I
’ ve found that the most successful way to improve my social skills is to study autism and allism ( nonautism ) as though they are two different cultures .
tion , intuitive real-time cognitive empathy , unconscious nonverbal signal processing , indirect speech , and intuitive conformation via social norm abstraction .
I ’ ve now spent several years studying nonautistic culture through an anthropological lens , and it ’ s improved my social skills immensely .
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I
’ ve found that the most successful way to improve my social skills is to study autism and allism ( nonautism ) as though they are two different cultures .
”
For example , many autistic people struggle with small talk , not only participating in it , but understanding it . Nonautistic people , often disabled by their overly strong central coherence , struggle to break abstraction down into details in order to explain its purpose —“ It ’ s how you get to the more in-depth stuff ,” “ It ’ s how you break the ice ,” “ It ’ s how you get to know someone .”
It wasn ’ t until I started studying human culture academically that I learned the purpose behind small talk . The answer was so obvious , I felt a little cheated that nonautistic people had so failed to explain this to me . But I guess I can ’ t fault them ; they ’ re products of their neurology as much as I am .
My favorite definition is the one from Desmond Morris ’ s book Peoplewatching . Morris is a
ZOOM Autism through Many Lenses 25