A Stranger in a Strange Land.

Temple Grandin “The World Needs All Kinds of Minds” (by AtGoogleTalks)

There are many different kinds of minds and, when they work together, they can really complement each other. Temple is a visual thinker who thinks in photo realistic pictures. This has helped her in her design work. Another type of mind is the mathematical mind. This kind of mind is really good at computer programming and engineering. The third type of mind is a verbal word thinker. Temple will discuss successful projects where the different kinds of minds worked together and a few disasters that could have been prevented by input from more than one type of mind.

Image via Wikipedia

I started this blog as a way of helping people younger then me who are on the autistic spectrum. Help them avoid the pit falls I have experienced in life. Help people understand the nature of the autistic person and their needs and desires. Give positive advise and help.

This blog is named for the Robert A Heinlein book of the same name. It is so named because of its antagonist, Michael Smith. who was adapted by Martians when he was very young. This changed his way of looking at things, tainted it to a non-topical way of thinking.

His way of looking at the world, turned more into how a lot of people on the autistic spectrum look at things. A non-topical way of dealing life and its challenges. Allowing him to work outside the normal thinking then the of rest of the culture at large. Do you Grok?

A autistic tends to think differently then most people who are not on the spectrum. They think in specialized tunnel vision. One would be a visual thinker, like Grandin Temple, or me for instance. They might think in patterns. Say a physicist or a musician. Or they are word based and love things like creative writing.

They could have a combination of those. Then be bad in another area. For instance, be grate at art and suck at math and writing. Be a grate math person yet can’t see mental constructs of a house they might be building.

True you have people who are not on this spectrum who have these issues. What happens with Autistic, is more extreme. More intense and harsh. Yet this could lead to innovations. Were would we be with out the eccentrics like Nicholas Tesla or Albert Einstein, who showed a lot of autistic characteristics.

The spectrum is also extremely broad. You have the none-communicating types. You seen them. They rack back and forth. Very little or no none-variable communications. To the very smart autistic, like Bill Gates.

A little autism shoots peoples IQ to the stratosphere, were they are members of MENSA. More autism lowers it, to the point were they are on the level of a small child. Were they can’t function. You have issues all along this line.

Autistic work with this extreme Intensity in dedicated areas. Leaves other things out of a artistic life. Like being able to understand everyday things, like bookkeeping or emotional context of life. Personal relationships, and everything in between.

My biggest issue for example is girl friends. I desperately want one. With a deep ache in my heart. Like a bad country love song. For my entire life I have not been able to have a girl friend. You know how sad it is to be 31 and never had a girl friend when one desperately wants one.

Then you have others who are a-sexual. Who have no desire for a typical relationships. Not intrusted in the girls or boys. They don’t consider them selves gay, straight or bi. I have had friends on the spectrum who are like this.

Other issues that will manifest as I said above. Day to day house keeping. Being able to manage the household expanses. Being able to set priorities for the house and living. What is more important? Buying the iPad or paying the power bill. This happens a lot were they will buy the iPad instead. This lead it were some of them can’t live on their own.

People on the spectrum can have issues understanding the emotional, and body language and the of the people around them. Not being able to understand the context. This leads into my issues with girl friends. I would not know if a girl was interested in me unless she hit me with a 10x2 peace of wood. I am clueless. I can’t even flirt to save my life. To the point were the girls ask me if I am gay or not.

Obtaining jobs and keeping them, can be queued into the autistic persons inability to understand the context of life. For instance a none-autistic could give a vaig set of directions for a job to be done. Relaying on their emotions and body language to convey what they wanted you to do. This would confuse the heck out of me and folks like me. I end up trying to guess what they meant. Then turning in what my guess is. Then finding out it was nothing like what they wanted in the first place.

Their are a lot more issues I will cover and go more in depth in the coming posts. In my next post I will talk about me and my background. Stay tuned.