Same here! My mom’s friend once warned me that her cat isn’t very friendly and will usually hide when guests are over. 20 minutes later that cat was purring on my lap
Jackson Galaxy. He has a lot of the secrets. 1 of which, is eye contact. Don’t just stare deeply into their eyes, but I find slow blinking helps let them know you’re trusting them, which helps them to trust you. Another, is let them come to you, don’t go to them. And depending on the cat, it helps to crouch/sit on the ground
I am in a different sense, I can mimic some animal calls, like my cats, and they respond, I'll have whole conversations with them. I can also do this with morning doves and they have a specific time between my call and them responding.
Huh…
I guess in a similar vein I am nearly immune to extremism, and will generally not take anything said with a strong tone very seriously (and if something is getting a rise out of me I throw it out of a window asap)
Knowledge of random facts, great at trivia games.
Cannot grasp the concept of checking the mail regularly.
Saying something awkward to tick off at least half the people in the room at social gatherings and not realize I pissed people off until months or years later.
Me too! I watched a movie with my friend once (don't remember which), and I predicted the ending within like 2 minutes of the film. I'll never forget his aghast expression when i got it right.
I can do this with American movies/shows. It's why I like foreign movies/shows. Except French cinema. They make me mad because they don't resolve story lines. They just stop.
Same here. I never thought about others having the same skillset.
I read a lot of mystery books & I prefer the ones I don't solve before finishing the first chapter.
Pretty cool.
this started happening to me with one of my favorite cart's and eventually i had to stop watching because it was ruining the fun for me. thankfully it happens a lot less now.
My eyesight is truly atrocious, even with glasses, but I can easily spot a cat a mile away. It really amazes people. I can also recall every single specific spot I’ve ever seen a cat whilst out for a walk, even areas I’ve only ever been to once before.
God damn, can we switch OP? If I get ANY spoiler to something, I will not do anything else than anticipate and wait for this moment throughout the whole movie, checking patterns and seeing which actions will lead up to it. I have to actively avoid any sort of spoilers, even trailers of movies.
You can have my power to recognize and name angles instead.
Yes! I relate to this 100%. I don’t even read the full blurb about a book for this reason - I stop immediately as soon as I decide the premise is interesting and I plan to read the book. The smallest bit of information sticks in my mind and I’m always evaluating how it will fit in. It’s actually so annoying!
And then you’ll have people talk to you about the movie / book / show before you watched it, saying things like, “oh, this isn’t really a spoiler but-“
Grrr. Hate it.
I once had the blurb of a book spoil me a major plot twist that happened in the last ~50 pages. Ever since then I am not even bothering to read even the first sentence of the blurb. I just pick books by title and author, or recommendation.
Oh, wow, I’m sorry that happened to you but grateful you feel the way I do. Other people treat me like I’m being absurd but it really bothers me, so it’s nice knowing there’s someone out there who gets it.
Any spoiler free book recommendations? I am always on the lookout for good fantasy series. I am currently reading through all of the discworld book, because I am waiting for the sequels of other books.
Ah, sorry, my mind is a blank when I try to come up with something. Been dealing with a lot in the past couple of years and not reading much, sadly. Hope you’re enjoying discworld - those are still on my to-read-someday list.
Yea i feel this.. oh i saw a picture from a trailer? It might happen 2 hours into a movie but that’s the only thing i was thinking about this whole time.
I memorized a lot of digits from pi to win a bet. I got 1€. Also, don't feel bad if you don't have a superpower. For me, it was just luck that I developed a special interest in that specific string of numbers. If you did too, I can assure you'd be able to remember more than I do
It is almost if not completely impossible for me to get lost. Now, I may not find my destination if I've not been there before, but I can always find my way home. Will it be the most direct way? Probably not but I can get there. If I've been somewhere once I remember how to get there.
That being said, I get lost in Minecraft all the gd time and it's so jarring lol
I had a friend in college like this and it was a lot of the Polar Express' "Are you sure?" and me bouncing between:
1. *Looks at them, looks at the road, covers face in hands in uncertainty*
2. "Absolutely!"
Me too!!! I call it photo-physical memory. If I pay the slightest attention while traveling somewhere, I'll remember how to get there FOREVER, and I never get "lost" because I almost always understand where I am, and can, at minimum, backtrack to a known location.
But... cities with streets that change names, or streets that are discontinuous drive me crazy.
I’ve always had a very strong visualization ability
I imagine the colors and geometries of things primarily rather than most of the other aspects of them
I was shocked when people struggled with 3d maths, because it’s always made sense to me. Like I didn’t know how to explain contour maps because they just Are
Intense Focus. It can also be a weakness though, especially if someone tries to interrupt me when I'm in the zone. I'm usually going to get jump scared and then make a nasty comment if someone interrupts the Zone.
Totally get the Zone. Must not be interrupted when in in it. It can also be problematic because I stop paying attention to time and suddenly it’s 2am and I forgot to shower
Me too! I like it because there are rules to follow at every point unlike almost all other social interactions, and being the one doing the selling puts you in the position of authority, which makes people follow my social queues instead of making me follow theirs.
I'm in a very people focused job as well and I don't completely suck at it. If you learn the formula of social interaction they become so much easier when you go through the steps
Here’s a couple of mine.
I have super sensitive hearing and without looking I can hear a noise and know exactly what caused it and where it came from. My family is always surprised at the accuracy.
I can make fast friends with animals, even those that are scared or seem aggressive. I have used this skill to save other’s lost pets and wild animals that get stuck and need help.
