Comment by austin-cheney | Hacker News Reader

Comment by austin-cheney | Hacker News Reader

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I was in a rut for a couple of years. Here was my solution:

1. Own your space.

That's it. Don't let other people define you. What this means in practice:

* Don't take a job if you know its filled with stupid people. An an example I love writing JavaScript/TypeScript applications. I super love it, but I will never do it for work ever again. Most people who write that code for a living suck at what they do and are hostile/insecure about it. I would rather flip burgers than work at an adult day-care parenting the toddlers who are too incapable to use a ruler or write an email.

* Always achieve supervisor support. Know your boundaries and always support your boss because you expect them to support you. If your leadership sucks, or worse is toxic, you are in a bad situation. I would gladly take less pay to work with fantastic people. In my case I am in management and work with another manager. That other manager was toxic so I, as politely as possibly, told him to go fuck himself and immediately made my boss aware.

* Be ethical. If you are in management be a shining example for your people to follow. Never assign tasks to your people you are not willing to do yourself, even if its scrubbing shit out of blown up toilets. Never be a hypocrite. Always be aware of and care for the emotional needs of your people. The goal is to retain your people as best you can even through stressful projects.

* Do what makes sense. Most people, surprisingly, are incapable of this. Most people strive for what they perceive as externally validated solutions from peers they have never met. This is autistic bullshit that drives people to hate you. Instead, follow the evidence and save your team from other people's insanity.

Doing these, especially the first 2, are what pulled me out of my rut.

Considering your comment history is nothing but autism bashing (which I was recently diagnosed with), I think it's interesting that you would leave a comment.

I'll share my opinions with you on the four points you mentioned in order to start a conversation.

1. This reads like satire to me. I'm not sure if your anecdotal evidence (n=1) even counts. Let me give you a counterexample. In my previous/first job after college, there were several colleagues who, based on your comment history, matched your criteria for competence (deep understanding, solving edge cases, broad knowledge).

2. That's a reasonable point. However, it is unclear to me how you were assisting your supervisor by "politely telling your other manager to screw themselves."

3. Thanks, noted. Although, I will not be in a managerial position in the near future (if at all).

4. You're absolutely right to "do what makes sense," but how is the inability to do so "autistic bullshit"? Care to elaborate?

After reading your comment again, I'm not sure if YOU read my post past the title because you didn't even answer my questions.

Anyway, thanks for the reply.

Its not satire and its not for everyone. When I say JavaScript developers are generally incompetent it does not mean an absolute 100% of everybody who touches a keyboard should face a firing squad. Its an industry average and its a fair personal opinion backed by observation and employment data. Yes, my direct opinions may make some people super duper sad, but I suspect those people are saddened by many things both on and off the computer as well as is the nature of sensitivity/fragility.

2. My manager would rather see it from me first with evidence instead of hear about it from toxic people who spread rumors when they cannot be inconvenienced by evidence. Evidence and measures are important for many things and yet some people struggle with this eternally to their own grave disadvantage.

4. Large scale self-reported surveys indicate that about a third of people who write JavaScript primarily for their profession are on the spectrum. Through most of my career I realized things were odd, but did not consider autism a factor because I was unfamiliar with it outside of work. Then suddenly I became very familiar with autism in the personal world. Once you learn to see it and learn the indications you cannot unsee it. When you encounter it, its as if it glows in the dark. Autism is a mixed bag and people with autism can be quite talented in a variety of ways. One of the most common unifying indications of autism is generalized, constant, and pervasive anxiety that is typically minor but always present and cannot be switched off. Its a natural response to decision collision. This becomes more clear when you read about the neuro-physiology of autism. People operating under anxiety typically seek comfort as a primary motivation. People who are, on the other hand, hypo-neurotic tend to abandon comfort as a motivator, thrill seekers, and instead focus on original solutions. When evidence suggests a conclusion contrary to sources of comfort my experience tells me people on the spectrum will simply abandon the evidence immediately. That is something I find exceptionally problematic. Its why autistic people almost universally prefer packaged solutions from strangers, because its something to which they can attach external validation without further evaluation. This applies to code, but it also applies to most everything else in life too, such as food.

I appreciate your thorough response.

2. It's not always possible to obtain evidence because there may be dubious strategies at work. But, in general, you're right.

4. "Large scale self-reported surveys indicate that about a third of people who write JavaScript primarily for their profession are on the spectrum"

Source? All I could find was https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2022, which indicates 3.7% for autism, though it's unclear for autism AND frontend.

"One of the most common unifying indications of autism is generalized, constant, and pervasive anxiety that is typically minor but always present and cannot be switched off."

Since autism is different for everyone, I wouldn't say that this is a sign that all autistic people share.

"When evidence suggests a conclusion contrary to sources of comfort my experience tells me people on the spectrum will simply abandon the evidence immediately."

