Is autism just extreme nerdiness?

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26 Jan 2012, 8:22 pm

Geekiness is just a side effect of Autism Of course not ALL Aspies geek out about stereotypical things like Star Wars and Carl Sagan, they can geek out about ANYTHING really.

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Hmmm...interesting. Shows what you know about Aspies, doesn't it rofl?

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26 Jan 2012, 8:54 pm

theaspiemusician wrote:

Geekiness is just a side effect of Autism

Of course not ALL Aspies geek out about stereotypical things like Star Wars and Carl Sagan, they can geek out about ANYTHING really.

cars, statistics, engineering, behavioral patters, youth issues, transmission of audio/radio/other signals, IP technology, cloud computing ♥, tv shows and some movies, industry dynamics, corporate process improvement, fashion...

while the majority of those are more nerd reflective... a hand full of those are non-nerd reflective... but I can easily say that each of those things either are or were obsessions of mine at some point or another... I have very much GEEKED out many many times in my life... even if someone were to dispute my autisticness, they can never take away my geekiness!

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26 Jan 2012, 11:33 pm

theaspiemusician wrote:

Geekiness is just a side effect of Autism

Of course not ALL Aspies geek out about stereotypical things like Star Wars and Carl Sagan, they can geek out about ANYTHING really.

NT geeks still keep to popular geeky interests and don't get as intensely into them. Yes they collect and have discussions but someone with autism will interpret the subject differently, use more detail in descriptions and stay thahellaway from any form of shipping conversation. And get into more disagreements. Depending on the severity of their symptoms at least.
In conclusion, NT geeks are more versed on the ways of the world than autistic geeks.

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27 Jan 2012, 3:02 am

Sweetleaf wrote:

Well I guess if you consider yourself white trash you can use the term......but how is saying autistics are often disabled and unemployed any more offensive then claiming neurotypicals on unemployment are white trash(obviously not everyone is going to know you use the term to describe yourself and most are aware the term is mostly used as an insult).

i probably should have refrained from that quip, but to try to defend myself now that i have made my bed . . . .

i perceived he was picking on and insulting autistic people, i was trying to make a point there are probably more NT people on unemployment than people on the spectrum. not there is anything wrong with people who do need to live on unemployment, i was just responding to what i perceived as contextually insulting. i really dont think i was off base with that interpretation

[quote=] a key difference between nerds and autistics is that nerds tend to be smart and rich (Bill Gates) while autistics are often disabled and unemployed [/quote]

he was directly contrasting rich & smart with disabled and unemployed.

also i do not consider myself white trash. as i said i was preempting if someone were to take offense to that term on the grounds that my 'ancestry' is part white trash. really kind of meant to be humorous, but i guess i should have just not said that

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27 Jan 2012, 3:40 am

Ganondox wrote:

Verdandi wrote:

so_subtly_strange wrote:

I would like to in particular respond to your assertion autistics are often disabled and unemployed. This is rather insulting in the context you presented it, whether or not you meant to be. If this was not your intention perhaps you may take this as a learning opportunity to be more mindful in the future. there are plenty of neurotypical white trash who live off unemployment for no good reason too. I'd be mildly interested to find which condition constitutes the majority of government money collectors, i suspect that the autistic might occupy a negligible percentage of this total population.

90% of autistic people are unemployed. This is a simple fact - how is it insulting?

I've seen that statistic before, how old is it, and how was it collected?

I'll have to dig up my source again. Various studies say different things, but most agree that the employment rate for autistic people is fairly low, and that those who are employed are often underemployed and underpaid, even relative to other people with disabilities.

But: How is this insulting?

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27 Jan 2012, 3:42 am

Phonic wrote:

Verdandi will probably tell you - and I agree - that it is a flawed statistic since the most high functioning people on the autism spectrum are undiagnosed and too old to be in school, so they'll probably never be diagnosed, this group is the "invisible" generation of mild autistics who probably word at a much higher percent then 10%
In short, any statistic about autism and employment is going to be unfavorable since there's alwats a slant towards lower functioning people who are "on the system" as opposed to those invisable auties who I suspect actually make up the majority.

But if I was to venture a guess, I'd still say autistics are less likely to be employed then baseline humans, that's true of all disabilities I assume. The most grim statistics are for schizophrenics, they get very little support.

This is all true.

Except for schizophrenics. I've never checked those numbers. I'm sure phonic is correct, however.