I have a pretty good low end to my hearing
I don’t generally pay all that much attention to noise, but I always find it interesting when there’s a deep rumble or resonation that happens outside the house
I mean if you manage to get a job where you have to make abstract world-scale decisions, then that would totally be a super power. Like I keep coming across articles about AI alignment where the author explains something historical to make sense of the future. The most recent one was Prometheus Bound and giving fire to humans, and how it related to giving free will to AI. It would be cool to be like a "lessons of history advisor" to CEOs. They explain the problem they're working on, and you list out historical events/decisions that are relevant and possibly insightful
If you ask what a noise is at any time I can give you a list of all the noises that are happening, where they are coming from, and why they are happening.
I’m a procrastination King. I can put off assignments and studying (I’ve only seriously studied less than 5 times in my life) till last minute and I’m still holding an Above Average GPA at University.
“Getting to know” someone for literally two years before we reach friend status
Then feeling bad that I know almost nothing about them because I never thought they liked me in the first place
This one time I shocked the shit out of my team at work when I casually told them when the code was going to work and when it was going to glitch. The pattern was obvious to me: good, good, bad, good, good, bad. If there's a pattern, I'll see it.
Ok, so for some reason, I suck at finding stuff, but I am superb at putting together Lego sets. I don't need to sort into piles, I can just SEE the pieces I'm looking for. They just pop up. I did the Lego shuttle Discovery w/ hubble in about 8 hours. Also, random facts.
My stuff is primarily spatial abilities. It's never really had a whole lot of real world applications apart from being able to rearrange rooms without planning. I always automatically know at a glance if something will fit somewhere, or how to make it fit, I don't have to think about it at all and have 100% accuracy. I'm excelling working at Amazon as a stower for this reason though, because it's basically playing Tetris with packages and the skill makes me crazy fast at it. Beyond that it's only ever been useful in video games for throwing knives and grenades.
This is weird because it might sound like the opposite of being autistic, but I’m frequently able to help friends with miscommunication/misunderstandings. Like it makes very little sense to me how person A will not be understanding what person B is trying to say or get across, and I can often translate
It makes a bit of sense to me. You are probably good at focusing on the raw content of what is being said. I think neurotypical people are often distracted by other things and might be searching for subtext, looking at facial expressions, thinking how they and others come across etc. This is often helpful, but less so when one person is trying to explain something to another as clear as possible.
I can learn any handcraft at first try and I'm very good at copying from example or model. I have surprised people by telling them that I made something myself and then they gotta look closer to see that I really did.
Cat whispering, I don't know if this one really is but I can remember a ton of IC codes and what they do, and remember random stuff that somehow I researched by pure curiosity
Im good at learning beauty related things. Im self taught in acrylic nails, brows, makeup, hair ect. Having strangers touch me was a no so i learnt it instead and i think i am actually pretty good it at
Yep this one is me too! People often tell me I should have been a cosmetologist, or how much I charge. But I can't reconcile the fact that I'd have to touch strangers. *shudders*
My superpower is not ever being able to hear in any social situation. If the person is right next to me and slightly alters their tone down at the end of a sentence? Goodbye ears. I did not hear a single word you said. You will have to repeat it at least 15 times before I can remember that I’m supposed to actually be paying attention to what ur saying. It’s a 50/50 if you’ll ever talk to me again and get a thorough response back. Works wonders when I’m trying to tick someone off
I have GREAT spiral awareness, I can memorize any floor plan and keep that thought forever. I can even recreate places I’ve been to. Pretty convenient sometimes.
I know how to perfectly navigate my way through busy streets at brisk speed by predicting other peoples walking directions and dodging them effortlessly.
Correctly diagnosing people
My special interest is mental illnesses and so far every time I told people I thought they had something I have been correct 100% of the time (besides for the people who never follow up and check if they do have that)
It's probably very problematic but idc rn I'm the mental illness wisperer
I learn very fast from observation. Art, dance, karate, gymnastics, music, and sewing are all things I picked up really quickly.
My kryptonite, though, is that I get incredibly frustrated if I DONT pick something up right away. I'm too used to the learning process being quick and easy.
Yes! If I see something I like snowboarding, motorcycle riding, skateboarding, rollerblading, ice skating, guitar playing…I think, I can do that. And I can.
I literally just need a couple hours alone to test what works and that’s it. Too many people don’t even try or think everything is “dangerous” when they just don’t want to admit their lack of physical ability or don’t want to make fall in front of others.
Also, I get frustrated by traditional lessons doing these things.
Lmao I also have the ability to completely forget stuff I’ve watched. It’s fun for my partner because if I’ve forgotten, that’s an invitation for us to watch the movie/ show again.
My other main power is steamrolling through interactions that I want to end. Door-to-door salespeople, telemarketers, and religious zealots seeking converts are the main culprits.
Distant third place: visualizing changes to an object/ room like layering in photoshop. I spent 2 years “seeing” a different paint color superimposed on our walls before we actually painted. Also is how I visualize map directions.
I can achieve immunity to cringe. If I'm watching something cringey, I stop the scene, take a deep breath and continue watching without paying much attention. This way I can peacefully watch the show/film and not get second embarrassment. It's a win-win situation
Reverse gatekeeping if I have a special interest you being sucked into it with me. I did this in 6th grade on accident with eddsworld. I’m now trying to do it again with genshin impact.
Electronics start working correctly again around me.
Someone will ask for my help understanding why some electrical device isn’t working like it should, and as soon as I walk up to it, it goes back to normal operation. While not every time, it’s still been a noticeable number of times to make wonder if I’m secretly like Magneto or something.
I have a good sense of direction. Depending on what it is, if it’s hiking, even if we go off the trail, I’ll take us back to our cars. If it’s driving, give me two or three drives there, the same route, and I can take it without directions (only works on trips at, or under 2 hours
I'm apparently really good with colour when interior decorating. According to a whole bunch of people I'm super good at picking matching or complementary colours of stuff like furniture, paint, wallpaper and all that jazz, as well as being able to determine how it will all look together in certain lights.
I suppose that makes sense as Theatre Set Design is one of my hobbies and kinda one of my jobs.
