The book Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet is a memoir about a man who has Savant Syndrome. The book touched on how the authors mind was different than normal humans. People say that the abilities of a "Savant" are inhuman. They can perform complex mathematical operations easily in their heads. They have and extraordinary ability to remember things. And they feel a sort of special connection towards numbers. In one of the first chapters of the book Tammet describes his feelings towards numbers as if they have their own characters. For example 9 is awkward and shy. Because of this, he has always felt comfortable around numbers. And because of his ability to remember, he holds the record for the most numbers of Pi recited consecutively. He also knows many languages that he learned moderately easily. Some call Daniel Tammet a genius, others call him a retard.
As a child Tammet was thought of as a retard and was bullied in school. He was never very good in social situations and talked to himself at times and did things that other children associated as weird. His parents, even though they loved him, didn't exactly realize that he was a genius. At the time, being a Savant was not a known thing so people thought of him as retarded which did not bode well for him socially and mentally. When he graduated from school, he had a very difficult time finding a job because his talents were not used very often as jobs. But because of his ability to learn languages easily he was able to teach people in Lithuania english. There, people finally realized that they were dealing with a genius and not a retard. He learned lithuanian, a very complicated language, very quickly and was a good teacher.
Many people we meet in the world today have diseases like aspergers that give them social problems and marks them as mentally retarded. But they are actually as, if more capable mentally than normal humans. You cannot judge somebody by how they react in social situations. Many people behind their bad social skills and reactions to simple things are smart, generous and fully capable humans.
