Related: I'm often shocked that people don't use common sense to handle situations where they don't have complete and explicit knowledge. It seems that some folks don't have the confidence to try muddling through in unfamiliar situations.

I tend to agree, and I've had the same experiences [1]. Still, isn't this exactly how I look to neurotypicals in terms of social knowledge? Couldn't they just as well say, "You don't know how to do small talk? Gee, just try different things until it works!"?

[1] On the first day of Kindergarten, I ruined the lesson plan by being able to decipher "Welcome to Kindergarten" written in cursive on the blackboard, since (as my mom explained later) the lesson plan depended on the whole class not knowing what it meant, and "Kindergarteners don't know cursive". I didn't, of course, but I knew enough heuristics to guess it's probable meaning.