Fast Thinking vs. Slow Thinking

No worries it’s fine :) 

Sorry! I can change mine!

I changed it now :) so no more confusion!! 

Hi!! I just saw we have exactly the same profile name!!! I was a bit confused at first as I thought ... but I did not reply to that post. It’s nice to meet you- maybe to avoid confusion I will add a smilee behind my name! That way we can tell each other appart 

Yes, very interesting point! Sorry to jump in late, I was just wondering the same and bumped into your post. Mother of an autistic son, I am not considered autistic myself but share a strong tendency to slow thinking and defect of fast thinking. I see a strong parallel with many other theories like the being vs having orientation from Erich Fromm or self-actualization concept of Abraham Maslow or even Budhism. I used to think that this slow thinking was natural to human beings and that the fast thinking was enforced by education consisting of reward and punishment but I admit there seems to be a genetic predisposition to it. Science and art need this type of thinking while socializing (though not all) and marketing use the fast thinking mode it seems. In my opinion, the current society favors way to much the fast thinking mode and I wouldn't be surprised that autism stands out way more than it should due to this biais. 

when I used to work in a job that required me to write emails frequently I got chewed out by my boss often for being 'blunt' or even 'threatening' in the tone of my emails. I got in the habit of re reading any draft of email I wrote 3 or 4 times before sending it. Making tweaks each time, and still I'd get chewed out. To a lesser extent you can do this with a conversation, take a fraction of a second to mull a phrase over in your mind before you say it, but it only works in slow paced conversations, as soon as you have people talking over each other, interjecting, changing topics frequently, any notion of doing that becomes absurd. If you want to participate actively in a conversation at that speed (and I do) you've got to say things almost as soon as they pop into your mind or you'll never find a space to put your words into the conversation.

When i talk about instinct ,i mean  behavioral instinct as well eg. hardwired .

If the ability to recognize body language and facial expressions [cognitive empathy ]  isn't genetic, or the lack of the ability isn't ,you would be saying autism is learned behaviour [which it isn't].

Surely someone with autism has instinctive behaviour to spot patterns [as well as others],that is what i mean,use your ability/instincts to spot behaviour patterns in other people,to see who they are and there motives,rather than getting bogged down in day to day emotional baggage [thats what nts do]

like you have said elsewhere it is very hard to mask over a long period of time ,so it is easy to see what makes people tick, yes use reason to come to the conclusions but use autistic instincts to see the facts.

People seem to worry so much about there lack of abilities when they should be playing to there strengths , seeing the bigger picture .

JuniperFromGallifrey said:

However, my natural state IS slower more logical reasoning. I had simply been in a state of severe stress most of my life. The more I allowed myself to live in this state, the easier things have been.

Yes. This resonates. Absolutely. I'm starting to really understand how my thinking is different and how much pressure I've put on myself to "be like everyone else" and sometimes, even after I've had the insight after diagnosis, I still do. 

If I'm introduced to novel or new information I need time to process it. I always used to hate meetings where something was dropped on the group and feedback was wanted straightaway right there and then. I needed information up front so I could mull it over, process and frame it before deciding on a response.

That state of severe stress pretty much captures how much I felt most of my life before my diagnosis. No-one could understand why I always turned up for work at the last minute or why I wouldn't "just do things". The reason was that first thing in the morning I always was in a fuzzy-headache-stressy place and I had to psyche myself up to do things and had to build myself up to fake it to get through the day.

My mind is always contemplating something it seems. Some of the philosophy I'm studying right now actually helps me re-focus or I start trouble-shooting / problem solving everything on the news, everyone I know... I've gotten better at realising when I'm launching into all the complexities of a global sized dilemma and have lost the other. In fact, much of what I've studied over the years has just been to try and work out what was 'wrong' with me though the philosophy, psychology, sociology, etc. still seemed incredibly interesting. I'm still randomly blown away by things. Someone tweeted today about being purposefully contrary. I don't think it was new information but I felt stunned. 

You are more evolved than most animals so reasoning should be your first 'go to' response.    Using emotions as an excuse for poor judgement and crazy decisions devalues yourself.    Most dogs and cats can use judgement before doing something they will regret.

Interested in the instinct vs reasoning ,just wrote some thing that touched on that.

Surely instinct is more the real you[ nature],reasoning is more the  social input

I watch people train dogs in the park.    They are always impatient because they are on a time crunch - gotta be back home to cook tea or something so the dog isn't given the individual time it needs to understand at its own pace.      The poor confused dog gets shouted at and dragged home having not learned a thing.

I believe humans are exactly the same - some brains work at high speed, some need more time - and you can't rush it.

Deep conversations in the morning are a sign that your brain was wanting to do it the night before - it took all night before the final words popped out.

I'm like that - you can get very random conversations from me at any time - I've learned to add a disclaimer to the front of the conversations to prepare the listener to either sit or run!  

I wish I knew what you meant by turning off a filter to utilise techniques. Noisy bars are quite difficult. Also, I have learned to add in clauses to everything I say. I was madly in love with someone who eventually rejected me because I couldn't communicate my thoughts appropriately and told me I need to use phrases that don't create black and white statements. I'm also very keen on saying sex rather than gender because usually I only mean physiological or biological specifics when referring to issues. But fundamental logic and fundamental implications of a word doesn't always work. So strange how easily people can be offended. 

JuniperFromGallifrey said:

Once I learned communication techniques to stop other humans 'rushing' or interrupting me,

The problem is to the extent that these techniques work they only really work in one on one conversation. Not so much in say a group of 5 in a noisy bar. The only way I know not to get lost in that sort of conversation is to turn off your mental filter ... at least partially, enough to keep up. And we all know what happens when autistic people turn off their filter.

they get pilloried by some sensitive soul Who’s world you’ve just crushed by saying something they found offensive. Possibly because they miss understood What you’re trying to say or possibly because sensitivity is hard at the best of times and tends to go out the window when the filter comes off so you can express an idea in ‘real time,’ instead of having to rehash your choice of words several times over.

sorry if I’m coming off grumpy but I’m kind of in a bad mood right now.