Autistic traits?

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I've always felt slow, cognitively, I got good grades but with video games I'm always bad, like the last one to learn something.
However, I was quick when I found something that interested me.

Other traits are, flapping my hands when I make myself really excited. which I'm good at masking/ don't really do outside if I'm attentive.
Unfortunately I'm very inattentive, especially when I need to focus on work that doesn't interest me.

Are these really autistic traits?
Am i wrong?

Waiting for my next doctor appointment to check, but your feedback is appreciated.

Sounds about right. I always considered myself a bit of a slow learner. Doesn't mean I can't learn things though. I just have to take my time .

Can't say I'm particularly good at video games either. I enjoy them from time to time though.

Sounds about right. It is good you are seeking a formal evaluation rather than guessing.

I'm a slow thinker, too, but the quality of that thought is fairly high. It has served me well in my chosen profession (engineering). Not so good for real-time conversation, though.

Welcome to the club.

I have a slow processing speed.

Is slow thinking a trait? I am a slow thinker and a slow talker, but even though I am a slow thinker, I more then make up for it by being a very deep thinker. I am good at thinking deeply in picture form. There is something about visual thoughts that my mind grabs onto. It can be good or bad depending on the situation. For example, I am good at designing things or thinking ahead, and sometimes I see pattersn that others fail to see, but being a visual thinker does have negatives too. If I want to use a power tool I can be too petrified to use it as I can visually imagine in detail what would happen if things went wrong! I tend to go overboard in health and safety due to this.

^^ It is not a good idea to imagine using a tool badly. Your body will treat it as a rehearsal. I have used power tools all my life, and my only injury was something quite unforeseen - obscure even to a safety-mad wood shop teacher, but it would not have happened if I had not been distracted by wondering if my saw was too loud for a new neighbour.

I saw my Dad catching a few injuries due to him not being careful enough.. From cutting his tendon in his foot with a chainsaw to him electrocuting himself. Most of the time I had warned him and he ignored my advice or told me to go away etc, and then when it happened I would be like "I told you so!"... which probably didn't help! (I would usually have to run after saying that... Though it would usually involve telling my Mum so he would have some help).
My one brother who is a few years younger is fairly sensible (Though he has to be careful as he has back problems (Crumbling spine)). My youngest brother is like my Dad. You can't tell him! I am often on edge watching the risks he takes! Often I have to leave as I just can't watch!


But for me a typical example is with my past using a tiny thin cutting disc on a minidrill. I was cutting through model railway track as if it wasn't there. Zing, zing, zing... Straight through each time.
Then I thought "What if that was my finger?" I never used that cutting disc again!
I do use those carbodium discs which can shatter and fly off in all directions, but they cut track much slower so I feel safer with them. I always use goggles when cutting though.

I practically made a living with those little disks for a while, doing intricate brasswork. The nearest I had to a permanent injury was from slipping with a knife, but cuts heal far faster than slipping onto a sanding belt and taking off deep skin cells.

You just described me to a T and I'm autistic with a capital A.

Except the hand flapping. I wring my hands when excited or nervous. Not that there's really any difference between the two.

Ooer! Would not like to injure myself.

I crushed my finger when in the last job and I could not get it seen to as
1. It would mean a hospital visit where I am prone to shut down as hospital smells are a trigger
And...
2. If I went through the official proceedure I would get a shutdown, so the only way to prevent myself from shutting down was to shut off the pain in my mind (It went numb so it was easy) and carey on working without using that finger. In other words ignore it. Though for weeks I could not use that finger.... It works now though even though the bone has been crushed.
Actually crushed another finger the same way doing a similar task and I could not officially log it that time either!

Trying to discuss practical economic solutions to the American unemployment crisis with my friends, I found we were talking past each other, and it made me think of this topic.

It is often said that "language determines thought" (per linguistic relativity), a hypothesis I always dismissed out of hand as obviously false. Five seconds of introspection was sufficient to contradict it, but I suspect it might actually be true for the majority of NT's, making freedom from linguistic relativism a possible "autistic trait".

When I try to discuss economic solutions, people frequently pick a dysfunctional economic model, assume I am speaking of that model, and then put words in my mouth and debate against points I never brought up, and would never bring up. When I pointed out that they were committing a straw man fallacy, they seemed genuinely perplexed as to how this could be so, and/or denied it.

As discussion progressed, it became obvious that they had a limited vocabulary of concepts with which to discuss economics, and pigeon-holed any idea into that limited selection of concepts.

It's frustrating, but also insightful.

Wikipedia has a pretty good article reviewing linguistic relativity. I'm going to mull it over and rethink how I try to approach discussing the topic:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity

Apparently I'm not autistic.