You don't need social skills

[Ylva]

My dad sent me this link. He is really into getting me a job, even though I don't know scheisse about coding.

I am not Penelope. Penelope is the person who wrote the article and I am not her.

The secret weapon for helping people with Aspergers succeed as adults | Penelope Trunk Careers

 

[xudo]

I found this really interesting, thank you for sharing.


I also like how the second comment on it was someone married to an aspie:

"Can you please explain me how Tanner’s wife manages to not feel hurt/to get over his callous behaviors (such as the 911 thing). My husband may not be to his level, but very insensitive at times, and I don’t take that so easily."

I feel personally that her main problem is seeing his behaviours as him being 'callous'...you've literally just read a post about how these people do these things because of ASD...and how they do not see them as wrong and STILL her first thought was that her partner is being deliberately callous.

 

[Mia]

This made me laugh so much, most of it applies to myself and my partner.

So Aspergers is more like a social not-caring disorder.

"Like, you don’t know your left and right”

I can’t remember what airline we’re on.

..sees all questions as an invitation for soliloquy, on any topic.

'I think numbers are a feeling.'

'then I must be a lying psycho idiot when I tell you I can’t do basic third-grade arithmetic.'

That person has to be good at doing the things the person with Aspergers is not good at doing.

That really is the point for me, my partner is good at things I'm not good at: Like paying bills on time, and doing math, driving, remembering what day it is.

 

[WereBear]

What an interesting read.

I made it to my late fifties before I ran into trouble. I was considered "normal but weird."

Still trying to figure out how that all happened; my current theory is that my childhood years were spent way out in the country; and I was good at school. I played with my brothers, read a lot of books, was able to find a few friends who liked what I liked.

Jr High and High school were horrible, but I managed to hang with an art crowd who accepted eccentricity.

My point is that at no time was I overly pressured to fit in. There was pressure from my mother and some from peers, but none of the shaming and screaming other people have to deal with. This let me craft an utterly intellectual approach to social dealings that worked so well, no one could tell.

Until it utterly exhausted me to the point of functioning like I had a traumatic brain injury. Because, in a way, I did.

 

[Judge]

Amusing article to say the least. Especially the part about TLC filming them. Duh! Without interacting with others I'm unfamiliar or uncomfortable with, being on the spectrum would not seem all that detectable:

"The most common reaction people have to someone who has a very high IQ and Aspergers is that that don’t have Aspergers. The most common thing I hear from Tanner’s wife and Jacob’s friend, “No one would ever believe what I deal with.” (Melissa’s version of this is, “Write that down. It has to go on the blog.”)

People have no idea what to do when confronted with someone who seems perfectly normal, and extraordinarily successful, but actually has Aspergers.

My husband was so frustrated when a reality TV crew filmed our family at the farm for three days. He thought people would finally see how crazy it is to live with an adult with Aspergers, but in fact, the show got canceled because TLC said “Penelope and her family are too normal.”

My husband said it’s because we never left our house and I can control my environment at home. He says the producers should have watched me shop in the grocery store because I run people over with my cart all the time. (To be clear, I have never noticed this but he says that’s the whole problem. He says people give me dirty looks like they want to kill me and I don’t bat an eye.)"