StarTrekker wrote:
I would be inclined to disagree that we don't understand the meaning of the facts we learn; I for one understand every aspect of all my interests. It would be hard to have a real conversation with someone about the interest if, when they asked what something meant, I couldn't tell them.
I agree with the previously stated sentiment that it is offensive. I think it's more a matter of finding different or significantly abnormal meaning to things. Hell, I'd say that the posts in this topic support my theory that aspies/autists find more meaning in Special Interests than the average NT finds in the subject. The catch is that we need to. We are known for thinking in narrow, specific, and individualized ways. Because of this relative lack of functional cognitive breadth, we struggle to make the regular piecemeal connections between information and meaning across a variety of subjects and situations like NTs do. The purpose of a special interest is instead to gain a thorough and complete grasp of the information, logic, and meaning of an interest so that we may then try applying larger sets of meaning and logic to other parts of our lives to find useful parallel logics and meanings.
For example, my biggest Special Interest, by a wide margin, is gaming. I can waste hours reading detailed numerical descriptions and experienced reviews of classes and items and abilities on GameFAQs or Wikias. I have many years of gaming under my belt. I use these experiences to get me through much of life. I have learned to think of other parts of my life like parts of a video game. I used to dress in a much more typical aspie fashion (loose fitting, attention diverting, sensory issue centric, same few things forever) until I started thinking of clothing as equipment. I now take much more into consideration when deciding what clothing to buy or wear. I think of clothing as having stats like WRM (warmth), APPL (Looks, fashion, Appeal), CFT (comfort, feel), etc. I plan packing for trips or overnight shifts like gearing up for a level. I need clothing to fit the situation (Ice Resist gear exists both IRL and in many dozens of games xd), enough consumables for the duration of the stage (ample Sam-E, NAC, Focus Factor, and Energy Shots, generally) my primary gear (phone, wallet, keys, sometimes DS/3DS) and any supporting equipment for my primary gear (chargers and games, always back to games x_x). Then I think about my pre-battle gameplay: my in town preparation for heading to Tartarus. For example, Job Interviews (Boss or Hard+ difficulty stages) want Focus Factor with breakfast, then an Energy Shot 45 minutes or so before. They also require clothing with decent PROF (Professionalism) and APPL.
Okay, got out of hand there. How true does this idea ring to you all?
I like that idea, it makes good sense to me. I do similar things with my interests, for instance, I rely on my interest in Star Trek to get me through different social interactions by recalling how the characters dealt with a similar situation. Pulling from Seven of Nine (my avatar) is especially useful, because she was assimilated into the Borg (mindless nonautonomous half-robot half-biological humanoid species) collective when she was six, and rescued when she was 24. All those years of being a slave to the Borg Queen meant she never developed social skills, and from the outside behaves very much like an aspie, right down to her sensory issues left over from the biomechanical implants the Borg put in her to improve her senses, which now leave her highly sensitive to a lot of stimuli. Anyway, I find Seven very useful to draw from, because she made many classic aspie mistakes, which were then pointed out and corrected by other members of the crew, and in teaching her, they were teaching me too.
29 Jan 2014, 11:04 am
) out there the Doctor is cruising around, watching, and BAMM world makes sense.
