Observant?

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Ever since I was a very little child I noticed I am a very good observer.... like I'd take notice of even the little details, for example. I remember distinctly remembering quotes from NPCs from certain video games, for example.

Nowadays I'm incredibly observant of my environment, and I notice that I observe a lot of people's emotions, what they say, how they interact with each other, etc. In fact my observations have made me a major philosophy and sociology nerd.

Anyone else just very.... observant?

I always find screws in the courtyard where I work and pick them up so people don't get a flat tire.

I'm very observant of small detail. But lack awareness of my overall surroundings. So it's like I will notice a small insect on a light post in extreme detail, but then step into moving traffic.

I'm good at observing and noticing details and things around me, I also enjoy it so much. I also love philosophy .

Yes, I think so. And I also had a good science teacher in middle school who taught me that observation was important.

Yes - one day at work, when walking by a row of product to be tested, I noticed a part up side down. It had happened several times before, I just thought everybody else was lazy, but on that particular day, I started wondering, is there something 'different' about me? And I don't mean above average intelligence, I mean, 'different'. This was before I found out.

Relative to those around me it seems that I notice different things than they do about a given environment, and often more things overall.

In one sense everyone sees things a little bit different, but in this case it seems that I see things very different.
This is one of the outward effects lead to my conclusion that aspies perceive reality significantly different than NTs, and has caused me to be fascinated with the internal mechanisms responsible for this.

I'm somewhat like that. I can be pretty observant about my surroundings, but what I observe is often of little interest to other people. For example, when traveling cross country, I take note of changes in vegetation as one drives North or South. Driving toward New England, you start seeing spindly white birches on I-81 in northern Pennsylvania. As you go further North, the white birches start to get larger. When driving South, I notice when vegetation starts changing to more tropical flora. I'm generally more interested in the vegetation changes than I am in whatever human activity is going on.

I am remarkably observant. I say remarkably, because many times throughout my 37 years people have remarked about it. I observe, and then ponder, things that other people don't even know are things. It seems perfectly normal to me but frankly it does result in some awkward conversations when I start to talk about a conclusion and then have to explain why I think something, when often the people I'm talking to aren't even aware that the initial observations were something that existed. (LOL, that last sentence makes me sound like a crazy person)

Quick story: in my high school years, I was very heavily involved in Native American studies and archaeology in the Northern Great Basin area of the US, as part of a special interest with after-school enrichment center for gifted children. Our work created the first State Archaeological Park in Idaho, and led to the preservation of tens of thousands of petroglyphs, stone structures and other permanent artifacts from the Northern Paiute tribes who have inhabited the area for the last 10,000 years. It was an amazing experience. Through that work, the leader of our group became acquainted with the then-present Chief of the tribe on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation, and requested that the Chief give some of the more involved students tribal names as they would in the old days. Without my knowledge, our leader described personality traits of each of us (as that was the traditional means of assigning a name) and without ever meeting me, he gave me the name "Moombich" which in their language means "Owl". He wrote in a letter that it was due to my powers of observation and wisdom beyond my years. "Owls are observant and wise, because they see in the dark and contemplate their surroundings in the quiet solitude of night", he wrote. Although I do not ascribe any particular spiritual meaning to their ways or old religion, the name and identity struck me as prescient coming from a stranger I had never met. That was 20-odd years ago, and I still carry that particular characteristic and an affinity for owls today.

Occasionally I get fixated on minute observations, like a pattern of behavior in a person I don't know or a wall hanging that is crooked by one degree (I have to interrupt conversations to fix those, because I can't even focus on talking or listening until it's straight...even I think that one's odd.)

Overall I view this as a gift, and I've come to like it and accept that it sometimes does make me seem like an odd duck. Last week I was praying about my ASD and IQ (and accompanying major depression), and I asked God why He made me like this and what He wanted me to do with/about it, and expressing frustration about constantly missing social or interpersonal cues from other people and the ways in which that complicates relationships. As I was praying, I picked up my pen and started to write in my journal without really thinking about it. When I was done, I had written this sentence: "We are relieved of the burden of seeing what others see, so that we may be blessed to see what they do not." - God's answer to my prayer. If I ever get a tattoo, it will be that.

I relate to you.
One time I was standing at the traffic lights and saw a ferret a woman was holding across the street and I got so "sucked up" into that image that I didn't saw the lights turning green and people who crossed the road came to me saying that the light was green and I could cross the road.
These things happen a lot.
This is a reason I have trouble riding a bicycle because I get "sucked up" into small environmental details that I lack awareness to the road and I have minor accidents though as a kid I had accidents with cars involved because of that.
I tried back riding a bike a couple month ago, but finally I cannot get grip onto this problem and gave up again.

Detail orientation is not uncommon for autistics. I am very detail-oriented myself.