Polymaths and Aspergers

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Mapreader, does your brother show any AS traits?

i am a polymath (i'd like to use that term, anyway), but am too damn tired to post the list of things wot i can do

In an ex-company of mine where i worked as an engineer, a director-level executive rated all my skills as top notch but said my biggest flaw was being too stubborn to listen to anyone. Now, it's hard for anyone to be objective about themselves so i'll take his word at face value. In the digital world where technology evolves so fast, it's common for my peers to be polyglot at multiple programming languages, though even by their standards im straddling many fields (their word, not mine), and am unlikely to be good at all of them. well.... these naysayers have not seen my work, whilst that director guy has.

Here's my list:

- Electrical engineering (power circuit design, micro-controller programming) - my day job, been building professional electrical boxes for years

- Electronics design (spicing circuits, breadboarding and testing prototypes) - also my main skill

- Computer science, machine vision (python, C, java, visual basic, setting up networks, building webcrawler architecture and big data processing) - developed apps and working on one right now, still amateur-ish

- Web development (html, css) - made a music/art fan site when i was a teenager

- Art (anime art) - sold commissioned artworks when i was little, reckon i still have it in me ....

- Architecture concept design - partly for the UI at work, 3D-style

- Mechanical design - worked as a mechanical technician before, also with 3D tools

- Financial analysis (writer) - read voraciously the works of investment gurus; wrote a few articles on finance that went viral, building a business around this to monetize my knowledge

I have various interests, with varying degrees of competency:

English-Master's Degree. Worked as an English/reading instructor at the junior college level, did freelance writing/editing, was a proofreader at my local newspaper and have worked at my local library for nearly fifteen years

Public speaking-I am in Toastmasters and am nearing my Advanced Communicator Bronze (ACB) award

Watercolor-I took a class and really enjoyed it. I think I could do that as a hobby

Tennis-Weekend warrior. I take lessons on Saturdays and I can see improvements in my skills. It also provides me with social outlets.

Folk dance-I know the history of all the countries the various dances originate. I thought I was too clumsy for dancing, but I am learning the dances and making new friends.

My major field of expertise is gathering knowledge. I have used my unusual interests to make friends.

It's good to see this thread has some activity after being dormant for a day or two!

I'm a bit of a polymath across an assortment of academic fields.

Or less charitably, a jack of all trades and master of none.

I would likely be considered a polymath. The area that I have my PhD in (Chemistry) is the 3rd strongest area that I am good at.

My three main fields are as a writer, linguist and an artist. These three are linked however (linguistics and writing by virtue of both having language as a component, writing and art because they're both creative acts).

Hi, I've seen this thread on the Internet, and decided to answer, to give another example as autism doesn't mean we focus on few areas.

All these I've learned as self-taught polymath as I only did the secondary school because I was "forced" to by my parents but never learned anything good there, everything alone, and specialized in several areas of interest, can give examples of all.

I only found I was autistic 10 months ago.

- IT - Computer Programming - Know dozens of languages, prefer C++:
- Software Development (Computer Programming), - several softwares done entirely alone, in several languages, like Network Pinger;
- Web Development - Done several websites, several of which were very important in my country or pioneers, some for television;
- Programming since I was 7/8 years old when I got my first computer (ZX Spectrum) at the 80s, learned almost all programming languages, dozens of them, but don't remember them all nowadays of course ;
- Currently developing an universal translator in C++, a 2D game engine in C++, an open source simplified CMS in PHP, and remodeling a business portal I have;
- Love open source;

