How do we "see things differently"?

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I question whether I enjoy something that the current world has to offer or if I'd be happier doing my own thing. Most of the time, I decide that I'd be happier doing my own thing. I don't see the point of going with the flow or liveng in the present if it's not going to make me happy.

When it comes to problem solving, I notice most people just want to smooth things over or resolve the most immediate or obvious problem, whereas I tend to look at things much more systematically...how does this influence that and so on down the line to create a larger pattern. I can think through many different steps or processes similar to how you would try to think several moves ahead in a chess game (I can't play chess anymore to save my life but used to be really good at it.) I try to see how everything works together, like when you open up a clock and see how the gears turn together (I am rather good at fixing clocks.) I tend to look at everything almost as if it has mechanical parts that all have to fit together, even social processes and interactions. Which is not to say that I am emotionally detached from it, rather I can get very emotional about it when a process is breaking down or not functioning as it seems like it should.

I remember it said on my ADHD diagnosis report that I had exceptional problem-solving skills...I don't know how often it is seen as a virtue though, because it just seems to irritate people when I point out how/why something isn't working. From my perspective I believe most people would rather just live in denial and tell each other how great something is (or just complain and act like nothing can be done) rather than actually try to solve a problem.

I also notice that where other people jump to make assumptions very quickly, I tend to wait and try to reserve judgment until I find out more information. I can think through several possibilities - again similar to playing chess and fast-forwarding through hypothetical moves - but I find it very difficult to act on an assumption until I have tested it thoroughly and eliminated most of the other possibilities. I don't know exactly why my mind works this way, but it feels completely natural to who I am and how I see things.

I have been told I see things differently. Maybe it means how we process things and how we view things and perceive what goes on. To be fair, everyone views things differently so I told my mother this when I was twenty because I wanted to understand why it was such a big deal for me than it is for other people. Her response was while we all do see things differently, everyone ends up in the same direction despite taking a different pathway but I would go the other way and no go the same direction as everyone else so they needed to help me with that so I could go the right direction.

my way of viewing things is not often compatible with other folks. more "stranger in a strange land" stuff.

I fit the description given by Dr. Tony Attwood quite well. My main goal in life is in the pursuit of scientific knowledge and to try to solve problems that arise in my path. I have been this way since I was a kid. It took me a while to fully understand how radically different others thought about their life goals, or lack of them. It just did not register with me that some people go through life without an overall purpose in mind.

As for emotions, I feel them, but I am not good at expressing what I really feel inside to others. My immediate family (and some close friends) understands me on this issue. Many times when I am with strangers I freeze up and express nothing when quite the opposite is true inside.

I just thought of something else to add to the discussion. There have been points in my life where I have been ahead of time on certain technologies and concepts, sometimes by decades. While many would like to have this feeling, it can be a double-edged sword.

For instance, I once tried to express my idea in a college physics class on a new way to possibly make "super heavy" elements without needing a cyclotron or linear accelerator to do so. (It has the potential to go far above element 118.) The conventional procedure is to take two atoms, ram them together as hard as you can (one can be a target also) and look at the pieces to see what you potentially made. After I explained my idea, I was made fun of because everyone could not see my point of view, as it was not "from the textbook" thinking. Fast forward twenty years in time, a recently published experiment proved something quite valuable and that I still was on the right track of thinking about the process. It is these occurrences in my life that make me feel the most alone.

that is the thing about dealing with lesser minds.

That would be an explanation to the apalling way, humans traditionally treat animals.

You mean by humanizing them?

Bullfighting, inhuman slaughter, beating them, live roasting of dogs, leaving them on the road, leaving them in a cage in the middle of nowhere - and the list goes on....

Okay, lot of NTs are against that too. That is why we have animal rights and laws about animal abuse but yet animals labs don't count . Now you go to jail for animal abuse. Some people have even kidnapped other peoples pets because they were being abused and kept them.

Some people are just sadists and don't care. I was appalled that bullfighting is actually okay in some cultures and people were okay with that. At least it's illegal here in the US.

Zoo´s .

What's wrong with zoos?

You do realize that if we just released them in the wild, those animals wouldn't even survive because they have been too dependent on humans to feed them and take care of them and protect them and if they have lived in a zoo their whole life from birth, they wouldn't even know how to survive the wild. That is why they get euthanized when a zoo gets shut down and they couldn't relocate them to another zoo.

Wild animals shouldn´t be in there in the first place. Hmm I´ve been reading about all those tragic cases with animals that are malnourished and used doped senseless as decor in stupid selfies. Of course, there are good zoo´s. These things just got to me.

Most NT´s are good people as are most Aspies.

It is the raw, primitive human view on animals as "material" for us to use, that leads to apalling results.
In societies with traditions of that kind, people are just as loving parents and humans as everywhere else. The pain, inflicted upon non-verbal fellow creatures, just never occur to them as evil. Some cultures even think, that suffering of the animas will heighten the quality of their meat.
That is, what I can´t understand or accept about humans!