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Logos01 comments on How is your mind different from everyone else's? - Less Wrong Discussion
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I have been diagnosed with Asperger's but am very high functioning. There are definitely tasks I feel this way about; for example, sometimes I will feel completely unable to call people on the phone. Although I often have to plan my conversations in advance, I can usually accomplish such things by breaking them down into subtasks.
EDIT: Actually, on second thought I think I understand what you mean. If you asked me to "make a friend" or anything else that involved too complex a decision tree I would be unable to comply. END EDIT
So specifically what would happen if after simplifying the task of opening a bank account, you simply tried to follow the steps?
Would you be unable to come up with this list? Would you really be unable to complete the first step, driving to the bank? Would there be some interstice between steps in which you have a mental breakdown?
I realize you are saying you cannot complete the task as a whole, I am asking that if you tried to complete the individual steps of that task, at precisely what point would you fail?
I wouldn't get to step one.
Nah, that would be just fine. I'd done so more than once. Without the "whole" picture, it's like trying to put a jigsaw puzzle together when you can't see the whole picture and it has no apparent borders, and the pieces have all been repainted black. You know the pieces all go together. You know you have all the pieces. You just can't visualize how they all go together.
There is an underlying assumption here that "breaking down the task" is intelligible on some level. This is why I tried to give, originally, the example of the fact that tying one's right shoe wouldn't translate to tying one's left shoe. The pieces are learned as a whole, and conceived of as a whole. Breaking it down into individual tasks just makes it more complex, not less. It's like tearing apart the jigsaw puzzle -- it has to be put back together again before you can actually see the image on the puzzle.