People "on the spectrum" make the best engineers/scientists/artists. They are really good at concentrating.
Maybe a little autism is good for our society. Maybe we don't want to cure it so much as temper its more extreme cases.
Maybe a little autism is good for our society. Maybe we don't want to cure it so much as temper its more extreme cases.
Sometimes I think that refutation is inherently more attractive than discussion or support. What you think?
"really good at concentrating" by itself is not autism. And as a trait, it is far from universal among people who have ASD. And for those with ASD who can concentrate, that is sometimes to the point of being a disability (hyper-focus to the point of ignoring all else, including personal care). And there's really no such thing as "a little autism" - it's a spectrum defined by having some combination of a larger set of deficits.
If I come across a little snippy, it's because I raised a child on the spectrum. He's now a successful, independent adult, but it wasn't an easy process for him or the rest of the family.
There is a broad spectrum of symptoms which fall under the autism spectrum. Everyone who has ASD, has a number of these symptoms but two people who both have ASD can easily have none of these symptoms in common.
I am a social animal. I like getting along with people. I like being able to feel how others feel by hearing their tone of voice or looking at their face.
If I wanna concentrate I consume caffeine.
It reminds me of dwarves from Norse mythology. Short guys in their little workrooms underground banging away at projects. Grumpy. Making miraculous stuff. The shoe fits.
Musk talks about his brain as if it’s possessed by demons sending him a million thoughts a minute. Not fun.
Has he tried logging off?
What? I'm sorry but I find that to be dehumanizing towards people on the spectrum. They are human beings like us.
I'm genuinely curious, you'd want to be a person who developed perhaps one of the most needlessly complex and obtuse programing languages riddled with bugs and have an even more nebulous idea of what it's built for but assured everyone it was to revolutionize the World via something VC scammers would eventually call Web3 after failing to build the first 'global computer'?
To date, Vitalik represents exactly what HN seems to think about crypto; lots of promises with no real use-cases which all end up as vapourware and exit scams.
I've been in this since he was in an Unsystem member squatting with Amir, and to be honest the only way I can justify his trajectory was that he was always a scammer and was bidding his time, and just decided to take his scam and build an aura of mystique around his... condition as a marketing ploy to justify the horrible thing he has built that's led to countless hacks. Hacks that I personally hope are being used to fund more interesting and viable things, because there is no way you can explain going from building tools like dark wallet/market to crypto kitties and NFTs and have it make any sense other than sheer grift.
With that said, I've worked with outreach programs to reintegrate people on the severely incapacitated end of the autistic spectrum: and I wouldn't wish that on anyone. To live a life with no autonomy and have no real capacity to communicate or to articulate your thoughts is perhaps the worst type of hell I can think of as our very species 'Homo Sapien' translates to Wise Man and often refereed to as a thinking monkey and they have been robbed of their very Humanity.
Like, I couldn't stand being in class listening to the teacher, I never ever listened, instead I just read ahead, guessed and completed the homework assignment, and never had homework in high school because of it.
My ADHD brain has kept me poor mixed w/ depression, but I feel my logical autistic side sometimes balances it out, and makes me think before doing something stupid/spontaneous.
Like I sometimes forget things, so I create rituals when I do forget something, so I don't do it again. Example: I left my keys in car back in 2003, had a bunch of latino guys helping me in SLC try and break into my own car.
Since that day, I never turn the car off until I've got one foot out the door, as a reminder the keys are still in ignition because it's running. Lost my wallet once, and now I always put it in the same pocket, and the same place at home when not in my pants.
There's some things not great about autism, especially higher up on the spectrum, but maybe evolution sometimes has hiccups before it gets things right. Sometimes I think autism is more a blessing than a curse, and there definitely are many great minds who probably were on the spectrum.
It could be an evolutionary leap eventually, I hate how people always call it a disorder or negative. Yeah, okay if you're non-verbal or something yeah that's not great, but if you're just very pithy when talking about a topic you're interested in, and have a weird sense of humor (snarky redditors - as I'm convinced reddit is literally the social network for autists), and a little ocd but not clinically so, then it's not all bad.
ADHD on the other hand, I could really do without. I'm on wellbutrin for depression which raises dopamine, and vyvanse for ADHD which also raises dopamine, and my ability to focus and get motivated has skyrocketed since I started it a few months back, but before that my life was miserable. I'm making 7k monthly now freelancing, I made 7k last year because I was anxious, depressed, and had fatigue from long-covid.
I just had panic attacks even thinking about prospecting for new clients. I had one good one but she was sporadic, and she recommended me to my new client who's awesome and gives me 40+ hours per week. Though, I probably should raise my rates... I'm a USA dev, freelancer with 10 years experience in laravel and right now I'm doing django/python stuff and still only charging $40 (same as I did like 4 years ago)... minimum wage has gone up like $10 in a lot of places either by force, or by competition.
It's amazing though what the right medical cocktail gets you.