Purpose-Driven and Asperger's

[Unspired]

Do you feel like every action must have a strong purpose behind it, or else it's meaningless? I feel that this is one of the defining features of who I am and how I act, and why I struggle having a conversation about the weather.

Is this a common symptom in Aspies? It seems I've always had the habit of getting to the root of what things are and what they imply. I think that's why I picked up Mathematics at a much higher rate than my classmates; because I understood the core concepts and understood the purpose of what the teacher said, rather than just the content. It's as if philosophy, logic and the pursuit of truth came built-in for me.

Anyone else have experiences like this, on a more extreme or a more subtle level?

 

[The Penguin]

I agree with you view and also am a person excel very well in math in school that I got two math awards. I also went to college for software development. Great post

 

[Harrison]

In my early years it certainly felt that way.

I needed to understand on a level that my peers didn't venture to, this caused a great deal of anxietyand stress as I was constantly 'chasing' first principles.

As I've aged I have also learnt to step back, to enjoy something for what it is in that moment. It has made it easier for me to study as I no longer always have the need to pull the thing apart. I base this on a decision I made in my forties that goes 'Just because I can do this doesn't mean I have to do this'.

 

[King_Oni]

I tend to be a bit more goal oriented I guess. Perhaps purpose driven.. yet not necessarily purpose driven in that everything has to be a rational and important thing. Yet everything I do somehow has a reason why I'm doing it. I'm not doing stuff... "just because". And thus a conversation with someone "just because" seems to be silly to me.

I guess at times I feel a bit more impulse driven and things end up "because I felt doing it"... which in turn gives new experiences and perhaps a good idea on why something is a bad idea in general, lol. It's a learning experience if nothing else. That by itself probably prevents me from making the same mistake over and over though.

I don't value logic as much in that I am great in math. Though perhaps I just apply my own notion of logic and what works for me, rather than some universally acknowledged axiom.

 

[SyAn]

Yep, that's me all over. I do things in a certain way because it's the most efficient way to be done, and I used to find it incomprehensible that not everyone saw the merit.

With experience and age I have learned and try very hard (not always successful ) not to give unsolicited advise on how things could be done faster/better as this is seldom appreciated.

Also and most importantly, the best way for me is not necessarily the best way for someone else .

Philosophy and the pursuit of truth I adore, and my understanding and patience for superficiality is truly negligible.

I guess I love working with spreadsheets so much because they react so beautifully to logic .

 

[Sass]

I can be very purpose driven, but I've also learnt the purpose of the conversational things we often think of as inane or not useful – comfort. People (all people) tend to stick to things they know about when chatting (which I think is why a common thread with aspies is that we often get looked at oddly for chatting about much more involved/complicated things), and things they are comfortable commenting on. Physics, weather, tv shows, whatever, they all serve the same purpose, and I think it's comfort, at least a comfort in the known quantity. Who doesn't like to be comfortable sometimes?