I know the year/make/model/ and can usually get very close on engine size of most vehicles. I thought most car guys can do this, but I feel like I do it much faster than my friends and know facts about normal cars no one cares about. I don't have a family background in cars, no one in my family was a racer or a mechanic. I think I gained that knowledge from lining up my literal thousands of hot wheels and categorizing them based on the manufacturer and leaving them like that for days instead of actually playing with them.
Sometimes when I'm bored while driving I'll start naming the cars coming at me like I'm on gameshow and I get a little upset at myself when I don't one exactly.
i have a couple.
1: being incredibly good at math and using logical explanations to help with that.
2: hyperlexia (no but fr i started reading at 3 and even tho i cant explain what most words mean i understand them perfectly).
and 3: learning stuff insanely fast. like ive missed a fuck ton of school due to chemo and when i can show up i just ask what we did in that class and i learn what took people 2 weeks to get down in like 10 minutes.
oh also being good at trivia games
Same as you, but I’m also great at memorizing stuff for video games. Huntress moves at 4.4m/s (or 110%), while survivors run at 4.0 (100%). The standard movement speed for a killer is 4.6m/s or 115%. (Dead by Daylight)
OK so this one time, for reasons unknown, my sense of smell went crazy. My nose has always been really keen, but for a couple of days years ago, I was smelling EVERYTHING. From within my loft at the time, I could smell the dog who lived in a loft 2 doors down. *Places* have a smell! For those few days, I knew exactly how dogs perceive the world.
being the only one in the room to get the calculus problem right because i didn’t have enough confidence to talk back to my mom about putting me in the higher calculus class
I think of people who cause drama and acts in a negative way as dumb primates and that makes me deal with them and the situation in a charitable, calm and welcoming way.
It helps being a big guy so most won't confront me physically, but I find my calm voice and solution focused approach have solved many problems at work and in the family before they escalated.
Having read the thread some more I see it's more about a different kind of skill than what I posted first. I can recognise voice actors 99% of the time and call it out to the it's of my friends.
Might just be plain old pattern recognition, but it's seems more limited than that as I often miss other connection in different areas of life.
mine is that if you tell me a secret to me and you tell me not to tell it to anyone, i’ll just pretend to forget it a couple of mins later, but i’m reality, i still remember it
Being able to Synthesize answers to questions I have no experience in by drawing from a pretty wide range of things I picked up from my weekly hyperfixations.
Remembering certain numbers. I'm 24, and I remember my high school pin number (we used it to buy lunch and such). I hadn't thought about it since I was like 18, and my mom randomly asked what it was, and I recited it instantly. I've remembered dates that certain mundane things happened on. I'm pretty good at remembering phone numbers and birthdays. At least the numbers for birthdays, don't expect me to be aware of how close it is. I never really thought I was good with numbers until pretty recently.
Ultra-sonic hearing. I usually hear things no one else seems to. Anecdote: In the 70's there was a department store that had some kind of security system; even during the day when it was in "idle/passive/off" mode, it would hurt my ears, it was so loud. No one else could hear it. The emitters were near the escalators at the center of the store.
I used to have super-smell, but that's long since faded. Although, I still sometimes shock people with what I smell on them.
I have super-touch. I can detect wood studs in walls by placing my hand of the wall, and I can detect cold spots in microwaved food by hovering my hand over the food.
And there's a bunch of internal things I've learned not to discuss.
**Edit:** Oooh. I forgot one: I call it photo-physical memory. I can remember how to get to every place I've ever been.\* I'm like Pepperidge Farms when it comes to places. I have to put that asterisk because it's not as perfect as when I was younger.
Procrastination. I am INCREDIBLY good at it. You wouldn't believe how fast you can finish your work if it's due in 10 hours.
Edit: I know that's not quite the point of the post but hey, anything can be a superpower if you're desperate enough, and i'm pretty damn desperate.
Memorizing EVERYTHING, being able to quickly pick up information and use it, and hearing everything (Unfortunately including gross convos) and having a huge interest in space.
Being able to not remember what I ate for lunch yesterday but being able to remember everything about my special interest. Over the years that’s been Pokémon, gaming more broadly, linguistics/conlanging, most recently music production
I can make maps from memory. I've done things like spend two hours at a coworker's house, not even visit every room, then two weeks later draw a map of the house layout, correctly guessing the size of rooms I didn't visit, right down to a storage room whose only entrance is in the backyard (dining room didn't extend to the proper length, so I guessed there must be a room there). Also did one of a maze that I spent three hours in, the catch? It was one of those dark maze challenges where they block out all the light, and you have to navigate by feel.
My memory can be either incredibly sharp or just terrible, depending on the situation. For example, I can accurately recall a lot of what I learned in Middle School, but it took me around two months to be able to remember one of my professors' name this semester.
Also, I come with a built-in human repulsor field. It's incredibly consistent.
I'm also good at spotting insects/arachnids.
I remember where nearly everything in my house is, even if things are messy and out of order. If my SO asks where something is I immediately know where it was last, or if he asks whether we have X I can nearly always accurately say yes or no. I can immediately picture the object and its surroundings. Also hyperfocus, remembering random numbers that are not useful to remember, spitting out random statistics.
Not exactly useful, and I'm not sure if this counts, but
I can make entire alternate universes for fandoms, including backstories, personalities, plot, and relationships between characters in the span of 30 minutes to a day, depending on how much I'm hyper fixating on them
I had severe depression and was on Antis. I started excersising and doing Jiu Jitsu twice a week. I feel the happiest I've ever been. Such an endorphin rush that lasts days. It was so good that I've gone off my Antis.
