What's the thing with the numbers and dates questions?

[Neia]

I love numbers. I really do.

Sometimes I see a combination of numbers in a mail package code, or in a license plate or a random phone number and think "Oooh. I like this one. Maybe I can use it in a password."

I still remember the first phone number I ever memorised at age 5. I remember almost every phone number I ever memorised.

I love math even if I haven't been that good at it since 4th grade. I love solving math problems. Simple ones though, not any past what I was able to learn in 9th grade and not all of what I was supposed to learn then

But dates?
I've been known to forget my own birthday.
Not that I don't know when it is, but because I never paid much attention to dates.

I get confused and have difficulty in answering these questions about numbers.

Do they mean what I think they mean? Or do they have some particular thought behind that I can't grasp?

 

[Outdated]

I'm much the same, I still remember the phone number we had when I was a kid. And my favourite aunt's phone number, long dead now. And the car's registration number. I'm hopeless at remembering people's names and often have no idea what day it is but numbers are different. I remember them without even trying.

I haven't put a tax form in for 20 years now but I still know my tax file number. And the numbers on my debit card, I have no need of PayPal. Anyone that knows me will make me turn my back when they type passwords in to their computer because if I can see their fingers I'll remember their password.

It's the same with strings of code and I can still remember my Win98 unlock code.

That sort of memory has been very handy to me through the years.

 

[jsilver256]

There's a lot of anecdotes for autistics forgetting and disliking birthdays, holidays, and anniversaries.

For me, they're disruptions to already-established routines. I don't want to plan gifts and I don't want to open presents and I don't want to go places, or worse, host parties.

I have a horrible working memory, to the point that we try and avoid me being alone. Example - recently, I had the kids to myself for a day. I made dinner three times because I started the separate cooking processes (pot, oven, microwave) and then completely forgot about them as soon as I stepped out of the room. If something is not in my visual field, the chances I'll remember it are very low.

This extends to emotional attachments. We experience relationships very differently. NTs love to show affection through remembering dates or significant occasions. But unfortunately, while I do care for others, I simply am not thinking of them if I am not directly interacting with them. I've been called selfish for that. But it's a consequence of how our memory is wired.

The numbers I do remember, are interesting in and of themselves without that emotional attachment. For example, one of my oldest friends was born on 4 July 1976. His birthday I do remember! Plenty of arbitrary numbers I remember from working memory, like locker combinations. But my birthday, my loved ones, my childrens'? Nahhhhh.

 

[Kayla55]

Excellent recount, I was exactly like this. Not sure if it was not strict enough gluten free or just age but I can't remember my sons date of birth, forget their age to buy sizes for clothes, I even have to check my guide for stretching as after a while I forget that too.
Hence I working less in computers as many things go in one ear, out other. And I just mess up.
But when I was younger I knew where all my code was, even how I wrote ocx
Memory like elephant

 

[Neonatal RRT]

I don't think this is an ability/inability thing. I might attribute it to what the brain perceives as "important".

For example, I might not remember a person's name primarily because I know I am unlikely to create an interpersonal bond with them. I don't have anything invested in this person. I might not remember a date or time because that meeting or event might not be "important". On the other hand, there are people, events, dates, phone numbers, etc. that are important for one reason or another, create emotional connections, etc. In this case, it may be difficult to actually forget. Another example, reading for pleasure versus reading information because it is critical and pertinent to something you actually need to learn, the later, because there may be consequences for NOT remembering, will more likely be remembered.

 

[Tired]

Remembering dates is overrated, I use calendars and reminders.

 

[Forest Cat]

The thing about dates that I mess up, is that when I'm dealing with Americans and they say for example 5/3/24, it means the third of May, 2024. But here where I live, it means the fifth of March, 2024. And that can cause all sorts of problems. Like me being two months early for example.

 

[jsilver256]

The thing about dates that I mess up, is that when I'm dealing with Americans and they say for example 5/3/24, it means the third of May, 2024. But here where I live, it means the fifth of March, 2024. And that can cause all sorts of problems. Like me being two months early for example.

And sometimes Europeans try to accommodate us back, so they use MM-DD-YY convention too and you don't now which is which

And then the Chinese use YYYY-MM-DD lol.

I use (day)-(abbreviated month)-(full year). For example: 30-Jun-2024 . Zero ambiguity!

