Breadth of a special AS interest

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The language in which I have read AS interests described seems to imply that the interest is quite specific, for example, locomotives manufactured by Clyde Engineering in the 1960s. Personally, however, I find myself to be more of an "all-rounder" than my (assumed) NT peers in my profession/interest in IT. The main difference I've found is they tend to have more popular mainstream skills, like .NET programming, MS Exchange admin, "cloud" stuff, "web 2.0" stuff and I tend to have more "arcane" skills and knowledge like reverse engineering, X.25 and other things that might not have much practical or profitable application. Is this consistent and can it be explained by AS? I'd have thought that would cause more of a hyperspecialisation, to the point where I would for example, be a Cisco switching expert but have rudimentary Linux knowledge at best, rather than be good with both (to varying degrees).

I don't know if it's a consequence of AS, but I notice my breadth of knowledge is wider than my peers as well. I thought it was due to computers being a special interest from a young age (starting with BASIC as a child and BBS's as a teen and constantly learning up to the present). You're bound to learn a lot over a long period of time.

People have described me as a "Renaissance Man" in what I know, as I know a lot about a lot of things. That's why for the special interest thing, I think it was more pronounced when I was a kid, it'd be like "Star Trek, I wanna talk about Star Trek all the time!" but then as you get older, it wears out into a bunch of topics you can annoy people by talking about all the time. I think it's just like, I never just "let things be" if I start cooking food, I never learn "just enough" I always have to constantly learn about everything I'm doing, no matter how mundane the tasks are. It'll be like, I'll pick up a box of nails at Walmart, then I'll go on wikipedia and look up nails.

In a roundabout way having that hyperspecialism knowledge can be applied to some aspects of more generalized fields. In my case my hyperspecialism in mopeds allows me to see a more complex modern motorcycle as something I can work on almost blindly even though they are so different

I dunno. I am trying to figure out if AS is me or not ( I am fairly certain it is) but as a child I had a singular obsession with cars. Specifically, I liked Chevrolet musclecars of the 1960's and 70's, especially Novas. As I grew older though, I ran out of data to learn about them and branched out into other cars when I was in my 20's. Experiences with other car people who were into different things made me more of a generalist, but with better knowledge of some cars more than others. At one point, I even branched out into Soviet block vehicles just to have more data to add to my head! Do I still play with cars? Yes, but my focus today is on fuel efficiency instead of raw power as I find economy a more logical and practical pursuit. Remember that maturity and life experience has a tendency to expand the mind of most people and I imagine this is true of aspies as well. Most of the more rigid diagnostic stereotypes seem to only really apply in childhood with regards to obsessive interests.

Well, the fuel economy thing comes out of what I do for a living. I'm a pizza delivery driver and so I drive around 3,000 miles a month. Right now I am using one of my Geo Metros for delivery because it saves me a few hundred dollars a month. I am also gathering parts for a second one that should use even less fuel. My hope is to see 65mpg on the highway without substantial aerodynamics work and 45-50 mpg in the city (I only get 40 city right now). Plus, considering what I do for a living, I don't make a lot of money and need to reduce costs wherever I can. Besides, you don't really need a fast car to make fast deliveries. I have the slowest car in my store but the fastest delivery times.

Oddly enough, the Metro has become one of my obsessive interests now, even though I am probably the only person in my sphere of influence who really likes it. Then again, I have a thing for unloved and/or cheap cars so that may explain it.

It sounds like a lot of us have a broad area of special interest inside of which we have more intense and specific interests that tend to be the things that arouse the most activity and sit closest to obsession. I, for example, have enormous knowledge of video games as a whole. However, I have a near obsession with MMOs and niche games. I was actually lucky enough to gain a greater than average fixation with action RPGs while playing dungeon fighter online just as this generation of consoles became all about them. We're also seeing more mainstream titles with the level of artistic direction that has made niche games my favorites for years.

>_> And now I'm just special interest rambling.

But yeah, does it ring true to others that the intense laser of obsession moves around within a broader area of special interest?

Oh god, and pokemon has been in the laser on and off since I was like 13. >_> I could lose days on serebii sometimes.