Obsession with Parts of Objects

[bentHnau]

Is obsession with parts of objects just a childhood ASD symptom? How might it manifest in an adult?

 

[Loomis]

Missing the big picture is one way an adult can have obsession with "parts of an object." Focusing too intently on minutia could become a problem. For example, suppose you are working on the analysis of costs for the roll-out of a multimillion dollar project and you become obsessed with one small aspect of the analysis spending an inordinate amount of time trying to fine tune it. Your execution of the overall task would become suboptimal.

 

[bentHnau]

Focusing too intently on minutia could become a problem.

Oh crap. That definitely sounds like something I do.

 

[Loomis]

Oh crap. That definitely sounds like something I do.

Me too.

 

[Autism]

Me too, but then if we are supposed to work on a large problem, imagine what happens if we do not solve the small problems first. I always think that if we don't solve the minute little things in a big plan the big plan collapses.

I always get into the little nitty gritty first and will not solve the big problem unless I know the little nitty gritty first, no ifs and buts.
Here in America I am forced to work in the exact opposite way: everyone tells you: you need to do this, get it all done and get it done fast. Never mind if it does not make any sense. If one percent does not make any sense I do not want to bother with the other 99 percent.

Is that Aspie or the exact opposite?

 

[MoparThunder]

If we're talking about physical parts of things, Yes, All the time. As a mechanic i am always taking things apart whether its for fun or for work, and sometimes i will just find a part that fascinates me, which drives me to be distracted from my job and learn how different things work, and what their purpose is.

 

[square_peg]

Missing the big picture is one way an adult can have obsession with "parts of an object." Focusing too intently on minutia could become a problem. For example, suppose you are working on the analysis of costs for the roll-out of a multimillion dollar project and you become obsessed with one small aspect of the analysis spending an inordinate amount of time trying to fine tune it. Your execution of the overall task would become suboptimal.

Happens to me constantly at work

 

[MovieMike]

I wouldn't say I ever get obsessed with parts of objects, although they can become a part of my stimming. For example, there are two screws on my bedside table (btw, I have absolutely no idea how they got there), and sometimes I pick them up and rub them against each other to feel the vibrations. The strange thing is I usually don't notice what I'm doing until I'm already doing it. It doesn't just have to be those screws though, it can be just about anything from a hair that fell off my head to a pen.

 

[Nitro]

I always applied KISS to everything I ever did (keep it simple stupid) minor details are often what holds up a project,not the "big picture" items...most of the world is lost trying to fix overall problems instead of important tiny details that are the real reasons for overall failures.
Minutia can be distracting to some,but often very important to performance in many cases. I love to race cars and minutia plays a huge role in winning and consistency...if I decided to ignore small details,my machines would be average and just stirred into the mix of losers and failures.
Nobody ever remembers the losers of a competition,only the winners.
If a project is so involved that it takes a team to complete it, I see a failure in management of the project,not a failure of one individual who went too detailed on one part that was wasting time on his pet focus...if Edison would have had his way with electricity,we would be using direct current to power our world...instead,Tesla was a remarkable man who had a real vision of alternating current that is in use today...Edison was a failed manager who only thought of how to make money,not what was practical and progressive.

I am sure these thoughts still apply today to any project in any area.

 

[tree]

I didn't see how the attribute of being concerned with details pertained to me until qwerty asked me how long it takes to finish a quilt. I said I didn't know.

What I do know is that I like to put colors next to each other. I have rarely wanted to "make a blanket/quilt"---that sounds like such a dry activity.

I draw a picture of how the pieces are supposed to fit together and code them so I don't mess it up, but I have never gone from thinking of a design, to cutting the cloth, to pursuing all the steps in order and arriving at a finished product.
(That doesn't mean no quilts have been produced. I have given away 4 or 5 dozen, so far.) It does mean that, at any time, I have many items in parallel degrees of progress.

It kind of creeps me out talking about "making quilts." I like to cut up cloth and use as much of it as I can, all the scraps. In fact, I think I like the scrap pieces the best because I have to think of how to put them together to make something new.

 

[Progster]

I sometimes get obsessed with small details, but I'm not sure whether this is about seeing the big picture as others have suggested, or whether it s an OCD-like symptom. When I was a child, I had a storybook, and there was a hamster illustrated in the book. For some reason I really liked the pattern of whiskers drawn on the hamster's pouch. I really liked to just look at it, it was pleasant to look at. I also like to spin wheels on cars, and other classic textbook symptoms. When I was an older child I developed obsessions with random objects, for example, sardines. I hated sardines. What they had ever done to me I don't know, I just knew that I hated them.

As an adult, little things can bug me, such as they way people form certain letters in their handwriting, the way supermarkets will pack things into bags and use far more bags than necessary, I have two or three different shape of cutlery in the draw but I only use one kind... these things are details in part of a whole, but for others they are trivial and while they do have preferences, they are not things they would normally make a fuss about.

 

[tree]

Spinning wheels...that reminded me of the pastime of pushing the pedals on a bicycle that was upside down.
In my neighborhood, as a child, this was an alternate way to use a bike. I thought it was very interesting.
I liked watching the boys do that. I think it was called 'making buttermilk.'

I didn't do it with my bike. My parents didn't like it.

Girls 'walked' their bikes. It was a social occasion. Walking with another girl, pushing the bike along, instead of riding it.