I cannot confirm that, as individuals on the autism spectrum tend to be highly analytical.

"Its why autistic people almost universally prefer packaged solutions from strangers, because its something to which they can attach external validation without further evaluation."

Evidence?

In general, I believe that people should not be put in boxes but should be worked with. What is preventing us from working together to find a solution?

* 4.27% (n=16,163) for autism (https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2022#neurodiversity)

https://2025.stateofjs.com/en-US/demographics/#disability_st...

The question and responses could indicate any number of conditions that may or may not achieve medical diagnostic criteria but respondents reported around 31% have a non-specified mental health consideration.

High analytical personality is orthogonal to anxiety response. As a solid example watch a show called The Pitt. There is a student doctor that does an excellent job acting as someone on the spectrum. This may or may not represent persons on the spectrum in general or in part. The is also a night shift doctor who is hyponeurotic whose behavior is highly stereotypical of persons inflicted with abnormally low anxiety. Focus of that characters behavior. They can make original high risk decisions under stress that internally conflicted persons could never make. In the example of that show this high risk behavior saves lives that could not be saved otherwise and directly informs process and procedure to those around them. The daily decisions that go into writing software are certainly less severe but are no less frequent and the behaviors of analysis and action are not dramatically different. What is different is the nature of clustering statistics of behavior profiles and thus the baseline or average of those personalities in a given profession.

For persons that actually write software, as in writing original applications presenting new solutions, the population average demonstrating an aversion to writing anything is at first exhausting. On a longer timeline that exhaustion graduates to something more. The job begins to feel like a highly restricted numbing copy/paste surrounded by prey animals pretending, or masking, to not be in constant fear. It’s where everything from the corporate world becomes limited to putting text on screen in the exact same slow motion ways while a small fraction of those people do astonishingly amazing things as a part time hobby. It’s where most of your 10x people come from. It’s not that those 10xers are awesome, but that they are less restricted and learn to not waste time from practice solving much tougher problems when not getting paid. In my case, personally, I just got tired of a career that punishes people for not deliberately making bad and knowingly costly decisions that preferences a low performing developer audience in preference to the actual users.

According to your source, 17% of neurodivergent conditions (n=9239) are known to exist; the precise percentage for autism is unclear.

> Neurodivergent conditions" are defined as "ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, dyslexia, etc.

> As a solid example watch a show called The Pitt. There is a student doctor that does an excellent job acting as someone on the spectrum. This may or may not represent persons on the spectrum in general or in part. The is also a night shift doctor who is hyponeurotic whose behavior is highly stereotypical of persons inflicted with abnormally low anxiety.

I'm not sure if a show is a good example. There could be a show where autistic people quietly save the world by writing original code while neurotypical people fight over ideologies (and for the real blockbuster experience, add aliens to the mix).

> The is also a night shift doctor who is hyponeurotic whose behavior is highly stereotypical of persons inflicted with abnormally low anxiety. Focus of that characters behavior. They can make original high risk decisions under stress that internally conflicted persons could never make.

According to recent research, autistic individuals can attain optimal anxiety [1]. Just make sure they have supportive coworkers and the appropriate workspace (written, remote communication). That's what I meant when I said, "working together to find a solution" and I also want to add, ", because autism has its own strengths (hyperfocus)."

> It’s not that those 10xers are awesome, but that they are less restricted and learn to not waste time from practice solving much tougher problems when not getting paid.

Whether neurodiverse or not, I think that the mind benefits from solving challenging problems in general.

> In my case, personally, I just got tired of a career that punishes people for not deliberately making bad and knowingly costly decisions that preferences a low performing developer audience in preference to the actual users.

For this, the right incentives have to be put in place. Short-term quarterly results should not take precedence over long-term planning.

[1] https://arxiv.org/html/2511.02736v1

> I'm not sure if a show is a good example.

Its just a show. I take it you have not worked in a combat zone, in a police force under fire, in a hospital ER with people dying around you, or other constant stress condition. I made the guess you have not spent years in these real world scenarios so I settled on a show that accurately depicts the behavior described in a valid context.

The bottom line is this: most autistic people are probably great, but there are valid behavioral limits present. People who are capable and motivated to do more will eventually burn out when their career is dictated by artificial constraints imposed to appease the given candidate pool. Its a compatibility problem that I moved on from. It some people find that offensive then they can continue to be offended and I will continue to work under different conditions.

You're completely right. I've never worked under such constant stress conditions (god bless).

> People who are capable and motivated to do more will eventually burn out when their career is dictated by artificial constraints imposed to appease the given candidate pool. Its a compatibility problem that I moved on from.

I just want to tell you this: Autistic people (given the right circumstances) can be as capable and as motivated as you are. It's only a matter of workplace adjustment.

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