I use the Boost app, and I mute certain keywords so I don’t see content containing them. More than these but these are the political ones I started with; liberal, conservative, Trump, Biden, Kamala, MAGA, Elon

Also helps for the furry content, but different keywords.

Exact same.

I’ve run some local llms (3060, 12g vram), and I daily generate images locally (wouldn’t pay for that), but I do pay for a chatgpt subscription. I think it’s worth it for my purposes. Responses are way faster and higher quality than any local model I’ve tried, web search integration, image recognition, mobile app seamless, I use all of those features regularly. Unfortunately I’ve never ver used POE so I can’t compare, sorry.

Not always necessary but can be nice: Bug repellent A cooler with water/ice Shoes/sandals/flip flops for walking in sand

Not specifically about Autism or NTs, but In my professional life I’ve found the book “Crucial Conversations” useful: https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Conversations-Talking-Stakes-Second/dp/0071771328/

It breaks down psychological studies and kind of simplifies the rules for how to have difficult conversations that need to happen.

Also, it sounds cheesy but I found value in “How to win Friends and Influence People”. Finding a way to take a real interest in what others are saying and asking follow up questions "shows* them that youre invested in the conversation. Remembering a few key things, like they have a dog or their kid was sick and asking about it the next time you see them shows you put in the effort and they will generally reciprocate. It still feels forced for me after 30+ years, but it works.

Thanks for sharing “Field guide to Earthlings”, just ordered it for my teenage daughter, she’s been struggling with the emotional toll of trying to enter into social relationships with NTs recently. She hadn’t had an interest in the past but has recently been trying and it’s been hard to explain. I believe I’m on the spectrum but undiagnosed, but I’ve developed so many mechanisms for interacting with the rest of the world it can be hard to explain them. They’ve become ingrained and almost second nature. I only get “in trouble” when I try to explain to NT how I think, other than that I mostly blend in.