Personality vs Focus
TTRSage
Velociraptor
Joined: 30 Aug 2010
Age: 75
Gender: Male
Posts: 468
Location: Alone In My Aspie Cubbyhole
A short time ago a thought popped into my mind that seems to describe one big difference between NT and Aspie personalities quite well. Lets see what the rest of you think. This may be too oversimplified for some of you.
I was thinking about the way that the Catholics consider pride to be the most serious of the seven deadly sins since it the underlying basis for all of the others. But what is NT ego (and selfishness) if it is not pride. Many times in my mind's eye, I see NTs as little more than a pair of legs with a set of jaws on top that are flapping non-stop. One night years ago I even had a nightmare similar to this involving one brashly arrogant medic on the island where I used to work (another story). As I was thinking about all of this, the following simple basic difference between NTs and Aspies popped into my mind.
The NT personality is turned outward (extroverted) but they are focused inwards (ego).
The Aspie personality is turned inward (introverted) but they are focused outwards (perceptive).
So many times I see NTs who come rolling along with their egos in high gear, but so totally blind to what is going on around them that they would never know unless the sky fell and whacked them on the head... and then they would still question whether the sky actually had the audacity to fall on THEIR head. My mom is especially like this with jaws that never do stop flapping. As you tell her the answer to a question she asks, those jaws just flap more loudly to block it all out and later she says that you have never told her about that when she asks the same thing for the hundredth time over.
Aspies are so much more perceptive about the world around them than NTs. A good link about this follows but is limited to conversation only... I believe that this also applies in a much broader sense. I personally believe that this greater perceptiveness is more at the root of autism than any of the laundry list of "effects" that the so-called experts use to describe it (they ARE NTs after all, viewing autism from the outside looking in). Our brains simply do not filter out all the extraneous stuff that the NT brains do.
> http://life-with-aspergers.blogspot.com ... nd-nt.html
Anyhow, what do the rest of you think of this simple comparison.
I precisely know what you mean. Although I don't mean to stereotype, neurotypicals can be so full of themselves they are blinded by truth and reality. Pride is a fault and can result in bad observational skills.
To stereotype yet again, so many of us Aspies are exceptional in science/mathematics because of our advantage in being "turned inward and focused outwards," as you so astutely wrote.
If there's a trait I hate, it is the "I call it like I see it" mentality. Seemingly they don't see the other sides!
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The ones who say “You can’t” and “You won’t” are probably the ones scared that you will. - Unknown

