Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns, and Abstractions

by Temple Grandin

Learning manners not only teaches you to say please and thank you but later keeps you from calling colleagues stupid even if they are stupid, generally a bad career move.

At first, his monotone voice and inability to make eye contact seemed an insurmountable handicap on the showroom floor. Once people recognized his enthusiasm and depth of knowledge, his neurodiversity didn’t matter. In fact, it became a plus as he made lots of sales.

I can do it.

Working in construction taught me deadlines. In construction, projects need to get done: the customer wants the project finished on time. When I talk to parents and educators, I try to impart some of that urgency.

The popularity of apprenticeships in the United States declined in the early twentieth century as more children entered compulsory education.

a college education is hardly a guarantee of success given the dropout rates, high unemployment, and crippling debt.

How many liberal arts graduates are in the same boat?

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.”

Again, the first step is accepting that all types of minds have their own unique way of contributing to solving problems and furthering knowledge.

There may be storms, but when you get through them there will be a bright future.

Today a movement has finally arisen that urges us to recognize that traits that may look like disabilities in one setting, such as the classroom, may be seen as abilities in another.

“Neurodiversity may be every bit as crucial for the human race as biodiversity is for life in general. Who can say what form of wiring will prove best at any given moment?”

(Poor hygiene is common in people on the autism spectrum, usually because sensory hypersensitivity can make the sensations associated with bathing unpleasant.)

If I don't bathe, I feel itchy.

During an interview, he admitted that junior high was the hardest part of his youth. Teachers believed that he was not trying hard enough, and like many people with neurodiverse traits, he was the object of bullying by his peers.

In 1998, Microsoft was sued by the US government for having a monopoly. In the videos of Bill Gates’s deposition testimony, he rocks when questioned. Twenty years later, he appears more at ease. He is a good example of how a person who has some autistic traits can mature and develop as they add more information to their mental databases.

“The relationship between Steve Jobs and ‘useless’ humanities programs such as calligraphy should not be ignored.”

Research supports the idea that a creative solution to a problem often occurs when the mind is wandering.

Genius requires not only intelligence and creativity but divergent thinking as well.

In a 2016 interview with Charlie Rose, Bill Gates said, “The thing you do obsessively between age thirteen and eighteen, that’s the thing you have the most chance of being world class at.”

I’ve worked in the design field long enough to know that you need to design for the least competent person.

I’ve observed that laziness and stupidity will take any project down and result in injury to the crew or damage to the equipment.

The companies that focus on quality first have better products, have fewer accidents, and are less likely to make hasty decisions that cause huge, costly problems in the future.

I think we’ve become so reliant on computers and blindly trusting of them that we no longer see the inherent dangers.

The Bible includes passages that indicate that animals, like humans, feel pain and deserve rest. In Deuteronomy (22:10), for instance, it is forbidden to yoke a donkey and an ox together to plow a field. Another passage, in Exodus (23:12), states that working donkeys and oxen are to be rested on the Sabbath. The Quran (6:38) has a lovely verse observing that all animals form and need community: “All living beings roaming the earth and winged birds soaring in the sky are communities like yourselves.” From our earliest writings, the stage is set for the ongoing debate about whether animals think and feel, and how we think and feel about them.

A dog is a highly social animal. Smelling stuff, especially pee, is how they get their information. I’ve been known to call it “pee-mail.”

Lol!

Nonverbal, sensory-based learning may have played a significant role in early human achievement, an idea worth thinking about as it relates to the cognition and achievement of other animals.

The research points to a consensus that consciousness is a hierarchy.

The ability to think like an animal inevitably leads to a greater empathy with animals and—in the brain of an object visualizer, especially—a determination to create and promote ways of furthering their welfare.

I don’t understand love-hate relationships

How can we identify and encourage our future designers, engineers, and artists? First, we must see them, recognize their skills, support their different learning curves. Above all, my goal is to help those kids. If we start there, anything is possible.