Today, I had to record an audio of a lecture for my students. For ten minutes, I struggled with the microphone because I had no idea how to put it on. I used a mirror, I turned it every which way, I stared at it, trying to understand how it worked. Nothing helped. Finally, I had to ask N. to come and put the earphone with the mike on me.
N. found my struggle with the mike impossible to understand. He thought I was kidding when I said I couldn’t figure out how it worked. For me, however it was truly a daunting task. Now that I have taken it off, I still have absolutely no idea how to put it back on.
However, I then managed to record my lecture from beginning to end, using no notes or memory aides, never stopping or pausing (except where the context required it, of course). I wanted it to be about 30 minutes long and it ended up being 33 minutes long, so no editing will be needed. It came out exactly as I wanted, and the effort that went into it was minimal.
This is how autism works, people. A task that involves a minimal degree of manual dexterity and a basic understanding of left and right is impossible for me to carry out. At the same time, a much more complex intellectual task is effortless.
Clarissa's Blog 
That’s pretty much my life as well. I can’t for the life of me figure out how to drive a car, for instance, but I can write really impressive essays on the history of the automobile’s impact on North American infrastructure…
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Exactly.
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This is how autism works, people. A task that involves a minimal degree of manual dexterity and a basic understanding of left and right is impossible for me to carry out. At the same time, a much more complex intellectual task is effortless.
I have the same thing with detail orientation. I’m actually traumatised by the requirement to remember how to proceed with any task in a logical, mechanical way. My attention span is very low, no matter how much I berate myself about that. The more I scold myself and try to focus, the more my mind becomes preoccupied with the meta-text of the situation, rather that with the situation itself. So I hear my own voice saying: “Now you are concentrating on focusing, but now your mind is wandering and now it seems to be doing that again.” So I still don’t take in the concrete data of the situation, but only the meta-text concerning it.
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Fascinating, thanks for sharing that. I think this may help me be more aware with certain situations.
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I can understand that. I have those difficulties as well, the simple stuff can boggle me to no end, but when it comes to complex things, yup, easy. I recently learned that I am a high functioning autistic, never diagnosed, but in the diagnosis of my son the doctors told me that if I wanted to, I could go through the process as well, I said no thanks. Im doing okay thus far, and I know now why life was difficult growing up, but its enough to simply know and not have it on paper. My son, on the other hand, the paper comes in handy. I like your blog, keep writing. I just started a blog about raising a son with Autism, if you’d like to read it http://kedsmom.wordpress.com
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