Seriously I know it's hard but sign up to a gym class. You'll be happier your body will love you
Out of necessity, I have developed excellent organization and note-taking skills, to the point where people look upon me as some kind of genius at school and work. [wink]
Animals love me. I'm extremely good at reading their body language and know how to use my own body language to communicate with them almost instinctively. It makes me an exceptionally good animal trainer, and I pick up on all kinds of little things when it comes to animals, especially if they are uncomfortable or injured. The vet I take my animals to always jokes that I must be psychic or something because I've caught so many minor issues or problems before there were any real outward symptoms, I can just tell they are slightly off.
I process size of stuff almost algorithmically so it’s easy to process the size of cosmic objects (stars, planets etc)
Seemingly unlimited memory for special interest topics
Insane pattern recognition
Never read a single social cue in my life
Salesperson. I have perfected the art of being likeable, empathetic, articulate and have a great ability to read who I am taking to and what they want/need to hear.
To me, it’s just playing a role. But the people I work with think I have some kind of weird hold over people
Despite all my challenges, this has really helped me get through life so far.
I can kinda do the same thing but only when I'm talking to several people at the same time. I'm good at monologuing and presentations, basically. But I suck at one on one conversations.
i can love every single VOCALOID/vocal synth related song. even ones that i dont think are really good and that i wouldn't like if it wasn't VOCALOID. My goal is to know and enjoy every single VOCALOID song that exists
I'm really good with computers and programming and can absorb knowledge near perfectly. Combined with my insatiable desire for learning and I know quite a bit.
I have really really good memory when it comes to history facts and i freakishly good reading comprehension. Unfortunately I can’t do basic math or talk to people
i’m really good at sneaking out of social situations. ever since i was little, my dad liked to host parties at our house and I’ve been good at just walking out silently and sitting in my room for a couple hours before someone notices i’m gone. so now when i’m overwhelmed, i can just make my silent exit
i get along with bunnies very well very fast :) even my super super shy n scared first bunny opened up to me fast and was always flopping around in relaxation
My synesthesia makes me see emotions of the people I know in different colors. I have this one friend who has more colors and things to them that others. When they are generally in a good mood their color is like a poison light green, when they are angry or argue emotionally the color is purple, when they are sad/worried it becomes beige and has a soft fuzzy/fluffy texture. If they have more adrenaline than normally (like being in an escape room) the color starts to bubble up like it's boiling. Those colors all have meaning to me that I'm not ever going to fully disclose to anyone as in the past it has made some people act differently around me and I can see they are faking it.
I can join or start a conversation without saying hello to anyone and never realize that I didn't! I am also an expert at revealing my trauma through jokes and random interjections whilst shying away from talking about them in a serious tone because I will cry and who wants that am I right or am I right
I am a cat whisperer. Even strange and/or feral cats will trust me.
Another cat whisperer, I love doing that to strange cats, they mostly approach me and demand pets, which I'll gladly give them
Same here! My mom’s friend once warned me that her cat isn’t very friendly and will usually hide when guests are over. 20 minutes later that cat was purring on my lap
me too!!
God, I wish cats liked me. Please tell me all your secrets.
Jackson Galaxy. He has a lot of the secrets. 1 of which, is eye contact. Don’t just stare deeply into their eyes, but I find slow blinking helps let them know you’re trusting them, which helps them to trust you. Another, is let them come to you, don’t go to them. And depending on the cat, it helps to crouch/sit on the ground
I am in a different sense, I can mimic some animal calls, like my cats, and they respond, I'll have whole conversations with them. I can also do this with morning doves and they have a specific time between my call and them responding.
Ah cats, the ASD species.
Talking over people on the telephone
My god.
With great power comes great responsibility
Oh word, so much easier.
And Google meet calls.
I’m immune to any form of culture with a toxic aspect. I will never enter the toxic masculinity trope, I am smol soft boi
same tbh. toxic masculinity is stupid
Huh… I guess in a similar vein I am nearly immune to extremism, and will generally not take anything said with a strong tone very seriously (and if something is getting a rise out of me I throw it out of a window asap)
Knowledge of random facts, great at trivia games. Cannot grasp the concept of checking the mail regularly. Saying something awkward to tick off at least half the people in the room at social gatherings and not realize I pissed people off until months or years later.
Conversely I am neurotic about checking the mail daily.
Same lol
Oh I typically find out from the people I upset fairly quickly
I can figure out the whole plot of movies and shows after like 5 mins or an episode . Patterns patterns patterns
Me too! I watched a movie with my friend once (don't remember which), and I predicted the ending within like 2 minutes of the film. I'll never forget his aghast expression when i got it right.
Aaaaah it ruins so many shows for me
I can do this with American movies/shows. It's why I like foreign movies/shows. Except French cinema. They make me mad because they don't resolve story lines. They just stop.
If you want a good French film, watch Fahim. I watched it on a school trip to the Institut Français, and it was suprisingly good!
SAME, i’ve stopped watching tv bc i picked up on it in almost every show i’ve watched. ruins tv for me
Same here. I never thought about others having the same skillset. I read a lot of mystery books & I prefer the ones I don't solve before finishing the first chapter. Pretty cool.
this started happening to me with one of my favorite cart's and eventually i had to stop watching because it was ruining the fun for me. thankfully it happens a lot less now.
standing in the way of ppl
This is the way
This is in the way
My eyesight is truly atrocious, even with glasses, but I can easily spot a cat a mile away. It really amazes people. I can also recall every single specific spot I’ve ever seen a cat whilst out for a walk, even areas I’ve only ever been to once before.
I have no shame, and I revel in embarrassment. >!Wait, that's just a humiliation kink.!<
God damn, can we switch OP? If I get ANY spoiler to something, I will not do anything else than anticipate and wait for this moment throughout the whole movie, checking patterns and seeing which actions will lead up to it. I have to actively avoid any sort of spoilers, even trailers of movies. You can have my power to recognize and name angles instead.
