I used to think that I had Autism/Aspbergers. I used to think that the same could be said about virtually everyone on this site. Now I know better. Roko, there is a world of difference between someone like you or I, who, if our parents cared about that sort of thing, could have easily found a psychologist willing to diagnose us with Autism/Aspbergers and someone like Tom McCabe or Alicorn. Perhaps it is not obvious in our interactions with them (as we are, in fact, fairly similar in many ways), and it may not be entirely obvious to others, as most people lack the skill to identify the various shades of non-social, but I think the both of us know that that difference is real.
I’ll certainly agree that there is a spectrum here. I haven’t met Alicorn in person, but Tom is definitely higher on the AS spectrum than you are, not to mean that as an insult to him as he’s a great guy.
Could you please elaborate on this? This is something I’ve wondered about for a while. I’ve also wondered if I was autistic and noticed a difference when talking to some people, but then again, they might just have a more extreme version of autism, or a different neurotype. What is the difference you’re talking about?
If I could use an analogy, I would use one of cars. Imagine, if you would, there was a type of car called a Ferrari. These “Ferraris” are notable for being very fast and having little passenger room. Because of this, would could define a characteristic, which I’ll call Ferrariness, which depends on how fast and how many passengers a car can carry. Now, we can easily sort cars by their Ferrariness, mini-vans being not very Ferrari, sedans being about average for Ferrariness, and sports cars having very strong Ferrariness. Now, it seems to me like Roko notices that he and many of his friends are mustangs, and don’t carry very many passengers and are very fast and says he’s very high on the “Ferrariness” spectrum. But while he, you and I might score very high in speed and low in passenger capacity and thus do happen to lie on the extreme high end of the “Ferrariness” spectrum, there is still a qualitative difference between us and true Ferraris, namely being produced by the eponymous company.
Similarly, there are some people who have this thing called Asperger’s syndrome, which is characterized by high IQ and low social skills. Roko notices he’s smarter and less socially aware than the average person and is thus “fairly far right on the Autism spectrum”, while Tom McCabe or Alicorn are slightly more to the right. But there really is a qualitative difference between a really smart nerd and someone who really has Asperger’s. I’m not quite able to articulate what that quality is, but Tom and Alicorn have it, and Roko and I don’t. I agree with his observations about the characteristics he associates with Asperger’s but I think he’s missing something.
I’ve met you only very briefly, and not in a context where we got to directly interact a lot, so I am really curious what puts this impression across. (I do not consider it any sort of insult to say that I’m autistic/Asperger’s or seem so, for reference, so there’s no call for tiptoeing if it’s tempting. Neurodiversity ftw.)
It was just immediately obvious. The closest thing I can come to explaining it is that the way you introduced yourself was… childish? That’s not really the right word, but I really can’t come up with a better one. Maybe I mean something like overly eager? It was just immediately obvious you are different. Your mannerisms, facial expression, tone, I don’t know, were off. I can’t really explain it, but since it is usually accurate, I trust my intuition.
I used to think that I had Autism/Aspbergers. I used to think that the same could be said about virtually everyone on this site. Now I know better. Roko, there is a world of difference between someone like you or I, who, if our parents cared about that sort of thing, could have easily found a psychologist willing to diagnose us with Autism/Aspbergers and someone like Tom McCabe or Alicorn. Perhaps it is not obvious in our interactions with them (as we are, in fact, fairly similar in many ways), and it may not be entirely obvious to others, as most people lack the skill to identify the various shades of non-social, but I think the both of us know that that difference is real.
I’ll certainly agree that there is a spectrum here. I haven’t met Alicorn in person, but Tom is definitely higher on the AS spectrum than you are, not to mean that as an insult to him as he’s a great guy.
I can’t tell: are you saying that I do have Asperger’s or that I don’t?
The intent was to say that you and Tom do.
Could you please elaborate on this? This is something I’ve wondered about for a while. I’ve also wondered if I was autistic and noticed a difference when talking to some people, but then again, they might just have a more extreme version of autism, or a different neurotype. What is the difference you’re talking about?
If I could use an analogy, I would use one of cars. Imagine, if you would, there was a type of car called a Ferrari. These “Ferraris” are notable for being very fast and having little passenger room. Because of this, would could define a characteristic, which I’ll call Ferrariness, which depends on how fast and how many passengers a car can carry. Now, we can easily sort cars by their Ferrariness, mini-vans being not very Ferrari, sedans being about average for Ferrariness, and sports cars having very strong Ferrariness. Now, it seems to me like Roko notices that he and many of his friends are mustangs, and don’t carry very many passengers and are very fast and says he’s very high on the “Ferrariness” spectrum. But while he, you and I might score very high in speed and low in passenger capacity and thus do happen to lie on the extreme high end of the “Ferrariness” spectrum, there is still a qualitative difference between us and true Ferraris, namely being produced by the eponymous company.
Similarly, there are some people who have this thing called Asperger’s syndrome, which is characterized by high IQ and low social skills. Roko notices he’s smarter and less socially aware than the average person and is thus “fairly far right on the Autism spectrum”, while Tom McCabe or Alicorn are slightly more to the right. But there really is a qualitative difference between a really smart nerd and someone who really has Asperger’s. I’m not quite able to articulate what that quality is, but Tom and Alicorn have it, and Roko and I don’t. I agree with his observations about the characteristics he associates with Asperger’s but I think he’s missing something.
Impossible!
I’ve met you only very briefly, and not in a context where we got to directly interact a lot, so I am really curious what puts this impression across. (I do not consider it any sort of insult to say that I’m autistic/Asperger’s or seem so, for reference, so there’s no call for tiptoeing if it’s tempting. Neurodiversity ftw.)
It was just immediately obvious. The closest thing I can come to explaining it is that the way you introduced yourself was… childish? That’s not really the right word, but I really can’t come up with a better one. Maybe I mean something like overly eager? It was just immediately obvious you are different. Your mannerisms, facial expression, tone, I don’t know, were off. I can’t really explain it, but since it is usually accurate, I trust my intuition.