What is autistic thinking like? What is the thought process?

[Answered on Quora.com by Neil Johnson]

Them: Nice weather, isn’t it.

Me: (Internally) Logical brain is interrupted momentarily by an unrequested comment that is unclear if it's a statement or a question and rejects the word nice as a subjective definition. I have no choice but to reinterpret their statement as them asking me a question about my subjective opinion about the weather, because from experience asking people to define ‘Nice’, and asking if what they said is a statement or a question is not a part of socially accepted replies.

A polite Hello would have been sufficient and I still struggle to understand why neurotypical people don't say what they mean.

So I assess the ambient temperature, windspeed, cloud formations, approximate barometric pressure, actual approximate temperature, etc. I have to assume they find the weather ‘nice’ based on the fact that whatever sensory input it gave them is prompting them to think its nice and they feel they need validation in that experience. In reality, they could have just won £500 on a lottery scratch card and that made them feel good, and the warm sun on their face just prompted them to think that its nice. I don't know because I'm not them and they are not being clear about why they think it’s nice. By this point, I’m frustrated.

All this is in vain anyway as what they are really trying to say is, this weather makes me feel good (or not shit, if you’re from the UK). This is a problem, as my thoughts about weather don’t allow me to associate sun/wind/rain/snow etc. with feelings and emotions. (This is not limited to weather)

At this point I have to mask and put my learnt social chameleon behaviour into use.

Me: (Verbally) Oh, yes. It’s very nice.

For me personally, I don’t have a veneer level of thinking. It’s all deep thought, problem solving methodology, strategy and tactics, cause and effect, ‘what if’ loops and nonlinear causality. Data, facts, black and white, evidence based. I pick up complex concepts very quickly and can make extremely detailed plans and projects to make efficient changes in businesses. It's easy and fun to do this and probably the only thing that gives me actual feelings of pleasure, yes that's inclusive of sex, if you’re wondering about that.