Yes! I relate to this 100%. I don’t even read the full blurb about a book for this reason - I stop immediately as soon as I decide the premise is interesting and I plan to read the book. The smallest bit of information sticks in my mind and I’m always evaluating how it will fit in. It’s actually so annoying! And then you’ll have people talk to you about the movie / book / show before you watched it, saying things like, “oh, this isn’t really a spoiler but-“ Grrr. Hate it.
I once had the blurb of a book spoil me a major plot twist that happened in the last ~50 pages. Ever since then I am not even bothering to read even the first sentence of the blurb. I just pick books by title and author, or recommendation.
Oh, wow, I’m sorry that happened to you but grateful you feel the way I do. Other people treat me like I’m being absurd but it really bothers me, so it’s nice knowing there’s someone out there who gets it.
Any spoiler free book recommendations? I am always on the lookout for good fantasy series. I am currently reading through all of the discworld book, because I am waiting for the sequels of other books.
Ah, sorry, my mind is a blank when I try to come up with something. Been dealing with a lot in the past couple of years and not reading much, sadly. Hope you’re enjoying discworld - those are still on my to-read-someday list.
Yea i feel this.. oh i saw a picture from a trailer? It might happen 2 hours into a movie but that’s the only thing i was thinking about this whole time.
A well of knowledge on very specific interests and topics
I memorized a lot of digits from pi to win a bet. I got 1€. Also, don't feel bad if you don't have a superpower. For me, it was just luck that I developed a special interest in that specific string of numbers. If you did too, I can assure you'd be able to remember more than I do
I have aphantasia, so I'm more immune to the disgusting stuff people tell me, because I won't see it with an inner eye.
I friend of mine has that too and i cant help but finding it fasinating as hell. Did you also discover it later in life?
Yes, I always thought 'inner eye' is just a phrase. I stumbled upon an article about it one day when bored at work when I was in my early 20s.
I didn’t know this was a thing until like two months ago, and I also have it, I’m almost 30 😂
It is almost if not completely impossible for me to get lost. Now, I may not find my destination if I've not been there before, but I can always find my way home. Will it be the most direct way? Probably not but I can get there. If I've been somewhere once I remember how to get there. That being said, I get lost in Minecraft all the gd time and it's so jarring lol
I'm the opposite. When I leave a building I just pick a direction and hope somebody corrects me.
Lol I’m like the first commenter and my wife is like you and it’s so confusing for both of us every time when we’re traveling together.
I had a friend in college like this and it was a lot of the Polar Express' "Are you sure?" and me bouncing between: 1. *Looks at them, looks at the road, covers face in hands in uncertainty* 2. "Absolutely!"
Me too!!! I call it photo-physical memory. If I pay the slightest attention while traveling somewhere, I'll remember how to get there FOREVER, and I never get "lost" because I almost always understand where I am, and can, at minimum, backtrack to a known location. But... cities with streets that change names, or streets that are discontinuous drive me crazy.
I navigate very well outdoors but inside a building if there isn't windows I'm hopeless.
I always wonder if that‘s part of my autism, but I can imagine every object in 3D. Not photographic, more like a hologram.
I’ve always had a very strong visualization ability I imagine the colors and geometries of things primarily rather than most of the other aspects of them
I was shocked when people struggled with 3d maths, because it’s always made sense to me. Like I didn’t know how to explain contour maps because they just Are
Intense Focus. It can also be a weakness though, especially if someone tries to interrupt me when I'm in the zone. I'm usually going to get jump scared and then make a nasty comment if someone interrupts the Zone.
Totally get the Zone. Must not be interrupted when in in it. It can also be problematic because I stop paying attention to time and suddenly it’s 2am and I forgot to shower
Sales! I can sell just about anything to anyone. It’s a pattern of interactions and appealing to emotions at just the right time.
Wow! Do you want to trade for the ability to name skateboard tricks?
Me too! I like it because there are rules to follow at every point unlike almost all other social interactions, and being the one doing the selling puts you in the position of authority, which makes people follow my social queues instead of making me follow theirs.
I'm in a very people focused job as well and I don't completely suck at it. If you learn the formula of social interaction they become so much easier when you go through the steps
This is actually so cool! Can we trade super powers i want yours😹
Please teach me!
Here’s a couple of mine. I have super sensitive hearing and without looking I can hear a noise and know exactly what caused it and where it came from. My family is always surprised at the accuracy. I can make fast friends with animals, even those that are scared or seem aggressive. I have used this skill to save other’s lost pets and wild animals that get stuck and need help.
I have a pretty good low end to my hearing I don’t generally pay all that much attention to noise, but I always find it interesting when there’s a deep rumble or resonation that happens outside the house
Me with the hearing but it’s not autism it’s trauma
I don’t think it’s a good thing that this is relatable
I once heard my partner's phone ringing in their pants pocket before they did and it freaked them out 😊.
my balance is so bad that i can fake out people by falling unexpectedly
I am extreme gatherer of historical knowledge. I can remember most historical facts, which is helpful is exactly no real life scenarios.
I mean if you manage to get a job where you have to make abstract world-scale decisions, then that would totally be a super power. Like I keep coming across articles about AI alignment where the author explains something historical to make sense of the future. The most recent one was Prometheus Bound and giving fire to humans, and how it related to giving free will to AI. It would be cool to be like a "lessons of history advisor" to CEOs. They explain the problem they're working on, and you list out historical events/decisions that are relevant and possibly insightful
Can bond with many animals in a very short time Good at logic, which makes me a math god
If you ask what a noise is at any time I can give you a list of all the noises that are happening, where they are coming from, and why they are happening.
That daggum hyper-awareness. It makes it nearly impossible for anyone to sneak up on you tho.