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27 Jan 2012, 3:42 am

Verdandi wrote:

But: How is this insulting?

People will look for any excuse to feel discriminated against.

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27 Jan 2012, 3:43 am

Tuttle wrote:

R83 wrote:

If you are a female autist, chances are you don't resemble a 'nerd'.

I think of a nerd as someone (male, generally) who is very into maths, engineering, computing etc and has bad social skills. That could cover an awful lot of people, most of whom won't be autistic, and in addition there are all the autistic people who are not into one of the subjects about, and all of the ones who have issues with social skills but hide them.

There are plenty of female nerds and plenty of female spectrumites who are also nerds.

I'd not at all agree that autism is extreme nerdiness, but this comment still bothers me a lot, as someone who has only had friends who were nerds, most of whom were female. (And I'm totally one of those nerdy female spectrumites, who does in fact fall into the nerdy category as well as geek category.)

I, too, am a nerdy autistic female. Most of my friends have been nerds or geeks, although I would say very few of them were autistic. I did find that one of my friends from high school who was also pretty nerdy was diagnosed with AS several years ago, however.

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27 Jan 2012, 3:44 am

pensieve wrote:

theaspiemusician wrote:

Geekiness is just a side effect of Autism

Of course not ALL Aspies geek out about stereotypical things like Star Wars and Carl Sagan, they can geek out about ANYTHING really.

NT geeks still keep to popular geeky interests and don't get as intensely into them. Yes they collect and have discussions but someone with autism will interpret the subject differently, use more detail in descriptions and stay thahellaway from any form of shipping conversation. And get into more disagreements. Depending on the severity of their symptoms at least.
In conclusion, NT geeks are more versed on the ways of the world than autistic geeks.

I hate shipping conversations.

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27 Jan 2012, 3:46 am

Phonic wrote:

Verdandi wrote:

But: How is this insulting?

People will look for any excuse to feel discriminated against.

Well, this is in part an actual, concrete sign of discrimination. Part of it of course relates to simple difficulty in being able to do jobs.

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27 Jan 2012, 11:05 am

Verdandi wrote:

Well, this is in part an actual, concrete sign of discrimination. Part of it of course relates to simple difficulty in being able to do jobs.

Agreed. But our difficulties to perform in a job are often also linked to discrimination.

Back in 1960, 90% of women were unemployed. Many employers simply refused to hire women, especially for supposed men's jobs, but that was only part of it. Work environments were also openly hostile to women and female workers were subjected to patronizing, ridicule, and all kinds of abuse. Also, in order to get ahead in the workplace, one had to be male and possess typically male characteristics, such as ruthless competitiveness. It wasn't enough to simply be good in your job.

There are many parallels to the the same situation that we find ourselves in nowadays. We are ridiculed, belittled, insulted and harrassed. That guy is such a weirdo, oh geez now he's humming again, my eyes are up here buddy, there is something seriously wrong with that guy, he ought to have his head checked, I really don't want to be alone with that man, who knows what he's staring at, whose idea was it to bring someone like this to a trade fair -- I've heard it all. How can we be supposed to function in such an environment?

Women can complain about sexual harrassment when a coworker cracks a dirty joke, but what am I supposed to do when I'm ridiculed like that? Curl up into a ball and cry I guess. That's what I eventually did. I could still be employed and a productive member of society if I had been treated with a minimum amount of respect, but that doesn't seem to be possible unless you're able to make all the right expressions and movements and noises and postures. That is indeed discrimination.

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27 Jan 2012, 4:14 pm

I don't classify myself as a nerd.

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27 Jan 2012, 6:55 pm

I am certainly socially awkward and weird but at least physically don't have the appearance of a nerd..I have always been very fit and athletic.I am definitely a ''space cadet'' but don't think I have ever been a stereotypical nerd.

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27 Jan 2012, 7:03 pm

Most of the people I know are nerds but also NT. Most of the people I know would score in the autistic range on the AQ and Aspiz Quiz. People are getting the wrong idea about autism = nerdiness through these quizzes and articles like the Wired article about the Geek Syndrome.

The AQ is being used for all sorts of purposes now. I read an abstract about giving recovering alcoholics the AQ and comparing AQ scores to relapse rates and other measures of recovery or lack thereof. The people in the high-scoring range (>30) had lower rates of relapse and better recovery than the people who scored in the neutral or low range. Low range was <15, I think.

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