Question about Aspergean obsessive interests

Post Reply New Topic

[quote="Mw99"]I was discussing this subject with a friend the other day and he said that the only reason aspies acquire encyclopedic knowledge of their narrow fields of interest is because deep inside they know they are defective, so they learn a few 'parlor tricks' to compensate for their deficiencies.
quote]

That doesn't make sense.

What does "parlor tricks" mean?

I wonder if this "friend" really exists.

Is this your opinion Mw99?

The idea is kind of like, and I think it is from, a time when people would wait for others in an area known as a parlor. Some people would even do magic tricks to kind of pass the time, etc... Of course, MOST people only know a FEW tricks, and could never REALLY be magicians.

Basically, in this context, it means it is a TRICK. Select obscure facts, for example, learned simply to amuse and impress.

So you know that 95squared is 9025 and that pi is 3.141592653589..., are you REALLY great at math, or is THAT all you know? Of course MY answer would be NO! I am not great at math, but I know a heck more than that. But some might say they ARE great at math.

I sometimes feel the same! MW99 DOES almost always seem to be feeling people out here! BTW for those not acquantainted with this use of the term, dictionary.com's closest description is:

Hey 2ukenkerl i did not understand a word you said when you were describing to me what "parlor tricks" are.

parlor(a place, like a living room or lobby)
trick(something such as a magic trick)

parlor-trick (A trick used to pass the time or amuse/amaze people)

Often a disparaging term used to belittle or cheapen an ability, knowledge, or action.

So is THAT easier to understand? What did you have trouble understanding?

Well, I obsess over fictional characters because it's too hard for me to create and maintain relationships in the real world. So I guess I am compensating for something.

i find that kind of remark to be kind of... rude and insensetive. its like telling someone whos played a particular musical instrument all their life that they only do it for attention.

myself, generally how i gain my knowledge on such obsessions is that i find something about it is spiffy, and i look up all the info and examples of it i possibly can so i can understand ti fully. no sense in liking something if you dont know exactly what it is o_o;

Intellectual obsessions in Asperger's are not a party trick, IMHO they are related to the motor and vocal Stims seen in low functioning autistics.

http://www.autism.org/stim.html

In the case of Asperger's, I believe we have a Thought Loop Stim; Thoughts go around and around in circles in our minds every few minutes, and this results in a tendency to acquire knowledge via a repetitive accumulation of facts via a "Thought Loop"; Thought STIM.

Its like how a microphone picks up feed-back if you put the mic too close to the speaker, it squeals, a sound loop amplifies the sound; Our Thought Loop Stim amplifies knowledge.

In autistic people, perhaps thoughts cycles much faster, thus STIMS are more often physical, vocal etc., much simpler, repeated much faster.

Well, I think i had trouble understanding the relavance of "Parlor Tricks" with autistic obsessions.

No, I do not agree. My interests happen because the subject fascinates me, not because I want to have parlour tricks to impress people with. It's as ridiculous as saying "NT's only develop their social skills because they feel inferior at not gaining encyclopedic knowledge of a subject."

That's the reason I said things like

I think diamonddavej is right! That sounds like the way it works with me and, interestingly, that fits EVERY description I ever heard about how stims work and why they are there. HECK, I leafed through wikipedia recently, and it was FUN! I did things like I USED to do, even when I was 5. That is even easier with wikipedia because much of the stuff is ALREADY linked, and you can simply scroll instead of turn pages. Maybe I should do THAT they next time I am in a meeting. THEN, I wouldn't get board.

One thing IS for sure, they aren't parlour tricks! If I did it to impress, I would probably learn topical things, and dates. I would also learn EVERYONE'S name, etc.... I would learn all about the various companies I worked for, etc... Interestingly, my knowledge about that stuff is FAR from complete.

Much of the stuff I know will go over many people's heads, and the more cynical might think even that I made it up.

No, definitely not a parlour trick, my obsessions define who I am, especially my pet obsessions which I developed at quite an early age. My son (who is nt) asked me the other day "why do you always gather information?" and I replied: "because I constantly want to learn more, want to KNOW" - I just want to know as many things as possible about things that interest me.

I'm like this too. I have to know more and learn new things or I get bored and depressed.

I did tend to pick fields where it was easy to get to the creative edge,
or where humans tend to be pretty ignorant - like science, religion,
psychology and politics.

Beyond that, I tried to avoid the dangers of too narrow a specialization
by obsessing on or specializing in knowledge-in-general