism I’d imagine is similar. I’ve followed the work of Temple Grandin — she’s an inspiration in being able to achieve what no one else has, and at the same time being able to describe her thought patterns to help others.

By: Eff C.

Eff C. — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:16:29 +0000

Matt: “My own cousin suffers from Asperger’s so I’m quite familiar with it.”

Matt, please change your thinking. People do NOT ‘suffer’ from Asperger’s.

By: etbe

etbe — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:09:09 +0000

CI: I didn’t memorise the multiplication tables until I was about 25. I remember my grade 6 teacher quizzing me on them, he was suspicious because I got the answers more slowly than other students even though I was by all other measures better at maths than anyone else in the school. The teacher was too stupid to test me on multiplication of numbers greater than 12, otherwise he would have discovered that I just worked everything out – I could multiple any pair of two-digit numbers in the same amount of time.

I ended up doing reasonably well in the Australian Mathematical Olympiad training program, if I hadn’t been interested in computers I might have ended up representing Australia in the IMO.