Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi, I just stumbled across this site and found myself reading the discussions which are very interesting. I set up a profile which you’re welcome to ignore because I don’t really know completely what I’m on about but these are the half unformed thoughts about myself and my life that I have been wondering about.
How do you know if you’re just above average intelligent/academic or on the autism spectrum?
I might say something wrong while explaining this, I’m sorry if I have already, using wrong terms etc because I’m not deeply educated on it.
I’ve kind of been thinking isn’t it rational to shun socializing if you’re intelligent and not necessarily in an environment where you have connection with other intelligent people?.
Isn’t preferring objects to people rational for someone academic? Humans are quite silly and frivolous and unless you’re working at a top uni, not going to be highly intelligent. But does avoidance of them mean you’re arrogant or use your brain in a more productive way. Some people take drugs or drink so maybe they’re not going to be using their brain to its full capacity.
So isn’t it just a survival instinct that if you’re clever, you’re going to prefer to be alone rather than settle for averagely intelligent humans, which might look like there’s something wrong.
Isn’t it a fact that we live in an unaesthetic, Capitalist, Consumerist driven world that often makes the man/woman made world quite ugly, full of fake advertising and trash. So isn’t avoiding all that sensory disingenuous junk again rational?
Isn’t it rational to order the world around us, so isn’t keeping collections and cataloging the height of intelligence?
Doesn’t it just mean that you’re a good person if you like rules and like them to be followed?
Isn’t the best way to get things done during the day to have a repetitious routine? And not liking it when undisciplined people come along and try and tear you from your strict routine, just because they’re lazy and lack focus and are addicted to frivolous hedonism.
Might be utter junk coming out of my head, thank you
A person can be autistic and a high academic achiever or be allistic (not autistic) and a high academic achiever. I can tell you, in general, the allistic high academic achiever will do better in university employment than the autistic, even if their intelligence is on a par. I worked for 34 years in two Russell Group universities, and in universities, like just about everywhere else, success is based on playing the system and dependent on the type of 'soft skills' in socialising and politicking that autistic people are notably poor at.
Ahhh so even if you’re highly intelligent you’ve still got to be good at the small talk to succeed there. I was thinking that as an academic you could kind of escape all that. I remember reading or hearing descriptions of academics as being obsessed with their specialist subject and in their own world. When I was there 18 years ago I remember being disappointed that people weren’t like that at all. Maybe it would be good if there were Autistic universities.
People I trained, people I helped with their PhD theses, ended up way above me in university hierarchies. Autistics tend not to like change and changing jobs, changing universities and countries are, in essence, mandatory to get ahead.
Thank you for such an intellectually open discussion. Yes it could be dangerous, like Eugenics. We kind of do have segregation in many areas though. If you look at education, you get streamed at school into top and bottom set. We have elite universities Oxford, Cambridge then the Unis that are at the bottom of the league table and easier to get into, like the one I went to. I was just thinking how one of the first posts I read on here was someone saying they don’t really enjoy talking to neurotypicals and I was just thinking that if an accumulation of bad experiences are forcing above average intelligent people to shun all human contact, or shut themselves away then it would be better to have physical safe spaces. A bit like how feminists will sometimes set up women only communes and groups etc. Again thank you for your deep thoughts.
NAS88864 said:What social skills would you say are difficult for those on the spectrum, that you read books about?
It isn't so much about books for gathering this info - read the posts on this site and you will read the experiences of the majority of posters refer to issues understanding what the rules are.
Many people also suffer trauma from early age social interactions that lead them to avoid contact in later life (a part of their coping / protection mechanisms).
Many others suffer from their sensitivity to sensory input and struggle to make out conversationsm, suffer extreme anxiety when dealing with others etc - a real mixed bag at times.
The empirical evidence is overwhelming, even allowing for the fact that this is a bit of an echo chamber for these opinions.
NAS88864 said:Our superpowers have been diluted almost because we’re trying to fit in with a generic, identical less environment.
That line of reasoning is a dangerous one. The same logic could be applied to say that men are stronger than women so we should be allowed to go to a school where we can really develop our strength and no girls are allowed. Maybe it could be caucasions are higher scoring in classical music than blacks so schools for whites only for music should be created.
We don't need anyone to be excluded from us, but do we need to be included with enough care that we don't suffer unduly.
That doesn't stop us having our own social clubs (nobody would come anyway LoL), online communities like here and creating our own spaces to nurture our superpowers.
That is great to hear that some Universities are accommodating. Part of me thinks thought that wouldn’t it be easier for Autism spectrum students and lecturers not to have to deal with neurotypicals? Just to be able to get on, in a more efficient way. A lot of the social guidance right now feels like it’s about finding your tribe. Finding people who you feel most comfortable with. I think diversity is really positive but also to be with ‘your people’ gives you such a strong sense of self, that can be lost if we all have one big melting pot because then no one knows who they are. Our superpowers have been diluted almost because we’re trying to fit in with a generic, identical less environment.
What social skills would you say are difficult for those on the spectrum, that you read books about?