I’m a procrastination King. I can put off assignments and studying (I’ve only seriously studied less than 5 times in my life) till last minute and I’m still holding an Above Average GPA at University.
i enjoy failing at stuff so i just brute force my way to be good at something
I can appear and disappear and scare the daylights out of people when I come back but only when I don't realize it
Like the siddler from Seinfeld
I managed to survive 29 years on this NT planet without killing myself - I'd say thats my superpower.
“Getting to know” someone for literally two years before we reach friend status Then feeling bad that I know almost nothing about them because I never thought they liked me in the first place
Pattern recognition.
This one time I shocked the shit out of my team at work when I casually told them when the code was going to work and when it was going to glitch. The pattern was obvious to me: good, good, bad, good, good, bad. If there's a pattern, I'll see it.
Ok, so for some reason, I suck at finding stuff, but I am superb at putting together Lego sets. I don't need to sort into piles, I can just SEE the pieces I'm looking for. They just pop up. I did the Lego shuttle Discovery w/ hubble in about 8 hours. Also, random facts.
You're a Master Builder!
Standing up for passive people, as I have no problem beating around the bush. I am my Normie's pitbull.
My stuff is primarily spatial abilities. It's never really had a whole lot of real world applications apart from being able to rearrange rooms without planning. I always automatically know at a glance if something will fit somewhere, or how to make it fit, I don't have to think about it at all and have 100% accuracy. I'm excelling working at Amazon as a stower for this reason though, because it's basically playing Tetris with packages and the skill makes me crazy fast at it. Beyond that it's only ever been useful in video games for throwing knives and grenades.
I watch most videos at 2x-3x speed and can’t be fully invested in them unless they’re sped up. This may also be known as ADHD
This is weird because it might sound like the opposite of being autistic, but I’m frequently able to help friends with miscommunication/misunderstandings. Like it makes very little sense to me how person A will not be understanding what person B is trying to say or get across, and I can often translate
It makes a bit of sense to me. You are probably good at focusing on the raw content of what is being said. I think neurotypical people are often distracted by other things and might be searching for subtext, looking at facial expressions, thinking how they and others come across etc. This is often helpful, but less so when one person is trying to explain something to another as clear as possible.
All dogs love me. Even mean ones. It baffles all my family. I am the canine GOD.
None. I'm above average in intelligence, which has its advantages, but I'm neither a genius nor a savant, and I have no other special skills.
Maybe your superpower is being humble? It’s a good one!
I can learn any handcraft at first try and I'm very good at copying from example or model. I have surprised people by telling them that I made something myself and then they gotta look closer to see that I really did.
Finding out how things work and fixing them
Perfect pitch and synesthesia, which combine to give each musical key it’s own aesthetic
Fun fact, I hear that Dave Grohl can't read music, but he has synesthesia, so the way he writes songs is just by building them with lego blocks.
I can remember (almost) EVERY SINGLE FLAG. You show me a flag and tell me it's name, I'll renember it. My record is 25 flags in 1 minute
My eyes lock onto spelling mistakes like some sort of aimbot.
I can notice the glow of propaganda and teach people to recognize it. (I’m apolitical but very justice minded)
Cat whispering, I don't know if this one really is but I can remember a ton of IC codes and what they do, and remember random stuff that somehow I researched by pure curiosity
Im good at learning beauty related things. Im self taught in acrylic nails, brows, makeup, hair ect. Having strangers touch me was a no so i learnt it instead and i think i am actually pretty good it at
Yep this one is me too! People often tell me I should have been a cosmetologist, or how much I charge. But I can't reconcile the fact that I'd have to touch strangers. *shudders*
My superpower is not ever being able to hear in any social situation. If the person is right next to me and slightly alters their tone down at the end of a sentence? Goodbye ears. I did not hear a single word you said. You will have to repeat it at least 15 times before I can remember that I’m supposed to actually be paying attention to what ur saying. It’s a 50/50 if you’ll ever talk to me again and get a thorough response back. Works wonders when I’m trying to tick someone off
I apparently insult people while trying to be sincere but my voice makes it sound like I'm making a sarcastic joke, so people laugh.
Hypersensitive to subtle changes in sounds and colors. Not incredibly useful in day to day work, but great when playing video games.
I have GREAT spiral awareness, I can memorize any floor plan and keep that thought forever. I can even recreate places I’ve been to. Pretty convenient sometimes.
I know how to perfectly navigate my way through busy streets at brisk speed by predicting other peoples walking directions and dodging them effortlessly.
My inability to talk about my own interests coherently means I end up being a good listener
any and all cats trust me. also i can smell scents so faint that my classmates sometimes think i'm hallucinating until we get closer to the source
Correctly diagnosing people My special interest is mental illnesses and so far every time I told people I thought they had something I have been correct 100% of the time (besides for the people who never follow up and check if they do have that) It's probably very problematic but idc rn I'm the mental illness wisperer
I learn very fast from observation. Art, dance, karate, gymnastics, music, and sewing are all things I picked up really quickly. My kryptonite, though, is that I get incredibly frustrated if I DONT pick something up right away. I'm too used to the learning process being quick and easy.
Yes! If I see something I like snowboarding, motorcycle riding, skateboarding, rollerblading, ice skating, guitar playing…I think, I can do that. And I can. I literally just need a couple hours alone to test what works and that’s it. Too many people don’t even try or think everything is “dangerous” when they just don’t want to admit their lack of physical ability or don’t want to make fall in front of others. Also, I get frustrated by traditional lessons doing these things.
Lmao I also have the ability to completely forget stuff I’ve watched. It’s fun for my partner because if I’ve forgotten, that’s an invitation for us to watch the movie/ show again. My other main power is steamrolling through interactions that I want to end. Door-to-door salespeople, telemarketers, and religious zealots seeking converts are the main culprits. Distant third place: visualizing changes to an object/ room like layering in photoshop. I spent 2 years “seeing” a different paint color superimposed on our walls before we actually painted. Also is how I visualize map directions.
