CedarSo people often say that autism is like having a different operating system. Suppose you are a Mac in an all Windows environment and the required software only runs on Windows. What you do is install an emulator program. Thread …
2. This makes you look like a windows computer and you can run the software and talk to the other computers. But having that big invisible emulator program running constantly in the background uses a lot of resources so you work much slower and less efficiently than you would if the software ran on your native OS. This is #Masking …
3. I play horn in orchestras and bands. The program’Play Horn’ will only run on the native OS and I can’t run the emulator at the same time. In other words I can only play if I am being my authentic self and I can’t mask and play. So my communication in rehearsals reverts to my natural style which is blunt and abrupt. I can see that people are disturbed by this but I am a monster horn player and they need me so I get away with it. Playing also gives me joy because I am being my true self.
Laura Ritchie 🌸
David Howell
juno@Cedar i use this metaphor too! only it's not just a different OS- it's a different CPU architecture, like Intel vs ARM. So the emulation performance penalty is even greater.
Irongeek (he/him)
Autistic Book Club
RiderExMachina