Whereas, with something like mathematics, you remember some very few simple things, and the rest you can figure out, you can derive, even if almost instantaneously. I am very much the sort of person who cannot keep all the stuff in my head, but can only keep a few things in before they fall out, but once those few things are securely fastened in, I can quickly process them through.

So while I can’t juggle all the info of an arithmetic problem,like 56 x 84 or 14 + 27, unless I have a calculator do it for me, I can take a derivative, apply the chain rule, etc.

My dad was interested in physics and math too, but didn’t get as far in the formal educational system as I have. They didn’t have the AS diagnosis then, but he probablywould have gotten it – he was jumped around, sometimes in gifted classes, sometimes with failing grades. His mom is pretty musical, and his sisters appreciate the arts, and so does he. I remember being a baby and watchinghim play guitar, trying to figure out how to reproduce those strange and wonderful sounds.

Right, there are “systems-loving” humanities types as opposed to humanities types who I think of as being “metaphorical thinkers,” for lack of a better term. I only came to realize that I am a systems lover (I was a math and science phobe) through my math, music, science loving son (oh, and yeah, engineers and computer geeks on both sides of his family).