 

[Outdated]

The thing about dates that I mess up, is that when I'm dealing with Americans and they say for example 5/3/24, it means the third of May, 2024. But here where I live, it means the fifth of March, 2024. And that can cause all sorts of problems. Like me being two months early for example. Americans and their weird dates, I have told them that they should do dates like normal people, day, month, year.

I like the Japanese system and I used it a lot in programming because it also stacks alphabetically in my file browser when I have many versions of the same file. In that system the 5th of march 2024 would be an 8 digit number - 20240305

 

[Neia]

I remember a few very important dates. Like when I went to adopt my dog, which happened to be on my 38th birthday. Best birthday gift ever!!!

I remember 9/11 because I was baptised on 9/11a few years before that dreadful day.

I remember my dad's birthday because for years that was all I had of him.

I remember my mom's birthday because if I didn't she'd be upset. Took me about 2 decades to memorise that though

Then I do remember my mom's and my dog's day of death. February 24 and March 23.
Not easy to forget that.

Otherwise if I don't set an alarm on my phone, I WILL forget everything.
Even to eat or drink.

 

[Outdated]

Why anyone would put the month first, followed by the day and then the year, is beyond me.

They still use the imperial measuring system too and there's only 2 other third world countries that still do that.

 

[Forest Cat]

They still use the imperial measuring system too and there's only 2 other third world countries that still do that.

Well, despite that whole dates and imperial system mess they have going on over there, I still like them.

 

[Neia]

I'm much the same, I still remember the phone number we had when I was a kid. And my favourite aunt's phone number, long dead now. And the car's registration number. I'm hopeless at remembering people's names and often have no idea what day it is but numbers are different. I remember them without even trying.

I haven't put a tax form in for 20 years now but I still know my tax file number. And the numbers on my debit card, I have no need of PayPal. Anyone that knows me will make me turn my back when they type passwords in to their computer because if I can see their fingers I'll remember their password.

It's the same with strings of code and I can still remember my Win98 unlock code.

That sort of memory has been very handy to me through the years.

Don't tell anyone but I still remember my very first email password, and sometimes reuse parts of it in other sites if I'm lacking imagination at tge time it's a 30-ish year old password, and that email doesn't even exist anymore. But the password had a cool sequence of numbers

 

[Outdated]

Don't tell anyone but I still remember my very first email password, and sometimes reuse parts of it in other sites if I'm lacking imagination at tge time it's a 30-ish year old password, and that email doesn't even exist anymore. But the password had a cool sequence of numbers

I do the same with the first ever internet password that was issued to me back in 96. A lot of my passwords are variations of the same theme.

 

[vergil96]

I have a hard time remebering both numbers and dates and I don't like numbers. I find them boring. I like mathematics, however, the abstract one.

 

[Outdated]

I have a hard time remebering both numbers and dates and I don't like numbers. I find them boring. I like mathematics, however, the abstract one.

I find it strange what I do and don't remember, I know there's a pattern there but every time I think I've worked it out it turns out I'm wrong.

I can't say I like numbers, it's just a function part of my brain does with no conscious thought from me. I pick up on a lot of things without knowing where or how I learned them, then there's other things that refuse to stick no matter how hard I try to remember. Sometimes that makes sense to me because in some way it's related to stressful memories, and other things just seem random.

 

[Neia]

I find it strange what I do and don't remember, I know there's a pattern there but every time I think I've worked it out it turns out I'm wrong.

I can't say I like numbers, it's just a function part of my brain does with no conscious thought from me. I pick up on a lot of things without knowing where or how I learned them, then there's other things that refuse to stick no matter how hard I try to remember. Sometimes that makes sense to me because in some way it's related to stressful memories, and other things just seem random.

Patterns...

I find myself looking for them everywhere. It can be annoying because if I find one that is almost right, but not quite, it gets on my nerves.

They can even be asymmetrical, but HAVE to make sense. They have to be symmetrically asymmetric. If that makes any sense.

 

[Outdated]

I find myself looking for them everywhere. It can be annoying because if I find one that is almost right, but not quite, it gets on my nerves.

I'm sometimes not all that quick to see a pattern, but it just stands out to me when there's something out of place in a pattern.

 

[Neia]

I'm sometimes not all that quick to see a pattern, but it just stands out to me when there's something out of place in a pattern.

It does jump out doesn't it in a rather unpleasant way.

 

[Neia]

So... in the questionnaires to screen us for autism and etc. If I can't understand what is being asked, does it count for when they ask if you have difficulty in comprehending another person's intentions?

Because I have to read and reread some of the questions, and really work hard at trying to get what is being asked.