Does this annoy you too?

[Judge]

Suppose you had to administer drug tests where you work. There's a new employee you have known for years, with their whole future and their new family depending on the job. You know that they love poppy-seed muffins. You know that your testing machine can't distinguish between poppy seeds and heroin. Do you report their false positive as fact, as required in your job description?

That was an exact condition a cousin's husband had to deal with as a union representative and Amtrak railroad engineer. He fought aggressively (and won) for any union member who was in such an unfortunate position.

Though he also recommended everyone refrain from eating anything with poppy seeds in their own best interest.

 

[Misty Avich]

I actually like it when people interact with me positively. I also have no problem saying what i feel at the moment like "Fine, a bit tired"etc.

Yes, me too. It's okay to say how you're really feeling, like "fine, bit tired" or something, I see people responding like that all the time to each other.

I think a lot of autistic people think too much into this. I don't really see an issue with it. It's nice to be acknowledged rather than ignored. I say "you all right?" casually, sometimes I just get a smile, other times I get a "yeah good, and you?" and other times I get a sigh followed by a "not really, bit tired/cold/fed up", etc.

One thing people on the spectrum should realise is that social interaction is not black and white. There are no actual rules, so firmly fixating on the fact that you must never say more than a one-word answer when someone asks how you are is not a must. It's more down to intuition and not turning social interaction into rocket science.

 

[Judge]

This all still makes me chuckle thinking of a neurotypical coworker who would answer his phone, always followed by a rather abrupt, "Fine! Fine!" - a response that sounded anything but fine.

Being asked how he was really chaffed his hide. And it eventually cost him.

He was eventually laid off in a corporate cutback. So shocked by it all, he needed someone else to drive him home. But his people-skills were always suspect by management. Something he never gave a thought to, even when at times we chided him about it in his own best interest.

Always the toughest part of insurance underwriting for me. Not all the technical details and high-stakes decision-making, but rather the daily interactions you had with independent agents where you had to be at your best, whether you were or not. Far more stressful when I had to make personal visits to their office. An autistic nightmare for some I suppose.

 

[Judge]

Another consideration that IMO puts so many of us at a disadvantage. Our limited ability to both speak and respond effectively in most any face-to-face conversation- in real-time.

That we simply cannot keep up with social dynamics whatever they may entail in real time with our NT counterparts. When so many of us end up recalling a conversation at a later time, lamenting over what we either said, or didn't say at all.

Perhaps some kind of neurological deficit compared to NTs. A "delay" of sorts. I'm not sure.
I know I can instantly get momentarily sidetracked when a relative stranger asks me, "How are you?" Wondering why they asked, and whether they genuinely want to know. Which in real time I see as a liability and not any kind of asset.

Maybe what really annoys me in such circumstances is simply that I have to think about it, as opposed to a brief and scripted response.

 

[FayetheAspie]

Suppose you had to administer drug tests where you work. There's a new employee you have known for years, with their whole future and their new family depending on the job. You know that they love poppy-seed muffins. You know that your testing machine can't distinguish between poppy seeds and heroin. Do you report their false positive as fact, as required in your job description?

I would think that you should report both your knowledge about the muffins and the results of the test while also mentioning the limitations of the test so that the situation can be looked into further with an accurate picture of all the currently known facts taken into account.

 

[Jumpinbare]

I believed in Santa up until age 9. I'm glad I did. It made Christmas feel more magical. I wasn't bothered when I found out he wasn't real though. I just figured out for myself that it was our parents who bought us our presents.

My brother told me Santa had died, and that the guy we see in red suits are pretending to be him. I was maybe 4 at the time

 

[Judge]

I would think that you should report both your knowledge about the muffins and the results of the test while also mentioning the limitations of the test so that the situation can be looked into further with an accurate picture of all the currently known facts taken into account.

That's a must. Similar to considering certain conditions of being stopped by police using portable radar units which may be faulty in the results they render. A significant consideration in reasonable doubt if those conditions can be ascertained in court.

 

[Jumpinbare]

That's a must. Similar to considering certain conditions of being stopped by police using portable radar units which may be faulty in the results they render. A significant consideration in reasonable doubt if those conditions can be ascertained in court.

In the US, radar guns have to have current calibration and certification. If they aren't properly documented at the time of the citation, then they can't be used against you. Some police departments do not keep their equipment up to date.

 

[Shevek]

I believed in Santa up until age 9. I'm glad I did. It made Christmas feel more magical. I wasn't bothered when I found out he wasn't real though. I just figured out for myself that it was our parents who bought us our presents.

I think that Santa teaches kids to not always believe what they are told, even if they benefit. This early betrayal of trust does not really cause a loss, and improves family bonding. Disbelief signals the growth of reasoning for parents, and readiness for more worldly reality. It gives young kids exercise for their conscience as they imagine Santa watching. It helps kids have big hopes so they will strive to beat the odds.
I have always been pretty rigorous about truth, and was quite chagrined when I learned that I suffer from "depressive realism." It is psychologically healthy to overestimate one's chance of success, because when a rare opportunity does appear, the risk-taking optimists get all the benefit while the realists are still evaluating it and the pessimists are ignoring it.

