this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2026
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Autism
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It’s no so much stacking that’s a notable symptom, it’s collecting, arranging, sorting and displaying, often without playing with the toys as intended. Instead the focus is more on neatly sorting by color / shape / size etc. and sometimes preferring to keep them in that configuration over playing with them.
This is similar to the tendency for some autistics to focus on the part of a toy, like spinning the wheels on a toy truck, instead of playing with the truck doing truck things.
While these are commonly associated with autism, these two examples are neither necessary or sufficient symptoms to diagnose autism. Meaning that you can see this symptom in an allistic (not autistic) person and it does not mean they have autism and you can have autism and not have these symptoms.
One thing common to many autistic people is ground up processing. Their minds do incredibly well with details (the spinning truck wheel, the defining characteristics of the toys they sort) but sometimes don’t see “the big picture” as easily. It can be an incredible strength in many ways, especially when embraced and harnessed instead of shamed and “corrected.”
Autistic person here:
Yep, you got it.
Its complex consistent pattern creation, its fixation on details/components.
And you're right to point out how its much more complicated than 'oh they do this thing so they must be autistic'.
But I will push back slightly against the 'ground up' thinking framework.
Its not so much that it needs to be details -> small concepts -> big concepts... its that the framework needs to be consistent and well defined, without exceptions or vaugeries.
Autistic people can totally understand something, starting from a big picture perspective, if you actually explain all the mechanistic concepts, from the top down to the bottom.
What neurotypicals often do is just forget to explain edges cases, ignore contradictions that they don't even realize are present, because they don't evaluate the concepts for potential contradictions that thoroughly.
That's the strength of the neurotypical thinking mode: its faster, less mentally taxing, less stressful. Less rigorous and accurate, but its faster, and works in most common cases. A 'good enough' heuristic.
Thats why autistic people often struggle with socializing: They're getting a whole bunch of different feedback from different people with different personalities who have different uses and meanings for the same words, who have different opinions about what is or is not appropriate in what kind of situation/context, who have different kinds of facial expressions, body language, tone shifts, etc.
This is very hard to consolidate into a consistent, stable, detailed, non-contradicting framework for how to socialize, because everyone is actually 'playing' by slightly different rules... but neurotypicals do not realize the extent to which that is true.
What is much easier to do, for an autist, is to model a single person's 'social rules', or a small group of similar people's 'social rules'.
We call that 'masking'.
Then you just switch masks, switch social etiquette rules, when you are around a different group.
Its easier to have a few, smaller, consistent models of socializing, than it is to try and ... consolidate them into a sort of grand, unified, totally consistent socializing framework.
... Because when you try to do that, you realize more and more contradictions.
Wow I might have to save your comment because I've been trying to explain why I think the way I do and why things annoy me my entire life without having the vocabulary for it and you just summed it up so well. Thank you!
Happy to help!
I'm... getting to be closer to 40, than 30.
I've just been doing this 'being alive while autistic' thing for a fair amount of time now.
Yeah I'm def on the 40 side of my 30s too. Crazy how time gets away from you.
Thanks for the additional detail here! I knew I was making a broad generalization with “ground up” and don’t mean to imply that if you start with details (ground) you never make it to the big picture. As you said, more data and examples are necessary and while the overarching structure can eventually be seen, autistics are less like to wave away outliers as quickly as neurotypicals.
Still, I think it’s been well documented that in general autistics much more likely to utilize inductive reasoning whereas neurotypicals rely more on deductive reasoning. Both have strengths and downsides and work best in combination.
It’s almost as if we need each other and should cherish the differences that make us better together! In my experience, that means NTs need to adjust more to autistics because autistic people are constantly adjusting to a society that overvalues NTs.
No prob!
As with the other reply, yeah I don't mean to be hostile or accusatory, and I'm aware that ... well, not everyone wants or has time to write a small essay, lol.
And yes, I would agree that generally, autists do tend more toward inductive than deductive reasoning.
More data, more understanding of the concepts at play, how they interact, basically equals you can build a better model, which then means you can make better deductions.
And yes, I agree that NTs and NDs should work together... this is I guess my own oversimplification, but I see it as like an rpg game with different player classes: A differentiated but well working team can leverage each other's strengths, compensate for each other's weaknesses.
There are certainly many, many situations where I find myself having to... basically override what my brain is trying to do, and make a snap decision based on my 'gut', which I fundamentally do not like doing, but sometimes, timing is more important than precision.
The major downside to the autistic... brainmode or whatever, as I see it, is decision paralysis, overanalysis or fixation that can be unproductive or detrimental.
So... it is kinda like different fundamental 'brainmodes' just are specced differently, optimized for different things, so to speak.
Anyway... yes it would be nice if NTs more broadly were... basically just a bit more patient, open-minded... and actually just listened.
Probably the most harmful general stereotype about autists is that they can:t control their emotions, or, they just don't have them at all.
No, that's not it at all.
Its that we routinely have emotions that result from chains of thoughts that... basically just don't often occur in NTs, unless they're really focusing.
That, and so much 'normal' NT emotional expression... is basically what we tend to view as a performance. So, when we are tired, or just really don't care that much, honestly, or are focused on something other than doing the dance that accompanies a particular social mask... we're flat.
I am convinced that to get a phd and do science, you are better off being autistic.
... well you can't really choose to be or not be autistic, whereas you can choose to pursue a PhD or not.
(Cough, assuming money is not an issue, cough)
And tons of people who are not autistic, do have PhDs.
And and! You can do science, learn the scientific method, apply it more broadly to how you interact with the world... without a PhD, without being autistic.
Well, in most reputable universities you can take a phd program for free, indeed, they pay you. (yes, also is US). It is understood in academics that "you should not buy your way to a phd, but earn it".
I said the thing about the autism, because I've seen a loooooot of people that I strongly suspect are in the spectrum. And "the good ones", the ones that are truly remarkable researchers, have spent their lives obsessing with every single detail of a certain area.
Again, not a law, but in that context it seems to be, to some degree, an advantage.
Oh I agree with you in that, being detail and consistency focused are autistic traits that are very helpful to complex research, and yeah, you're probably not wrong, a lot of PhDs probably are on the spectrum.
I guess I'm just trying to be more broadly encouraging of anyone who wants to pursue research, education, learning the scientific method.
Autism is not a hard requirement, is what I'm trying to say.
The flip side of autism being a benefit for PhDs is that, well, autists tend to hyperfocus, burnout, snd not be so great with social skills...
... and social skills are often quite a necesssry component of becoming a PhD, overfocus and then burning out can be quite detrimental to the pursuit.
... What I am aware of is a paradigm where, when you are pursuing your PhD, you teach undergrads, usually for not really enough money to comfortably pay your CoL + all the loans you likely had to take to get to the academic level where you would be considered for all that.
That's the trick. Get your bachelor in a real country that cares about educating their inhabitants for little or no money.
Then the phd is paid by ~~selling your soul to the system~~ teaching kids and ~~doing all the work of a lecture for breadcrumbs~~ assisting with assignments