Significant Facts

[Shevek]

Since a very young age, I have had a strong sense of which facts were more significant, and what information was worth remembering. The Golden Rule had turned out to be the key to not getting into trouble I hadn't been specifically been warned about. I assumed that applied logic was pretty much how everyone else operated too. The weight of a litre of water was worth remembering. The date of the Battle of Waterloo could stay in the books, not my head. If the new car got 10% better mileage, it was important to find out how, and check for other instances of it. If the new car came in Lime Green now, I didn't care.
I loved the Sherlock Holmes books, where we'd read a story, and then see how Sherlock would find the clues that mattered. One time, he pointed out to another detective that a dog had not barked around the time of the crime. Only Sherlock saw that this meant that the criminal must have been someone the dog knew well, which set him quickly on the right track.
However, I notice that most people don't think like that. They might turn around at a 'Bridge Out" sign, or run from cries of "Fire!" but point out that they are about to ruin their budget, and they won't even check their figures.
One thing that brings this up is that I always assumed that if I told medical people that I had a rare pre-existing condition that had to be minded so closely that it was controlling my life even to the point of moving to their small as a complete stranger to give the best odds of survival, they would take it seriously, but the last time I had to seek treatment, they behaved as if I was just being goofy and could be bullied into conformity.
Anyone else out there with a mind too logical for easy communication?

 

[AspieChris]

Anyone else out there with a mind too logical for easy communication?

Happens to me constantly. I have learned to dumb it down when I’m talking to a doctor, mechanic, or other professional. I give them enough information to feel like they solved it on their own so that I can get the results I needed them for.

 

[Jumpinbare]

Anyone else out there with a mind too logical for easy communication?

I view "too logical" along with "thinking too much" as oxymorons. Complete logic and fully executed thoughts are always to be desired.
I reluctantly acknowledge that far too few people operate this way, and instead operate primarily emotionally, making communicating with them difficult

 

[Shevek]

Happens to me constantly. I have learned to dumb it down when I’m talking to a doctor, mechanic, or other professional. I give them enough information to feel like they solved it on their own so that I can get the results I needed them for.

I can be very good at just feeding someone the relevant facts when I know what response can be expected by someone going by the book. What can we do about a situation that they have not been specifically trained for? High school physics and a few back-of-envelope calculations reveal huge opportunities for energy savings, but "that's not the way we do it."

 

[AspieChris]

I have had a few back surgeries and often need medication. I decide what I need, make the appropriate Dr appointment, tell them what symptoms I’m having (that would normally be treated by that medication), and let the Dr come to the magical conclusion that there’s a pill that might help. And if he guesses wrong, I just say that I have had that one and had a bad reaction.

 

[The Pandector]

Since a very young age, I have had a strong sense of which facts were more significant, and what information was worth remembering. The Golden Rule had turned out to be the key to not getting into trouble I hadn't been specifically been warned about. I assumed that applied logic was pretty much how everyone else operated too. The weight of a litre of water was worth remembering. The date of the Battle of Waterloo could stay in the books, not my head. If the new car got 10% better mileage, it was important to find out how, and check for other instances of it. If the new car came in Lime Green now, I didn't care.
I loved the Sherlock Holmes books, where we'd read a story, and then see how Sherlock would find the clues that mattered. One time, he pointed out to another detective that a dog had not barked around the time of the crime. Only Sherlock saw that this meant that the criminal must have been someone the dog knew well, which set him quickly on the right track.
However, I notice that most people don't think like that. They might turn around at a 'Bridge Out" sign, or run from cries of "Fire!" but point out that they are about to ruin their budget, and they won't even check their figures.
One thing that brings this up is that I always assumed that if I told medical people that I had a rare pre-existing condition that had to be minded so closely that it was controlling my life even to the point of moving to their small as a complete stranger to give the best odds of survival, they would take it seriously, but the last time I had to seek treatment, they behaved as if I was just being goofy and could be bullied into conformity.
Anyone else out there with a mind too logical for easy communication?

Absolutely! I too loved Sherlock Holmes, and early on ascribed to his Attic Theory of memory. Einstein stated the same principle in saying he never memorized anything he could look up. I believe this was ripped off by innkeeper Butterbur in Bree, who moaned how one thing pushes out another.

Don’t get me started on doctors, who for the most part have already done all the learning they intend to do outside accredited continued education classes and keep stuffing stuff into the attic unaware the roof has blown off.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

I loved Sherlock Holmes too and read and reread them all. I used to have a very good memory for almost everything. That went away when I developed chronic illnesses about 30 years ago.
My memory is slowly returning and I can remember things by "walking back" in my mind until I get the thing was was looking for.

