The benifits of Aspergers

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I definitely can relate and have seen similar occurrences between my coworkers and myself, usually on a daily basis.


Indeed, I usually get through the interruptions by using instant messaging programs at work instead of taking phone calls since it's easier for me to not lose concentration if I don't have to switch senses. I also generally keep electronic music playing during the entire work shift; I'm lucky to have only one other person in my office (the boss).


I don't have cable either; I used to be quite addicted to sci-fi and comedy as a child. Now, I can't watch tv at all because it's so boring and dull. Commercials pretty much ruin the experience for me. I'd rather watch a 640x480 resolution AVI file than a movie on a widescreen plasma TV with commercials.


I also seem to have an aptitude for spatial intelligence. I discovered a few years ago that I can take nearly anything apart and put it back together without issue. It works on laptop computers, car parts, and countless other applications.


I'm pleased to see great examples of sharing compassion and understanding. I live alone and have no friends outside of the internet, but I do recognize that the world needs more of this understanding, quite desperately.

Fair warning, CelticRose, I tried that route and got badly burned because of my non-standard social interactions. One of the most important attributes of a good "sales guy" is to hang out and establish good rapport with your prospect. I've never managed to get good at that, so I stick to eBay for selling most things

Then again, I often turned to the NT's at work for assistance with my problems in marketing and appealing to semi-normal/normal folk. One here is studying public relations, and I've found her assistance to be invaluable in getting my messages to appeal to the masses. That's another good route to consider.

Actually, I've already considered that. I plan to design needlework and sell the patterns and finished products over the internet. The only NTs I'll be dealing with over the phone or in person will be my suppliers and legal and financial advisors. Since I'll be their source of income, they'll have an incentive to get along with me. I've wanted to run a needlework business for ages but only recently came up with an idea that would work with my Aspie personality. Now I've just got years of planning and learning ahead of me.

Someone I know through the internet has been making a decent income for a while doing custom bead work, making jewelry of the sorts using stone beads and various fibers such as hemp twine and even things like fishing line. There's definitely a good group of people out there, and if you give that market what they want, they tend to pay well. The trick, as I've seen for my own endeavors, is actually finding them and getting their attention.

For me it's the strong memory and being able to remember things such as address or where places are which helps greatly as a courier driver. I learned the routes I usually go on very quickly and routing them as to do it in the fastest manner. I also can often go to a place once or twice and remember where it is often by landmark. For example I had a print shop I went to and the first time I had trouble figuring out where to pick up the item. Person there told me where it was and I noticed that it was under the flag poles which is how I remembered the next time. One thing I have noticed however is sometimes I have trouble with the suburbs where the streets look like they let a 3 year old loose with a crayon and laid the streets out that way. I finally figured out a few years ago when I did a different job is that the reason is they are not on a grid system like the urban and first two or three ring suburbs are and my mind likes things that are in order like that. The other thing I'm good at is being able to do fairly hard calculations in my head, IE being able to multiply two two digit numbers in my head or doing the same with division and being able to do it to two or three decimal points. One of the dispatchers at work says I'm like Rainman in that regard.

AS keeps me safe and away from all the as*holes and people in the world that want to hurt me.

- Used to get along extremely well with difficult customers and co-workers with a lot of personal problems as chit-chat is not my specialty, they knew that they could tell me everything and I would not repeat it.
- Barely no wrinkles as I have very few facial expressions that are limited to a grin ot a frown once in a while, love looking years younger now!
- No problem living alone since my spouse died; we were to loners living together to start with.
- Way above normal visual memory as well as a memory for details and fascinated with statistics: more than very handy as I used to work in the accounting field.
- Could pull out last minute miracles at work when needed as I could get in the super-high gear mode (always do everything at the last minute anyway, so a lot of practice with that )

Last edited by scorpion42 on 04 Sep 2008, 10:25 am, edited 1 time in total.

Let's see …

1. Deep concentration is easy: I tend to shut out the rest of the world fairly easily if I'm doing well, often amid lots of noise.

2. Learning visualization has been failry easy, despite the fact that I generally think in the mental equivalent of audible words.

3. Directness and honesty in communication: I mean exactly what I say—no more, no less.

4. I don't have the kind of feelings one can hurt. Emotions in general, yes; "hurtable" feelings, no. Being devastated by someone else's mere words just doesn't make sense to me, even though I acknowledge it as part of others' psychology.

5. I don't need to waste time chatting out of a need for human contact.

6. I don't have to waste timing wondering what others think of me, what impression I've made, or what could possibly go wrong. If problems crop up, I deal with them then.

7. Considerable skill with languages

8. I can amuse myself if I try, without depending on external sources of entertainment.

9. I don't fear being wrong as much as many others I know. To me, it's just a situation to be handled, like any other.

10. I prefer finishing things as quickly as possible, balanced with doing the most thorough, most quality job possible.

Peer-pressure doesn't affect me.

I mastered Corel Painter 10 in about 2 months, no instructions