And the subsequent, “You know, this would’ve been a lot faster and less painful for everybody if you’d explained what you were going for six months ago”

Wait, is this an autism thing?

My kid would always have another logical argument as to why he shouldn’t need to do the thing.

Wow, after phones, headphones and smart watches, Nothing is now expanding even more?

I feel this in my bones. As a child, I remember telling my mother something along the lines of

Of course I photocopied the relevant section of the text book and gave it in as my homework. The teacher asked for the information. What was I supposed to do?

Oh. Well, I didn’t understand I was supposed to get something out of it, I just did what I was told. You have to tell me why, or I won’t do it.

I never really considered that NT people might not operate like that.

Crossposting my own comment from the other thread

I’m in the spectrum myself, I feel this. But I also have to mention that my experience has shown me that when you go down this road, you might need to argue with an asd person who doesn’t get it and wants to keep arguing, and sometimes there’s just no time for that. Sometimes we need to recognise when someone else is an expert and defer to their opinion instead of forcing them to be an unwilling and unpaid tutor. If they’re not an expert otoh and are just an authority (boss, landlord, whatever) then argue away but recognise that unfortunately there can be consequences for arguing with authority, so be prepared and know when to back down for your own well being