I just spent an hour with a 20 year old woman with Asperger's. I've been trying to convince her that it's a good idea to remember people's names, but she shrugs and tells me that she doesn't want to "waste time" doing that if she's not going to "get anything out of" knowing that person. I countered that all social contacts might one day be useful, so remembering who people are is a good thing to do (I provided several examples from my own life in which months or years after meeting someone I found good reason to re-contact that person for a favor). The young AS woman made a face as if to say, "You're wasting my time, Larry."
But am I wasting her time? Unless you're Einstein, aren't social contacts critical to success in life? How do we "neurotypicals" convince AS individuals that all this social activity that we engage in isn't just a pile of silly stuff?
2:17:04 PM 
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