ROBERTS I got the sense reading your book that the autistic persons got more pleasure from focusing on small details of things. Those details were comforting. Like a favorite piece of music, or whatever; anything you enjoy is comforting. So when they were uncomfortable, they would go to an unusual place. If somebody likes small details, they’ll pay more attention to them, simple as that. Because if you don’t you’ll do something else with your attention.
NAZEER We get taught that it’s more socially useful not to focus on the small details. Sometimes we get taught that in explicit ways, or sometimes that’s just the way things are. So people forget about small details, because they’re focusing on something that’s more socially useful.
ROBERTS When you say focus on the small details, you gave an example. The opposite of a small detail is where the bus is going; that’s sort of a big thing. So what’s another example that’s opposite of the small detail?
NAZEER I’ll give you an example of Craig, who’s the speechwriter, also in the book. Craig will often find that he’s sitting in a meeting and he’s supposed to be focusing on the political issue or the speech that is the topic of discussion at that meeting. That is the thing that he’s supposed to be focusing on professionally. But he’ll often find difficult is that he’s noticing lots and lots of other small details, as well. He tries very hard to keep his focus where it ought to be, but because he keeps noticing these other small details, they can drag him away from where he’s supposed to be focusing.
ROBERTS Details of the meeting, or details of the argument, or what?
NAZEER It could be that. So he could be seeing a level of nuance that actually isn’t all that useful. Because sometimes when you’re in a meeting, you have to ignore certain nuances to get the bigger points. Or it could just be sometimes that he’s focusing on the fact that somebody’s missed a button when they buttoned up their shirt, or that their cufflinks are unusual, or that they’re flicking their pen. He might notice and focus on things that are completely irrelevant to the conversation he’s supposed to be having.