[aussieguy1234]

I'm curious if the supposed Theory of Mind impairments only apply when Autistic people theorize about Neurotypical minds, which are different from their own.

My guess is that when theorizing about another Autistic person mind, which is similar to their own, they might actually do quite well because they have their own mind to use as a base to work from, just like Neurotypical people have their own mind to use as a base when theorizing about another Neurotypical persons mind.

Similarly, I'd say your average neurotypical person would have difficulties theorizing about whats going on inside an Autistic persons mind.

If I'm right, then the difference in Theory of Mind in my view would be more of a difference than an fundamental impairment.

[BurningFrog]

A lot of the programmers I think are "on the spectrum" seem to have a real blind spot for the possibility that other people lack the knowledge they have.

If they know something, they just assume I do too.

[vizzier]

I'm not sure that this is exclusive to those on the spectrum. It is common enough to have a name; The curse of knowledge [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_knowledge

[Doxin]

I mean sure there's that, and then there's colleagues you have to ask for context every single time. A previous coworker I had would frequently start talking to you about some bug he's trying to fix without first telling what bug he's even on about.

I feel like the curse of knowledge mostly applies when experts talk to non-experts. Not including trivially required context when talking to co-experts seems like something else to me.

[sjg007]

Well this explains why 70million voted for the other guy!

[cirno]

I know when I started out what I struggled with and how difficult it was to learn things. But after having learned them, I have a lot of trouble explaining how I got there. I can't remember why it was hard anymore, as it just seems easy to me now. This is a large part of why I don't enjoy writing documentation or teaching others. Point being, I know about this problem in me, it's not a blind spot, there's just not a lot I can do about it.

[dusted]

Exactly, most things are easy when you understand them, so even if it took a long time to "get" them, once you do, you tend to forget with time, how difficult it is.

[seanhandley]

I really struggle with this.

I think it feeds strongly into imposter syndrome too. It's easy to devalue your own contributions when you suspect anyone else could make them.

[cbsmith]

In my experience, non-programmers struggle with this just as much. The main difference is that as a specialized discipline, it is more likely a lot of their knowledge is not shared with other people.

[PlugTunin]

The curse of knowledge (or expertise) is interesting:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_knowledge

Edit: Sorry for the dupe. Vizzier posted this a minute or three before I did.

[zepto]

This is called ‘the double empathy problem’.

There has been an increasing amount of study on it, and research supports your guesses.

[aussieguy1234]

Just googled it, looks like this article has a good overview: https://network.autism.org.uk/knowledge/insight-opinion/doub...