I have no ability to see things in my mind, so the memory palace way of making memories does not work for me.

When I learn something new and importnat, I remember it. It sticks well in my mind. But I don't keep on file where I learned it. This makes interactions with others difficult, because they don't believe what I am saying, and I can't remember the citation.

I have had a lot of trouble with doctors. I currently have one I have to pay a lot for, but I do it because continuity of care is important and she knows my history and listens to me. I mostly listen to her, too.

 

[Shevek]

Absolutely! I too loved Sherlock Holmes, and early on ascribed to his Attic Theory of memory. Einstein stated the same principle in saying he never memorized anything he could look up. I believe this was ripped off by innkeeper Butterbur in Bree, who moaned how one thing pushes out another.

Don’t get me started on doctors, who for the most part have already done all the learning they intend to do outside accredited continued education classes and keep stuffing stuff into the attic unaware the roof has blown off.

I remember Sherlock intending to forget that the Earth orbits the Sun, and I'm sure that if I knew everything about the history of music and art, I'd know less about physics, but when it comes to original work, a fact in a book is useless. It won't bubble up when it is needed for brainstorming, and stopping to look it up dissolves the mental model in progress. One friend is trying to invent electro-mechanical stuff, but can't or won't learn things like the difference between AC and DC, so he is trapped in dead-end speculations.
Short-term memory is very limited and fragile. Scott Adams pointed out that when the head of an engineering department calls a quick staff meeting, his engineers often need hours to re-construct their thinking about their main jobs.
I'm also terrible at remembering citations, and the 'net is surprisingly unhelpful at finding them. A source is heavy on memory, because, unlike the fact, it does not cross-check with other facts. Sometimes, this can also be a problem for me. Some of the "keepers" are from error-riddled Tab books, but got accepted because I had no counter-information first.

 

[Outdated]

When I was 14 I read a new Douglas Adams book - Dirk Djently's Holistic Detective Agency. There's nothing special in the story, it's just a typical Douglas Adams comedy, but a single sentence in a blurb inside the front cover lit up in my mind and gave me an epiphany.

"It's do do with the interconnectedness of all things.".

That's when I realised what one of the major differences was between the way my mind absorbs and retains facts compared to most other people.

It takes me longer than others to assimilate information properly in my mind. If I read a few pages out of a book I can immediately quote the entire lot verbatim, but it takes a few days for meaning to fully settle in my mind. Every time I learn something new it has to settle and be cross referenced with everything else I already know and understand. But once that has happened I have better access to that knowledge than most other people.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

It takes me forever to assimilate and benefit from new material. I say my learning has a long lag phase and then, boom, I’ve got it. This can sometimes be years, those little facts rattling about in my head and suddenly, for no obvious reason, coalesce into new understanding.

 

[Outdated]

The weight of a litre of water was worth remembering. The date of the Battle of Waterloo could stay in the books, not my head.

I'm very much the same with this. The old Abbott and Costello skit comes to mind, about how the mind can only remember so many facts and as you learn more some have to get removed to make room for others. "How would it be if you couldn't remember your own mother's name?".

I sort of took that to heart and only committed things to memory that I thought would be useful. But that seems to be another type of memory aside from my regular memory. It's more like a notepad hanging on the fridge door where I'll record important phone numbers etc. Those memories fade over time if not accessed often.

What my brain retains of it's own accord without me insisting on it is like an entirely different area of my brain.

 

[The Pandector]

I remember Sherlock intending to forget that the Earth orbits the Sun, and I'm sure that if I knew everything about the history of music and art, I'd know less about physics, but when it comes to original work, a fact in a book is useless. It won't bubble up when it is needed for brainstorming, and stopping to look it up dissolves the mental model in progress. One friend is trying to invent electro-mechanical stuff, but can't or won't learn things like the difference between AC and DC, so he is trapped in dead-end speculations.
Short-term memory is very limited and fragile. Scott Adams pointed out that when the head of an engineering department calls a quick staff meeting, his engineers often need hours to re-construct their thinking about their main jobs.
I'm also terrible at remembering citations, and the 'net is surprisingly unhelpful at finding them. A source is heavy on memory, because, unlike the fact, it does not cross-check with other facts. Sometimes, this can also be a problem for me. Some of the "keepers" are from error-riddled Tab books, but got accepted because I had no counter-information first.

Same here. Reading tech manuals, I learned to be inquisitive about what I understood best, then building outwards from there. Reading is best for me, as I might read the same sentence or paragraph over and over, the rest of my mind picking up and strengthening connections. Don’t care if it goes fast or slow, just enjoy the process.

