I'm teaching English right now in Moscow, and I was wondering if anybody from this community lives in Moscow. Honestly I'm not really expecting anyone to reply. Most Russians don't speak English well, and in Russia I don't think they are so eager to diagnose everything under the sun as a medical condition. In Russia a mildly autistic person (like I am) would probably just be called introverted and awkward. The CIA says Putin is autistic. Maybe that's a politically motivated attack (most people still think that autism = mental ret*d), or maybe he really does, I don't know. But clearly he's not mentally ret*d. Some people think that Einstein, Tesla, Newton, Bill Gates, etc may have had aspergers. I think in the past these people would just have been considered socially awkward and nerdy, and not been diagnosed with a disease. I dunno. In Russia, I think people can tell that I'm a bit shy and awkward, but I try my best to be friendly and helpful, and that is enough. Maybe part of it is because they expect me to be a bit strange because I'm a foreigner. Anyway, I got a bit off topic.
Oh, and I'm reading some books that you might find useful. I've recently read a book called "What Every Body is Saying". It is written by a retired FBI guy who used knowledge of nonverbal body language to catch bad guys. I find these books particularly interesting, because I can't unconsciously process nonverbal language. I had to learn facial expressions the same way I have to learn new vocabulary. I'm reading a book right now called "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie. It is a very good book, useful for neurotypicals too. I also read a book called "The 48 Laws of Power", which says a lot of things which are similar to "How to Win Friends and Influence People". Only the 48 laws of power book is very Machiavellian, and Cernegie's book isn't. Dale Carnegie's attitude is "I want to be a nice guy and make people like me," and that leads him to say things like, "appeal to people's self interest", because obviously everybody wants what they want. The 48 Laws of Power says something very similar, but it takes the perspective, "People are vicious self-absorbed beasts, so you should appeal to a person's self interest in order to manipulate him better." Those aren't actual quotes by the way, just my paraphrasing. I am reading Carnegie's book after the 48 laws of power, and I think it is interesting that these books talk about so many of the same things, but approach them from totally different attitudes.
20 Jul 2015, 3:28 am
