It's easier to categorise the intelligence of a neurotypical person

firemonkey said:

I've  been called everything from a genius to a fool

I get this. I managed to graduate uni quite literally as a rocket scientist in spite of making the most appalling life decisions and barely attending (typically due to booze and women).

Doing ridiculously dangerous things was also quite common for me in spite of being a respected computer technician early in my career - my therapist thinks it is a response to early traumas where I was scared and then I was trying to prove I'm not afraid of things, but on a daily basis (think driving down the local dual carriageway at 150mph on my motorbike daily).

I still have little fear as an old bloke now and take the odd risk (painting the windows 11 floors up by standing on the outside window ledge) when I know I should be using safety gear. I guess you need to get your kicks somehow.

Iain said:

Doing ridiculously dangerous things was also quite common for me in spite of being a respected computer technician early in my career - my therapist thinks it is a response to early traumas where I was scared and then I was trying to prove I'm not afraid of things, but on a daily basis (think driving down the local dual carriageway at 150mph on my motorbike daily).

Doing ridiculously dangerous things involves autism essentially as being a consistent state of fight or flight ~ rather than so much of if at all being compensatory ~ meaning that our boundary testing range can be somewhat more extended than most people, and being able to stay particularly calm as our narrow range of sensibilities cut and slipstream through irrelevant details whilst our focal point remains fluidly fixed on the objective or desire outcome.

My things were BMX bikes in my early teens involving mostly freestyle flatland, earthen ramps and a bit of vert ramping due to availability issues; then Skateboards in my late teens until my early thirties involving street-skating but mostly ramps as their transitions were a lot more forgiving than concrete banks, edgy concrete steps, handrails and hard paved surfaces etcetera, and finally freeride mountain-biking up until my mid forties involving down-hilling and joy of joys big drops ~ previously addressed equipment-wise etcetera on the following thread, with appealing amounts of mechanised eye and power candy from other community members also.

Basically stimulation hunger (for serenity sake) was satisfied by being part of what was jokingly called either 'The Big Jump, Air and Drop Brigade', or else ‘Airborne Division’ more usually,

Iain said:

Doing ridiculously dangerous things was also quite common for me in spite of being a respected computer technician early in my career - my therapist thinks it is a response to early traumas where I was scared and then I was trying to prove I'm not afraid of things, but on a daily basis (think driving down the local dual carriageway at 150mph on my motorbike daily).

Doing ridiculously dangerous things involves autism essentially as being a consistent state of fight or flight ~ rather than so much of if at all being compensatory ~ meaning that our boundary testing range can be somewhat more extended than most people, and being able to stay particularly calm as our narrow range of sensibilities cut and slipstream through irrelevant details whilst our focal point remains fluidly fixed on the objective or desire outcome.

My things were BMX bikes in my early teens involving mostly freestyle flatland, earthen ramps and a bit of vert ramping due to availability issues; then Skateboards in my late teens until my early thirties involving street-skating but mostly ramps as their transitions were a lot more forgiving than concrete banks, edgy concrete steps, handrails and hard paved surfaces etcetera, and finally freeride mountain-biking up until my mid forties involving down-hilling and joy of joys big drops ~ previously addressed equipment-wise etcetera on the following thread, with appealing amounts of mechanised eye and power candy from other community members also.

Basically stimulation hunger (for serenity sake) was satisfied by being part of what was jokingly called either 'The Big Jump, Air and Drop Brigade', or else ‘Airborne Division’ more usually,