Final Blog

I read Thinking In Pictures: My life With Autism by Temple Grandin.

After reading Marlee's entry about Where Good Ideas Come From, I have learned much about serendipidous ideas.

This can relate very well to Temple's life in many ways. The relation I thought of first was when people with autism hear something, they automatically think of a picture. They don't have to search through thier mind for a memory of some sort, but immediately an image appears. This, in many ways, could lead to a serendipidous idea. By seeing one image, it could lead to another, thus leading to a new idea. As Marlee quoted, “[Serendipity] completes a hunch, or opens up a door in the adjacent possible that you had overlooked.”  The door that Grandin may have opened could've been included in her work with the cattle.

Marlee also talks about Google requiring time for them to spend on their own projects. I think Grandin has spent time on her own, helping her think of new an innovating things. Granding talks about spending time alone working on her designs and drawings. Throughout her life, Temple Grandin and other autisic people have been the source of many good ideas.

LIT Circle Response

Hana Becker

Thinking In Pictures: My Life With Autism

Meeting 3/Pages 116-203

Summary:

In this section of our reading we learn much more about Grandin’s life with Autism. She tells us about the types of medications are available for people with autism as well as the types she took for her specific situation. Grandin also shared with us how people with autism have trouble handing social situations. Finally, we learn how Grandin, and many others with autism, can easily relate to animals.

Major Claim:

“I learned that I am what I do instead of what I feel. In my life I have replaced emotional complexity with intellectual complexity” (Grandin 162).

Response:

I have noticed that there is an underlying theme of emotions vs. logic in Thinking In Pictures. The quote above is one of many that emphasize it. Grandin says when she does not comprehend why people act on emotion rather than logic she must find a friend to act as a “translator” so she can fully understand (155). It is interesting for someone without autism to think about why this may be confusing. Grandin says she is “very attached to [her] projects and to certain places” rather than “relationships with certain people” (161).  This challenges the status quo because her and other autistics are thinking in very different ways than most people.

Captured Thought:

 

Last semester I had friends who took issues and answers. They would always talk about the quote, "There is no spoon"  from The Matrix but they never told me it was from The Matrix. All they would say is, "There is no Spoon!!" and move on.

This semester I'm taking issues and answers with the same teacher they had and we recently watched the scene from The Matrix that they were talking about (as seen below).

Because my friends had been talking about this seen for a while, I had a greater understanding of what it means. We finally discussed in class the difference between perceptions and reality. I had thought back to some moments when my friends had said "There is no spoon" and I could understand their humor.