- Arts - Started painting, composing, drawing, without knowing how, like I was born knowing it, learned some months ago that those are savant traits, have others in other areas also but are more noticeable on arts:
- Painting - specially pastel painting, and will try soon digital painting, have a tendency for impressionism and surrealism;
- Drawing - usually landscapes and photo-realistic portraits, some comics also, want to do a comic one day but never had time;
- Composing Music - several musics composed, lots of those intuitively/spontaneously like this one below which I've composed with improvisation on real time, they explained to me it's a savant trait, as I've never learned to play keyboards before, it was on my first days of trying and as it was improvised it has still one error in the middle: (search «youtube "gonçalo ferreira" "to live with passion"» on Google if you want to hear);
- Playing Music - did electrical guitars, and synths, lately only synths, love synths;
- Writing Poetry - did some also, but avoid it, as I end up doing stuff with 200/300 lines of poems and don't have time for it;
- Writing Fiction - 9/10 ideas already for books, currently doing 1 of them, which will be a trilogy, my first fiction novel;
- Writing technical ebooks - for free, like the "Livro da Bolsa - Introdução à Análise Técnica", this one 564 pages, about Technical Analysis on the Stock Markets/Forex;
- Sculpting - Done some with steel, some abstract with steel also, and plan to try with wood one day;

- IT - Cyber-Security/Hacking/Sys Admin/Networks, etc:
- Systems Administrator for several years on my country's biggest ISP;
- Done networks on those companies also;
- Cyber-Security interest, gonna soon take the major cyber-sec certifications to have on my resume and be a trainer later on that;

- Trading/Stock Investing:
- Started with 500€ in March 1999 and had already 100K in December 1999;
- Owner of the most famous (at that time it was the most famous) business web portal in my country;
- One of the winners on the most famous trading contest in my country, having been on vacations for 2 of those 4 weeks of contest;
- Created trading systems (explained below);

- Mechanical Trading Systems:
- Mixing computer programming with stock investing, I developed several mechanical trading systems, real ones, not curve-fitted;
- Developed new stock indicators, which I plan to publish one day;
- One of the trading systems, which I've publicly shared its trading signals on real time, did 19000% profit in 3 years on Forex markets, I plan to share its source one day, it's called "GFX-Trading";

Languages - Known several languages:
- Native Portuguese speaker;
- Fluent Spanish speaker;
- Fluent English speaker;
- Average on French, German, Italian, studied some Mandarin (Pin Yin), Basque, others in the Past also, just for curiosity;
- Currently developing an universal translator in C++, have some videos about it also;

Sports:
- Skateboarding - Was able to to amazing tricks when I was a teenager in the 90s, like underflips 540ยบ and others I've only just seen Rodney Mullen doing (he's an autistic savant on skateboarding), have some footage also;
- Oldtime Strongman - When I found I was capable of rolling frying pans with my hands, and bending adjustable wrenches and steel bars after seeing Stan Lee Superhumans, I started doing feats of strength for some years, have some videos also on YouTube like one called "Vulgar Display of Vegan Power" (can't share links as a new user), and I've done those things live and even offered money to those who could do it, they couldn't. Have other videos with more typical types of strength like one called "One Arm Lifting and Swinging My Nephew (Strength)";
- Even went to the tv to roll some frying pans live, but I hated the bright lights;
- Did others like Surfing, Athletics (won medals on school), Basketball, inline skating, Karate Shotokan, Wushu, etc;

- Activist:
- I'm Vegan;
- Participate in Environmental activism;
- Done live strength demos to promote veganism;
- Internet activism sometimes;

- Other interests - Not much specialized, maybe a few in some:
- I'm an YouTuber, but don't focus on the masses, just do the stuff I want, am a small youtuber;
- Physics / Quantum Mechanics interest - Have some videos about some stuff, for example I think "Time doesn't exist" and that we won't get a T.O.E. without cutting it from the equations;
- Love Astrophysics and Astronomy, when I was a child I wanted to be an astrounaut haha, love the Mars tv series, etc;
- Math, done some formulas I want to publish one day;
- Have done a video with a live presentation saying we probably live on a virtual reality (not necessarily like Matrix), have it on the Internet but didn't translate it yet;
- Love Dinosaurs, Nutrition, and other stuff but don't have time for it.
- Really love retrogaming! I wouldn't mind if we still used Amigas as computers nowadays...

I probably forgot to mention some things.

I found some papers on Christmas 2018 saying I was a + - severe autistic boy when I was 3-5 years old and that I would require special learning.