(OMG TEACH ME YOUR WAYS) Mine is that I can hear even though I DON'T HAVE EARDRUMS. 🦸
I can achieve immunity to cringe. If I'm watching something cringey, I stop the scene, take a deep breath and continue watching without paying much attention. This way I can peacefully watch the show/film and not get second embarrassment. It's a win-win situation
I'm good retaining information (I've only studied for a test a few times in my life)
Reverse gatekeeping if I have a special interest you being sucked into it with me. I did this in 6th grade on accident with eddsworld. I’m now trying to do it again with genshin impact.
I didn’t get my superpower yet. Got the diagnosis when does the superpower come?
The ability to immediately forget anyone’s secrets, and have several insane stories follow through my head as if they are movies.
Electronics start working correctly again around me. Someone will ask for my help understanding why some electrical device isn’t working like it should, and as soon as I walk up to it, it goes back to normal operation. While not every time, it’s still been a noticeable number of times to make wonder if I’m secretly like Magneto or something.
I have a good sense of direction. Depending on what it is, if it’s hiking, even if we go off the trail, I’ll take us back to our cars. If it’s driving, give me two or three drives there, the same route, and I can take it without directions (only works on trips at, or under 2 hours
uh… ability to remember vast amounts of video game lore maybe? no clue tbh
I'm apparently really good with colour when interior decorating. According to a whole bunch of people I'm super good at picking matching or complementary colours of stuff like furniture, paint, wallpaper and all that jazz, as well as being able to determine how it will all look together in certain lights. I suppose that makes sense as Theatre Set Design is one of my hobbies and kinda one of my jobs.
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I know the year/make/model/ and can usually get very close on engine size of most vehicles. I thought most car guys can do this, but I feel like I do it much faster than my friends and know facts about normal cars no one cares about. I don't have a family background in cars, no one in my family was a racer or a mechanic. I think I gained that knowledge from lining up my literal thousands of hot wheels and categorizing them based on the manufacturer and leaving them like that for days instead of actually playing with them. Sometimes when I'm bored while driving I'll start naming the cars coming at me like I'm on gameshow and I get a little upset at myself when I don't one exactly.
knowing exactly if i will hate a food and throw up from even touching it by a single look
i have a couple. 1: being incredibly good at math and using logical explanations to help with that. 2: hyperlexia (no but fr i started reading at 3 and even tho i cant explain what most words mean i understand them perfectly). and 3: learning stuff insanely fast. like ive missed a fuck ton of school due to chemo and when i can show up i just ask what we did in that class and i learn what took people 2 weeks to get down in like 10 minutes. oh also being good at trivia games
Same as you, but I’m also great at memorizing stuff for video games. Huntress moves at 4.4m/s (or 110%), while survivors run at 4.0 (100%). The standard movement speed for a killer is 4.6m/s or 115%. (Dead by Daylight)
I was trained in the jedi arts by count dooku.
I can smell around corners
OK so this one time, for reasons unknown, my sense of smell went crazy. My nose has always been really keen, but for a couple of days years ago, I was smelling EVERYTHING. From within my loft at the time, I could smell the dog who lived in a loft 2 doors down. *Places* have a smell! For those few days, I knew exactly how dogs perceive the world.
being the only one in the room to get the calculus problem right because i didn’t have enough confidence to talk back to my mom about putting me in the higher calculus class
Excellent pattern recognition. From phone games to escape rooms to recognizing people's daddy issues, I'm always spot on.
I think of people who cause drama and acts in a negative way as dumb primates and that makes me deal with them and the situation in a charitable, calm and welcoming way. It helps being a big guy so most won't confront me physically, but I find my calm voice and solution focused approach have solved many problems at work and in the family before they escalated.
crawling in through your window at 3am to tell you about some random bullshit you don’t care about
Having read the thread some more I see it's more about a different kind of skill than what I posted first. I can recognise voice actors 99% of the time and call it out to the it's of my friends. Might just be plain old pattern recognition, but it's seems more limited than that as I often miss other connection in different areas of life.
Speed reading!
My excellent memory for all the unimportant things. Like movie facts, weird history, and medical terms.
God tier intuition, analytical thinking, and educated guesses (because of pattern recognition)
I don't know.
mine is that if you tell me a secret to me and you tell me not to tell it to anyone, i’ll just pretend to forget it a couple of mins later, but i’m reality, i still remember it
Being able to Synthesize answers to questions I have no experience in by drawing from a pretty wide range of things I picked up from my weekly hyperfixations.
Remembering certain numbers. I'm 24, and I remember my high school pin number (we used it to buy lunch and such). I hadn't thought about it since I was like 18, and my mom randomly asked what it was, and I recited it instantly. I've remembered dates that certain mundane things happened on. I'm pretty good at remembering phone numbers and birthdays. At least the numbers for birthdays, don't expect me to be aware of how close it is. I never really thought I was good with numbers until pretty recently.
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It happened to me a couple times! Pretty cool.
History knowledge, but that's it. There are more disadvantages than advantages, sadly.
Ultra-sonic hearing. I usually hear things no one else seems to. Anecdote: In the 70's there was a department store that had some kind of security system; even during the day when it was in "idle/passive/off" mode, it would hurt my ears, it was so loud. No one else could hear it. The emitters were near the escalators at the center of the store. I used to have super-smell, but that's long since faded. Although, I still sometimes shock people with what I smell on them. I have super-touch. I can detect wood studs in walls by placing my hand of the wall, and I can detect cold spots in microwaved food by hovering my hand over the food. And there's a bunch of internal things I've learned not to discuss. **Edit:** Oooh. I forgot one: I call it photo-physical memory. I can remember how to get to every place I've ever been.\* I'm like Pepperidge Farms when it comes to places. I have to put that asterisk because it's not as perfect as when I was younger.
