@actuallyautistic Another handy term from #SoftwareEngineering that can be borrowed to describe the #autistic experience is the notion of a "leaky abstraction". In lay terms, this is when you try to put something in simple terms, but every attempt to do so forces you to say things in a way that isn't quite correct. To be 100% correct, you have to go into detail, and there's just no way around it, because the #language you speak doesn't have the particular words that you need.

If you have an #ImpedanceMismatch between your thoughts and the language you speak, then the language is going to be full of #LeakyAbstractions for you, and you are going to be stuck being way more #verbose than folks that use the language as intended if you want to express your thoughts to the same level of accuracy or precision as them. I can't claim to speak for other #autistic folks, but this is a big part of why I'm overly verbose sometimes.

@actuallyautistic

There is a term, "impedance mismatch", in #SoftwareEngineering, previously borrowed from electrical engineering, which is used to describe the problems that are often run into when using an #ORM. (Fellow geeks may recognize this acronym. The rest of you, don't sweat it; I'll explain the part that matters.)

In lay terms, imagine trying to copy a shape built with tinkertoys, but you have to use Legos instead. While you may be able to get the general shape right, there are going to be a lot of differences, not only in the details of the surface, but in the very approach you take to construct the shape. This failure to line up between the two methods of constructing shapes captures the essence of what we mean when we say #ImpedanceMismatch.

I think an impedance mismatch is the core reason that #autistic and non-autistic people have trouble communicating with each other. We are using different elemental building blocks to form our thoughts. They don't line up.