[throwaway848483]

There are different levels though. There is complexity and tremendous ingenuity at any levels. It's just that the greater the level difference between two people, the less the interaction is fruitful for the both of them.

Poverty might mean that a smart one may spend most of its brain power to make rent, instead of getting a PHD. Omnipresent marketing might have ingrained some ideas and dreams.

People tend to stay in their level as long as they find it entertaining. Which can be very long because when you do thing inefficiently you get to face new problems that you can once more treat inefficiently until you are crushed by an inextricable mess of superficial things.

Like you said people are pretty good at pettiness when noticing the attitude, and then close the door even further on sharing anything potentially interesting.

When you are more than a few levels above, it's your role to find the way to make the interaction between the two of you, meaningful, positive and interesting for the both of you. Very often it will require some attention to details.

[teekert]

The fact that you are talking about a "level difference" reveals a very 1 (or low) dimensional look on things. Some people may be blend and boring in one dimension i.e. they are not "deeply self-aware people struggling with the boundaries of human knowledge". But they may have learned to cope with great trauma that would wipe others away. Or they have musical skills or their profession may teach you something (or are you already a good electrician?).

How would you feel being judged as several levels below me?

In 2013 or so, after going to a congress I booked another 5 days in the cheapest Hostel I could find (in New Orleans) and slept in the large sleeping hall in a bunk bed. One night cost me as much as the wifi in my previous hotel. And I met a teacher doing charity work on the Katrina disaster houses that were still dealing with fungi. He took me around the sites, to camp hope, I ate with all the volunteers. Many Christians and Mormons were there, this was new to me and I don't agree with religious people on many things but it was a wonderful experience. One I would have certainly missed with your attitude. On another night I met an artist living in a van that ran on waste cooking oil she filtered through old jeans. She was very conscientious about our planet and reflected that in her art. She thought me that art, like words and code are a means of communication but more on the emotional level. I never looked at it like that. I didn't see a single PhD that week and I liked it at least as much as the week before, talking about single molecule biophysics.

One of the most important lessons (imho) I teach my kids is to withhold judgement. Do not put absolute values on anything or anyone in a short amount of time. You will do yourself and other a disservice. Someone cutting you of in traffic may have a sick kid at home and in a hurry/distracted, someone being rude may have just been fired and about to burst in tears, etc.

[throwaway848483]

@teekert I was mainly putting myself on lookathrwaway level, to hopefully provide advice to a fellow Aspie.

The beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as one say. I perceive that there are plenty of different axes to look at things. But I refuse not to see the broken vase as a whole, no matter how beautifully you frame the shiny pieces.

Most people have been broken one way or an other. Some even celebrate it ; I find it quite sad and would rather avoid it, but who am I to know ?

I used to have things I didn't get at all like music, until the day it clicked. Even though I won't ever reach the level of masters in the art, I have enough to find it interesting. But more importantly that was an enlightening and humbling experiment that there are things you don't get until you do.

I enjoy the state of mind model, where to learn a new thing you try to search the state of mind where this thing comes naturally.

Once you get the right state of mind some things become easy , and some other things harder, but communication with a person in the same state of mind flows easily.

Often meeting different people and understanding how they deal with things can help acquire a new state of mind.

>How would you feel being judged as several levels below me?

As an aspie that as been judged stupider than I am most of my life, I have grown past it.

There are usually interesting experiences I can pick with anyone, although the ratio effort/reward depends a lot on our relative paths. I get that life sometimes put you in shitty situations and I don't judge people. As much as I enjoy the occasional serendipity that the chaos of life can bring, I enjoy creating my own path more.

[teekert]

You do sound like nice guy and like my "Aspie" friend, very intelligent and fun to talk to.

But my Aspie friend felt genuine discomfort around new things and people and he tried to rationalize it by saying he didn't care. But I think he did care. He even cried for a full room when he left us (almost making many others almost cry as well)!

I think he would be better off admitting his feelings and accepting them trying to work from there. He even told me once he read some research where over-expressing some gene would make people feel less need for control and how this could free him in a way.

But who am I, I may be completely mistaken and project a "Vulcan-like deep emotional life that needs to be controlled" -picture onto him, while this is not how it is. But I felt a bond with this guy, I think we did share very similar thought routines. We both felt a need for control but I felt less fear for unexpected things and human connections, though we certainly both felt the need.

[bjelkeman-again]

Thank you. I should do something like that more often. In general, when I get outside of my bubble, I find a lot of very interesting people. I just get so intensely involved with the latest project.

[teekert]

I have some cool stories but only very few :) I'm also not so much the thrill seeker I appear to be in my post. It's just that when I travel for work I absolutely refuse to not see as much as possible of where I am, and that often brings you into contact with people (because I usually travel alone).

It always pays off do something that feels a bit radical. It also comes with some feelings of discomfort and insecurity. There was also a pretty f-ed up guy (abused or something) in the hostel, he was nice but mysterious in a way, but you sleep less well when he falls asleep on the cold floor next to his bed. Also driving 600 km alone sounds adventurous but I felt pretty lonely and had a sense of "why?" as well. As they say, life begins at the edge of your comfort zone ;)

[selimthegrim]

Uh, I’m getting a PhD and I live in New Orleans. I resent this binary :D