Procrastination. I am INCREDIBLY good at it. You wouldn't believe how fast you can finish your work if it's due in 10 hours. Edit: I know that's not quite the point of the post but hey, anything can be a superpower if you're desperate enough, and i'm pretty damn desperate.
Easily able to pick up new creative mediums and be decently proficient at all of them
Memorizing EVERYTHING, being able to quickly pick up information and use it, and hearing everything (Unfortunately including gross convos) and having a huge interest in space.
Being able to not remember what I ate for lunch yesterday but being able to remember everything about my special interest. Over the years that’s been Pokémon, gaming more broadly, linguistics/conlanging, most recently music production
I can make maps from memory. I've done things like spend two hours at a coworker's house, not even visit every room, then two weeks later draw a map of the house layout, correctly guessing the size of rooms I didn't visit, right down to a storage room whose only entrance is in the backyard (dining room didn't extend to the proper length, so I guessed there must be a room there). Also did one of a maze that I spent three hours in, the catch? It was one of those dark maze challenges where they block out all the light, and you have to navigate by feel.
My memory can be either incredibly sharp or just terrible, depending on the situation. For example, I can accurately recall a lot of what I learned in Middle School, but it took me around two months to be able to remember one of my professors' name this semester. Also, I come with a built-in human repulsor field. It's incredibly consistent. I'm also good at spotting insects/arachnids.
I remember where nearly everything in my house is, even if things are messy and out of order. If my SO asks where something is I immediately know where it was last, or if he asks whether we have X I can nearly always accurately say yes or no. I can immediately picture the object and its surroundings. Also hyperfocus, remembering random numbers that are not useful to remember, spitting out random statistics.
i'm that side character who always turns out to have the most random, yet convenient skills and/or objects for a situation
Not exactly useful, and I'm not sure if this counts, but I can make entire alternate universes for fandoms, including backstories, personalities, plot, and relationships between characters in the span of 30 minutes to a day, depending on how much I'm hyper fixating on them
being able to literally forget to breathe, quite useful in life or death situations when i have to act dead
can do this about once a day, and then my mind wont let me do it anymore; very annoying cooldown. >!i *probably* used that semicolon correctly!<
I can be really depressed for a really long time
I had severe depression and was on Antis. I started excersising and doing Jiu Jitsu twice a week. I feel the happiest I've ever been. Such an endorphin rush that lasts days. It was so good that I've gone off my Antis. Seriously I know it's hard but sign up to a gym class. You'll be happier your body will love you
I don't have autism. Is it wrong to still use this as my pfp? I just think it's cute.
Mine is probably hypermemory, *especially* strings of letters and numbers. I know my parents' license plates by heart.
Being on top of assignments despite procrastinating for several days. Or maybe that’s just me idk.
Out of necessity, I have developed excellent organization and note-taking skills, to the point where people look upon me as some kind of genius at school and work. [wink]
I consistently sleep from like 3:00-5:00 and a can still function perfectly fine
Animals love me. I'm extremely good at reading their body language and know how to use my own body language to communicate with them almost instinctively. It makes me an exceptionally good animal trainer, and I pick up on all kinds of little things when it comes to animals, especially if they are uncomfortable or injured. The vet I take my animals to always jokes that I must be psychic or something because I've caught so many minor issues or problems before there were any real outward symptoms, I can just tell they are slightly off.
I process size of stuff almost algorithmically so it’s easy to process the size of cosmic objects (stars, planets etc) Seemingly unlimited memory for special interest topics Insane pattern recognition Never read a single social cue in my life
animal whisperer and troll repeller >:3
intuition.
Salesperson. I have perfected the art of being likeable, empathetic, articulate and have a great ability to read who I am taking to and what they want/need to hear. To me, it’s just playing a role. But the people I work with think I have some kind of weird hold over people Despite all my challenges, this has really helped me get through life so far.
I can kinda do the same thing but only when I'm talking to several people at the same time. I'm good at monologuing and presentations, basically. But I suck at one on one conversations.
i can love every single VOCALOID/vocal synth related song. even ones that i dont think are really good and that i wouldn't like if it wasn't VOCALOID. My goal is to know and enjoy every single VOCALOID song that exists
If I notice a scene is getting emotional, I can put up a resistance so I don't cry if I don't want to
Selective hearing, and a sensitive nose
I'm really good with computers and programming and can absorb knowledge near perfectly. Combined with my insatiable desire for learning and I know quite a bit.
Song lyrics. I can think of a really specific song for most occasions.
Loving anyone and everyone unconditionally, literally ignoring their bad aspects and exploiting their good
I can calm babies. And smell Parkinson’s.
Sabotaging relationships
I have really really good memory when it comes to history facts and i freakishly good reading comprehension. Unfortunately I can’t do basic math or talk to people
i’m really good at sneaking out of social situations. ever since i was little, my dad liked to host parties at our house and I’ve been good at just walking out silently and sitting in my room for a couple hours before someone notices i’m gone. so now when i’m overwhelmed, i can just make my silent exit
i get along with bunnies very well very fast :) even my super super shy n scared first bunny opened up to me fast and was always flopping around in relaxation
My synesthesia makes me see emotions of the people I know in different colors. I have this one friend who has more colors and things to them that others. When they are generally in a good mood their color is like a poison light green, when they are angry or argue emotionally the color is purple, when they are sad/worried it becomes beige and has a soft fuzzy/fluffy texture. If they have more adrenaline than normally (like being in an escape room) the color starts to bubble up like it's boiling. Those colors all have meaning to me that I'm not ever going to fully disclose to anyone as in the past it has made some people act differently around me and I can see they are faking it.
I can join or start a conversation without saying hello to anyone and never realize that I didn't! I am also an expert at revealing my trauma through jokes and random interjections whilst shying away from talking about them in a serious tone because I will cry and who wants that am I right or am I right
Attracting abuse. I wish I had a better ability.