Defeatism, or "Learned Helplessness".

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You can be "able" in many things--even while you are "disabled."

Being "disabled" is not a death sentence.

Executive functioning is the process of making decisions and prioritizing.

Yep.

I suck in both sometimes.

It has led to some pretty bad outcomes in my life.

EF probably involves more the "concrete" realm than the "abstract" realm

Though, good EF could be essential in being a proper theory-creator, too. You have to have all you senses in order to formulate logical theories.

That's true. It's not only autism.

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.