Do any of you have trouble understanding complex subjects?

Post Reply New Topic

I get confused with a lot of complex subjects because of my autism. I didn't do well understanding the subjects in high school and I get puzzled with subjects as a adult who is almost 39. For example, understand technology like when my computer or phone has a technical problem I can't troubleshoot it and I need someone else to help me. Another example is I can't understand when a friend of mine talks about world news. I don't really understand what she's talking about when she talks about what's going on in Ukraine and Russia area and how it effects Canada. I just don't understand what she means. Do any of you on Wrong Planet get confused with complex subjects?

Each of us has our strengths and weaknesses.

Do you have any "special interests"? And how is your understanding in them?

No, provided:
1. It's explained clearly enough
2. I'm given long enough
3. I'm interested enough
4. I'm not too busy with other things
5. I trust the source of the information to be accurate
So, I'm much like anybody else except I probably need better clarity and more time, I can't so easily take an interest in random topics that get thrown at me, and if I'm busy then it's harder for me to interrupt my work and resume it later. But once I've twigged a subject I'm likely to understand it in a depth

How the Ukraine-Russia conflict affects Canada is a subject I'd not do well with, assuming it's complicated. I don't usually have much interest in foreign politics (with the exception of the USA where I currently live most of the time these days). I'd likely be too busy with other things, so even if she had the time, I probably wouldn't. I don't know for sure, but I doubt your friend has the skill in explaining complex things that I'd require. It's a rare gift. People don't often answer simple questions about a subject properly. And as she's presumably a lay person, I wouldn't be sure she wasn't wasting my time with inaccurate information.

More practical it is ...the less likely I will understand it.

The more useless it is the more likely I will become an instant expert at it!

I have troubles with some complex subjects; with others I am fine. I think it might have something to do with being unable to visualize some things. I meet many people with autism who struggle with math for this very reason. One of my best autistic friends can't multiply or divide or do algebra, but he is good at geometry because it is so visual. Understanding the finer details of how computers work can still be a struggle for me, since it is harder to visualize than something like the mechanisms of a car or clock. Hearing about things like distant news, politics, or history might be hard for some since it is the double whammy of difficult to visualize (it isn't happening near me) and difficulty understanding why other people are making these things happen.

I only have trouble understanding people.
And the multiplication tables.
I am good at calculus though.
Sometimes I am good with the complex subjects and lost with the "simple" one.

I can handle differential calculus, programs at the assembly level, and transfer orbit equation, but I fear that I will never understand what my wife means when she looks at me and sighs.

I don't understand.

Exactly.

i struggle with understanding technical things like computers

but i thought alot of autistics excel in technical things like computers and engineering or take those as courses at college/uni it seems


but it might be a stereotype..

Computers and Technology (I can't even preset radio stations)
Commerce and Economics
International Politics (esp. subterfuge or collusion)
Biology

I can follow it when they explain Einstein's Theory of Relativity (in either books, or in TV docs). And even retain much of it.

But I cant follow the steps in brewing beer.

Wine is just fermented grape juice. But beer is this complex thing they make out of grain, hops, and sugar, and what not. And they put the stuff in vats and bake it, and then put into other vats to do something else to it. And If you deviate from the flow chart one way -your beer becomes ale, and another way it become lager, and another way it becomes India Pale Ale, and there is dark, amber, and light.

Yes. Depending on the subject, I may struggle. I tend to have difficulty understanding politics and how the world works in general. When it's something more concrete and logical such as the grammar of a language (maybe not fully logical) and the syntax of a programming language, I do better than other people.

From what I observed most people aren't able to understand complex stuff. That's why there are specialists and scientists, right? That's totally fine. People can't be good at everything and understand everything. Most have jobs and families and community responsibilities. There's just no time even if they want to know things. Plus learning abilities decline with age. I have not tried to understand computer and technology stuff because I married a computer guy a long time ago. We each specialized in different areas and there are things I'm good at that he absolutely can't do. Such is the more efficient way for our brains to develop.

Ah, brewing is more an art than a science. I struggle with anything that involves biology as well. Horribly complex and I don't think they've figured it all out yet. Hence my problems with recipes for cooking and with gardening books. They're usually very unscientific. And "natural" things aren't so reproducible as relatively simple molecules. I used to grow E.coli bacteria that were genetically engineered to synthesise human proteins of medical interest - the results weren't absolutely reproducible by a long chalk, and the consensus among my colleagues was that E.coli are "little bastards." Don't get me started on the art of protein folding. Still, I persevered with such things, with some success, and I think they made me a "better" person than I would have been if I'd stuck to the exact sciences all my life.