But at that time there was no Asperger or etc in my country (born in 1975), so I could only be a "severe autistic" (level 3) or a neuro-typical, for them there was no middle-term.

So my doctor said to my mother that I was just special, not a severe autistic, what I was simply on "another world of his own" and that she should give it a try to put me on regular school.

Seems it took 1-2 years until my teacher made me integrate in society, since then I adapted as a neuro-typical, an eccentric one though, as I'm a visuospatial thinker, and was caught several times with my hands in the air like Howard Hughes on the movie Aviator, among other stuff, I was eccentric.

So nobody every imagined, as I adapted well, that I was autistic, found that on December 2018, then a friend that is a shrink told me "I told you so", as he told me that 10 years ago and I didn't want to believe as I had the misconception that autistics were only the level 3 ones.

Then I did the tests, etc. And then everything made sense in my life.

Anyway I'm not single focused. When I focus, I get "in the zone" (flow) also, but, I like several areas, I don't want to be fixed on 1 or 2 or 3 areas of interest. So I'm probably not the typical autistic person focused on few areas.

The problem is that I don't have time for everything. Nowadays I'm planning doing a weekly schedule, with few hours for each area of interest, and use a chronometer to track time, to "force" myself doing everything in a week, or at least in a month. Didn't do the planning yet, but I think it will work.

So I love doing lots of stuff, but I don't have time for everything, and I've very disorganized, lack self-discipline a lot, so this time tracking planning will help for sure.

Basically, I really specialized in several areas, and pretend to do it on others, besides learning stuff on other areas also. I'm for sure what people call a polymath.

I'm self-taught also, so easily that when I found I was autistic I thought "ah, so that's what gave me this gift", so nowadays I say that "Autism" was my best friend in life. Even wanting to be alone is good for me, as not feeling the need to be around people, is an advantage in my point of view.

I don't know my IQ, when I did the tests I was +- 20 years old, and the tests were only able to measure to a maximum of 160, I just know it's above but I don't care how much, as I know IQ doesn't correctly measure all types of intelligence, and that it doesn't work well for autistics, and it's also not as important in life as some may think.

I think also there might be a connection between Autism and "Super-Strength", as Da Vinci also bent horseshoes with his hands, so, as I know it's all in our minds, and autistic minds work differently, that I can tap into some extra strength whenever I want to, so I even made a video telling that connection.

I found this thread while searching about this on the Internet, so I decided to comment.

I have videos about everything I mentioned here, or websites, or pictures, in case one of you is interested.

Anyway, I guess I'm a self-taught polymath, another one to join to this list.

So, yes, an autistic isn't necessarily someone that focuses on few things.

I've written this in a hurry, sorry if it may have some typing errors.

I'm pained that it's hard to switch careers (as the financial provider of my family). I am currently close to engineering (for two decades), but dream of pursuing acting then art once I am past that tether - perhaps the science of psychology at some point. My Myers Briggs personality (ENFP) says:

"'Can’t I fly helicopters AND be an oceanographer who writes songs and cooks?' It’s a big world out there – perhaps even a little too big.

If there’s a challenge Campaigners [ENFPs] face when selecting a career, it isn’t that they lack talent or options or drive, it’s that there are so many things out there that are just cool."

Source: https://www.16personalities.com/enfp-careers

I started out totally autistic; then I was diagnosed as Asperger. That no longer fits, so I now consider myself to be a polymath. I am 78. I have endless interests: including computers, hiking, travel, writing, poetry, philosophy, photography, opera, ballet, symphonies, musicology, religion, feminism, and gender. I am a trans-woman, and a Vietnam era veteran. I lost all all my shyness and fear, and I mix freely with all kinds of people. I am a Buddhist, but I attend several churches and one synagogue too. I have a natural curiosity and crave experiences.
I was married for 30 years, but I have been unable to get a new wife after mine died. I don't quite fit in anywhere, and my philosophical observations make people nervous. I feel I am genuine and free from ego or boasting.