 

[Shevek]

That's a must. Similar to considering certain conditions of being stopped by police using portable radar units which may be faulty in the results they render. A significant consideration in reasonable doubt if those conditions can be ascertained in court.

You folks have too much faith in people being willing and able to see facts and apply logic. Sometimes, they just don't have time, but there also some crazy blockages. There are pilots and geography teachers who believe in a Flat Earth, despite all instruction. Many innocent people have been executed.

 

[Judge]

You folks have too much faith in people being willing and able to see facts and apply logic. Sometimes, they just don't have time, but there also some crazy blockages. There are pilots and geography teachers who believe in a Flat Earth, despite all instruction. Many innocent people have been executed.

With my particular example, I'm not talking about "people" being able to see facts and apply logic. I'm taking exclusively about judges and others through in a court of law determining such things. (In my country most states do not allow jurors to decide traffic court matters.)

Those charged with making such calls with experience the rank and file public often do not possess. Same with labor negotiation/arbitration which inevitably involves our courts. That's their perpetual job. Willing and able to analyze the facts and apply logic in accordance with laws most people don't really understand or even think about.

 

[FayetheAspie]

You folks have too much faith in people being willing and able to see facts and apply logic. Sometimes, they just don't have time, but there also some crazy blockages. There are pilots and geography teachers who believe in a Flat Earth, despite all instruction. Many innocent people have been executed.

I know that there are a lot of people who just jump to conclusions and go with it regardless of facts or of how it affects others and that people have suffered because of this, but that doesn't mean we should just because someone else did. If anything knowing the potential consequences of not taking all facts into account should make us that much more determined to make the right choices ourselves to the best of our ability.

 

[Shevek]

With my particular example, I'm not talking about "people" being able to see facts and apply logic. I'm taking exclusively about judges and others through in a court of law determining such things.

Those charged with making such calls with experience the rank and file public often do not possess. Same with labor negotiation/arbitration which inevitably involves our courts. That's their perpetual job. Willing and able to analyze the facts and apply logic in accordance with laws most people don't really understand or even think about.

So, how did all those innocent men get executed? The majority of "experts" are actually deluded by the Dunning-Kruger syndrome into having confidence in their ability to do more than follow the herd. Judges have often been bribed. Ignaz Semmelweiz, who first campaigned for doctors to wash their hands was so reviled that he died in an insane asylum. When I decided not to go to University, there were still tenured Professors teaching about mythical "land bridges" instead of accepting continental drift.

 

[Judge]

So, how did all those innocent men get executed? The majority of "experts" are actually deluded by the Dunning-Kruger syndrome into having confidence in their ability to do more than follow the herd. Judges have often been bribed. Ignaz Semmelweiz, who first campaigned for doctors to wash their hands was so reviled that he died in an insane asylum. When I decided not to go to University, there were still tenured Professors teaching about mythical "land bridges" instead of accepting continental drift.

I was addressing only civil law examples. Not criminal ones. Very different dynamics in play over criminal law. Even then however, our judges and appellate courts have the potential of overturning bad decisions by bad juries. And even at the highest levels, federal judges can and are impeached. It's by no means perfect, but we do have checks and balances usually implemented by greater intellects than the masses. But of course with no guarantees.

If you seek perfection in society, you'd better start by searching for another species.

 

[Misty Avich]

I don't really get people who obsessively think all lying is bad or a sin or illegal or something. We've all lied sometimes and if it's not exactly hurting anyone then it's okay. You can't go through life without telling a single lie, or if you do then you can't expect the world should do the same.

If you pick your nose and someone asked you if you do, you most likely wouldn't admit to it, so you might say no. Does this mean you're a deceiving fraud who should never be trusted again if someone caught you picking your nose? No. It's because it's called a white lie.

I don't like when people get all worked up and angry because their parents made them believe in Santa when they were small. That sort of lie isn't exactly harmful, in my opinion, if your parents loved you naturally. I just see it as a story my parents told to me when I was very young (around age two) and I was in awe of this story because it just seemed so magical and then seeing all the lovely presents that appeared under the tree on Christmas morning made Santa feel all the more real. But what children care about more is getting presents, not who brings them. I know that my parents telling me a story about a famous imaginary man coming into my house to deliver presents in the night on Christmas eve and then staying up really late themselves to secretly put the presents there, means they really loved us.
Then on Christmas morning my parents would hug us and tell us that Santa had been, which made us run down the stairs really excitedly. I don't see that as deceiving parents. And the reason why we never really questioned the far-fetched story of Santa that much was because, like I said, we were just more grateful for the presents than the logic behind it. And that gratefulness continued even after we found out Santa wasn't real.

 

[Shevek]

Back on the topic of trivial, stylized conversations, I notice that my personality varies from grumpy to very friendly according to how much sleep I've had. I can easily imagine having to deal with a hundred people a day, and just not having the mental energy to see them as individuals, just using basic phrases to interact like a robot.
However, even in trivial sounding exchanges, there can be a lot of subconscious messaging going on. Once, I'd been warned I'd be meeting a manipulative person, and was hyper-aware. What we said sounded very unremarkable, just common phrases and topics for a first meeting, and only a few sentences each. However, just from minor variations in the script, we had three other conversations going on about what I'd put up with. (very little