Are you good at maths?

I was rubbish at everything at school - except reading and writing.  I gave up on maths whilst still at primary school.  Geometry, trig, algebra - they all passed me by.  Nowadays, I know what pi is, and the stuff about the square of the hypotenuse... but that's as far as it goes.

Mental arithmetic, though, is something I'm good at.  I can add up numbers and work out percentages pretty quickly - often to the surprise of others.  I used to work in a shop where we gave 10% discount if people bought 3 of the same item.  So someone would come to the till with 3 things priced at £3.89 each, and I'd ask them for £10.50... and they'd say 'Don't forget to take off my 10%', and would look at me aghast when I told them I already had!  I just think '3 times £4, minus 33p equals £11.67.  10% of £11.67 is £1.17.  Easy!'  Mind you  - 10% is a simple one to figure out.

My dad had a calculator brain.  He didn't have much education, but he used to play darts and could work out scores in his head whilst the scorer was still thinking about it!

I suppose I ought to try boning up on some of this stuff, but I don't really have a logical brain that way.  I'm good with using computers (though I've forgotten a lot of Excel), but I could never do something like coding.  My niece's husband, on the other hand - an undiagnosed Aspie - ought to be earning a fortune in Silicon Valley.  He just absorbs that stuff.

I just think '3 times £4, minus 33p equals £11.67.  10% of £11.67 is £1.17.  Easy

Totally lost.com 

I had a pre diagnostic appointment today.  Started discussing my IQ which is VIQ gifted.  All sounds wonderful all that gifted stuff doesn't it?  Except due to sensory issues I can't leave the house on my own :O So fat lot of good it's done me . . . :O lol x

I had a pre diagnostic appointment today.  Started discussing my IQ which is VIQ gifted.  All sounds wonderful all that gifted stuff doesn't it?  Except due to sensory issues I can't leave the house on my own :O So fat lot of good it's done me . . . :O lol x

Xanadu said:

I just think the lack of social skills make us look silly and that gets projected back at us often enough that we start believing it and taking it on board  I think my intelligence is probably entirely useless in a neurotypical world.  My brain works so so so fast and takes in the entire picture of everything and they just can't keep up and as I try to explain it makes ME look like the silly one but actually it's them and oh man oh man it's so frustrating . . . the speed of thinking of neurotypicals really really frustrates me :( 

Yes, I know what you mean.  I sometimes wonder what use my intelligence is at all!  I mean, what do I apply it to that serves me in any practical way, apart from being able to get through the usual daily round?  Driving, doing my job, preparing meals, cleaning, shopping.  I don't have the focus to learn anything properly.  I get bored and distracted far too easily.  The things that are my main interests - writing and digital artwork - are things that I can get fully absorbed in, and which give me pleasure and a sense of fulfillment.  But they aren't things I can build a career on or make a living out of (though I've tried).  I know - from what people have told me and from what I know about myself - that I'm sharp and witty.  It's not exactly spontaneous repartee, but I can be pretty quick with a rejoinder.  And the more knowledge I have, the more I can make those creative connections in my head.  I think being at university certainly enhanced that ability, because it was three years of full-on learning - an experience I hadn't had before and haven't repeated since.  I think it was having that imperative hanging over me that helped me there.  And it left me with a huge curiosity about many things - but not the application to actually sit down and learn them.  That's why, as I've said elsewhere, I feel like my head is a scrapbook.  I flit around like a gadfly.  It's the same with work.  I've had dozens of jobs in my life, ranging from 2 weeks to 5 years.  An average, probably, of 8 months per job.  The idea of being in one place for too long - I just can't envision it, and never have been able to.  It's actually become worse as I've gotten older, too.  Over the last 12 years, I've had 11 jobs (though mainly in care).  Some employers like that, because it shows a broad base of skills and experience.  But it means I'm still effectively where I was 12 years ago income-wise.  I'm 58 now and have 9 years until I retire.  I don't think, in that time, I'm likely to improve much on my current standard of living (unless I get a book deal!  Hah!).  Not that it bothers me too much.  I enjoy a minimalist life.  Too much stuff is stressful.  I could happily live in a small motorhome, if I could afford one.  Hit the road and go.  And if it broke down... then fill up a back pack and become a rubber tramp.

The NT world in general frustrates me.  The more I see of it, the gladder I am to be as I am.  I like being on the outside, looking in.  For years, though, it screwed me up.  But I've never really been a joiner in any sense.  I have no faith, no political party membership (though I have principles), no wish to belong to any club or clique.  I don't understand the fixations with fashion, status, etc.  I hate the bunker mentality in political discourse.  It puzzles me why people want to slavishly follow trends, belief systems, teams, countries, and so on.

Yeah... not much use in an NT world, my intelligence...

I just think the lack of social skills make us look silly and that gets projected back at us often enough that we start believing it and taking it on board  I think my intelligence is probably entirely useless in a neurotypical world.  My brain works so so so fast and takes in the entire picture of everything and they just can't keep up and as I try to explain it makes ME look like the silly one but actually it's them and oh man oh man it's so frustrating . . . the speed of thinking of neurotypicals really really frustrates me :( 

I always thought I was a duffer until I took the Mensa test and got an IQ of 148, and they allowed me in!  That's when I thought that maybe I had a brain after all.  So, why didn't it feel like it?  Looking back on it, I guess my brain just wasn't wired for school.  Later, when I went to uni, I found my way to learn.  Alone, at my own pace, following my instincts rather than a curriculum.  But a fat lot of good any of that's done me, too!  Seriously, I don't down-play it.  I didn't go through all that to maximise my earnings potential or anything.  It was more about self-realisation.  And I'm still not really 'educated'.  My head is a scrapbook.  I know lots about a little, and little about lots.  I get by.  I've learned to blag it.  I suppose at least I know that I know nothing.  Too many people know nothing, but think they know everything.

Yeah, but it's our wonderful IQ's that bestow upon us a deep understanding of that internal language we use around the majority of NT's:  "Seriously?",  "Pffft!",  "WTF?" etc.