A programming instructor once spoke at length about the creative process. I was surprised to hear him describe something I guess I thought I invented. In a nutshell, saturation, rumination and formulation (wow-I did that with all -ations). My memory sucks cottage cheese through a paper straw, so the saturation part was perfect as I took in quantities of info, constantly crossing back over the same stuff as well. Guy told me to quit binging when I felt like it, not over indulge, then rest. Rumble, gurgle, belch; inspiration for some soft or hardware feature. His encouragement really helped me tune the process at work.

 

[AspieChris]

I have always had a problem where I’ll learn a tiny detail about some simple process incorrectly, and I’ll only ever be able to perform that task again with the incorrect information screwing me up every single time. So if I am supposed to do turn left at the stop sign but I accidentally turn right on my first trip to my new house….. I’ll make the wrong turn going home every day for years.

 

[Shevek]

I have always had a problem where I’ll learn a tiny detail about some simple process incorrectly, and I’ll only ever be able to perform that task again with the incorrect information screwing me up every single time. So if I am supposed to do turn left at the stop sign but I accidentally turn right on my first trip to my new house….. I’ll make the wrong turn going home every day for years.

Ha ha. I'm the same. There's one shopping centre that I'd only been able to approach like an aircraft circling before landing for years. (few tries) Finally nailed in via Google maps. Another weird one - if my mental map is off - maybe I counted one right turn as a left, and am now going the wrong way, when I try to fix it, I can't rotate the whole map in my head. I have to do it road by road!

 

[Shevek]

It takes me forever to assimilate and benefit from new material. I say my learning has a long lag phase and then, boom, I’ve got it. This can sometimes be years, those little facts rattling about in my head and suddenly, for no obvious reason, coalesce into new understanding.

When I hit a significant fact, it gets to work on renovating my related understandings right away. However, sometimes it takes years for a significant understanding to bubble up. One time, a woman who I'd seen around near friends asked me if I'd like to go for coffee. I don't drink coffee, so I just replied "No thanks" and went on my way. About 20 years later, I realized she wanted to talk, and I could have had tea.
When I bought my first standard steel tool chest, I was delighted in how there was no wasted space between the drawers vertically, and nothing could get stuck on a divider. From there, it took about 20 years to see how to make a wooden chest of drawers that way, while also having no wasted volume at the sides, and being built with only the very simplest of woodworking techniques. I knew there was a way, and then one day I saw it.
I also know right away if something can be modeled mathematically, even if I can't do the math myself. When I can, it saves vast amounts of time and money.

 

[AspieChris]

and then one day I saw it

I have always said, “If I stare at a problem long enough, the solution eventually reveals itself.”

Sometimes I think about that problem for years, but the solution is generally so simple and effective (and stupidly easy) that I can’t believe we all missed it.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

When I drove never got lost, wife drives my nuts know she uses the gps for every thing, I do not like taking the same route twice read mental maps in my head.

 

[AspieChris]

My wife LOVES the talking GPS on her phone. It drives me insane. I’ll get the gps directions and follow them loosely, but she will sit in the passenger seat with the volume turned down even though I already Googled it and know where to go.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

Unfortunately she drives now I spent 21 years checking out different route to work 6 months before retirement they built two underpasses for railway tracks when do got home in 20 minutes.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

I have always had a problem where I’ll learn a tiny detail about some simple process incorrectly, and I’ll only ever be able to perform that task again with the incorrect information screwing me up every single time. So if I am supposed to do turn left at the stop sign but I accidentally turn right on my first trip to my new house….. I’ll make the wrong turn going home every day for years.

I’m the same way. Not just with directions. I’ll do it with passwords. If I type in the wrong password once, I keep entering it every time before entering the correct one.

When I hit a significant fact, it gets to work on renovating my related understandings right away. However, sometimes it takes years for a significant understanding to bubble up. One time, a woman who I'd seen around near friends asked me if I'd like to go for coffee. I don't drink coffee, so I just replied "No thanks" and went on my way. About 20 years later, I realized she wanted to talk, and I could have had tea.
When I bought my first standard steel tool chest, I was delighted in how there was no wasted space between the drawers vertically, and nothing could get stuck on a divider. From there, it took about 20 years to see how to make a wooden chest of drawers that way, while also having no wasted volume at the sides, and being built with only the very simplest of woodworking techniques. I knew there was a way, and then one day I saw it.
I also know right away if something can be modeled mathematically, even if I can't do the math myself. When I can, it saves vast amounts of time and money.

I have missed the opportunity to possibly make friends or connections many times by responding many times to that question with: No, I don’t drink coffee.

Even once I figured out what was going on, I didn’t know what else to say except I don’t drink coffee.