When you're being a tad too specific about details ...

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So today in class we were learning about different species of conifers. When we got to the species Metasequoia glyptostroboides, an ancient species that sheds its leaves, the teacher asked us "so how old do you think this species is?". Somebody said "dinosaur age!". The teacher asked "could you be more specific?" so I chimed in, "well, that depends which species of dinosaur you mean".

What the teacher really was looking for was the term "pre-historic era". OK, so not THAT specific, then.

Anyway, we laughed (I seem to always do a little laugh after saying something, don't know why) and moved on to the next species of tree. And secretely I was glad she didn't name some dinosaur species because I don't remember much from my dinosaur obsession when I was 11 ...

Anyone else have a story like this?

That's silly. "Pre-historic era" is actually more vague than "dinosaur age" because the dinosaurs were only alive for 150 million years, where as "prehistory" encompasses all of the earth's history up until the point at which humans developed the first system of writing ("history" is a derivitive of the French word "histoire" which means "story", so "pre-history" would be "before written stories"). That time span is almost 4.5 billion years.

Had it been me, I would have been "more specific" by stating the specific time period, e.g, Triassic, Jurassic or Cretaceous period (unless the tree wasn't actually from the "dinosaur age" and was in fact from one of the earlier periods.)

Anyway, I have a tendency to get too specific when describing things too. I have a hard time knowing what I can leave out, because leaving anything out feels like lying, if it's a personal story, or like people will think I'm stupid and don't know the real answer, if it's academic.

Haha, exactly my thoughts. I have a strong suspicion she didn't know which era it really stems from. Not that it really matters in terms of how to grow one today, though, but then I do get hung up in such details. In fact I just googled it and it said "Mesozoic era" which basically encompass all the "dinosaur ages", so I suppose that was pretty accurate, then :p

And I know what you mean about not knowing what to leave out! Actually I'm pretty aware of this, because my mum is even worse than I am (though I think she's NT), she'll cram in as much detail as possible, making her little stories so long that she bores everyone because she has to add that "it was a Saturday because she distinctly remember going shopping and she only does that on Saturdays and then she bumped into Mary and by the way Mary had a grandson only two weeks ago, they named him Sebastian, can you believe it, such a long name, he won't be able to pronounce his own name before he's five at least, and and and ..." you get the gist. But still it's like I'm trying to solve a math problem when I try to include an appropriate amount of information.

My mom does the same thing. The "Saturday because i remember etc., etc," sounds just like something she would say. Often i try to speed her up to get to the point because by the time she gets there i forget what we were talking about to begin with. It drives the ADD portion of my brain crazy. I don't think she is an aspie, but she and her sisters all talk like this. I love my mom and aunts, but to talk to them in a group is sensory overload--nobody can get a word in edgewise but they are all talking at once anyway.

But i too will add way too many details. I agree with you StarTrekker--even though i am not lying it feels like it if i leave stuff out. I am getting better at figuring out what to add and what i don't need to...but it still takes a lot of thought.

I never realized how hard it was to add all the details til i figured out that i didn't need to add every detail. I have come up with some phrases that have made conversations easier...such as, "I'm sorry i didn't call you, my family was sick this week," instead of listing each ailment and the duration and severity. Or "we have plans that day," instead of a play by play of each plan and a timeline. Most times people don't care or sometimes they dont' need to know all of it. I had someone tell me once, "you don't have to justify yourself to me." I wasn't doing it consciously; it was my endless list of details of my thought process. I have a harder time getting thoughts into spoken words than i used to, so shortening spoken details has been a great relief to me.

Wow! Story of my life guys! I take so long to tell stories because I have to cram every single detail in!! !
I have to go over every single aspect and facet or else it feels like I am not really talking but people think I'm being selfish or that I like to hear myself talk but that couldn't be farther from the truth!!

I just feel like if I don't give all those details the person won't understand or it won't be as rich or interesting as when I experienced it and then I'm doing the listener a disservice while telling my yarn.
Lol guess I'm super wrong LOL.

Lol, my ADHD sister does this all the time, except she distracts herself when telling her own stories! I'm forever reminding her where she left off, or informing her that she never finished her story, after she's drifted off on some irrelevant tangent. She and my mom, who both have ADHD, are really difficult to understand when they're talking to each other, because they'll leap from topic to topic with no logical progression or pattern, it's like they have half the conversation by telepathy, so everyone listening has no idea what they're saying. My dad (also aspie) also tends to add a lot of detail to his stories, but at least he doesn't get distracted by his own thoughts half way through!

Hahaha! Oh dear. My mum is sometimes ... less than politically correct when she talks, though she's kind at heart. She was talking about how she hates clothes tags and have to cut them out, and suddenly said "you know, I heard an explanation for that in a work seminar! Apparently it's because of ADHD!" and then she laughed.

I've been wondering, if I'm on the spectrum myself (not sure yet), if any of my parents/ancestors had it. Now, immediately I'd think "yes! My dad, and his dad, and my great-grandmother!" all on the same side of my family. No one has ever had any diagnoses though, it's not common to talk much about "psychic stuff" where I live. But now I'm kind of wondering about my mum, too. She has her own issues, like at work she used to have many friends, but when she couldn't work full time anymore suddenly she feels that the others have turned against her. Oh well. I'm not going to speculate about other people's diagnoses, I have more than enough with trying to figure out my own ... :p

That would be almost any time of any day of any week, ad infinitum.

And it all comes out confusing to a lot of people. Totally lost my students when I tried to express a method of how I do something and why.

Should ahve stuck with just the facts and procedure and not inflict my tortured approach to things on them.