

Autism and Programmers - gb
http://hossgifford.com/2009/autism-and-programmers/

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branden
_But what happens if you create a concentration of left brain thinkers?
Imagine if an industry sprang up that relied on such people, resulting in a
dense population of super-geeks. So dense that they started breeding little
geeks. If autism is genetic, as it we are starting to believe it is, would
this not cause an increase in the cases of people being born with traits from
the autistic spectrum?_

This theory was proposed in a paper by Simon Baron-Cohen (ref:
[http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news/Systemizers-
Have-A...](http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news/Systemizers-Have-A-
Higher-Risk-Of-Children-Suffering-From-Autism-7432-1/)). His study showed that
children of "high-systemizers" were more likely to be autistic. If this is
true, it would explain quite a bit. The rise in autism rates seems to match
the growth of the tech industry and the value of "knowledge workers."

~~~
kansando
Autism is more complex than that. See for example
[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=vitamin-
d-a...](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=vitamin-d-and-
autism). One of the big mysteries is that Somali immigrants to the US and
Sweden have a much higher rate of autism than their native counterparts. Other
factors implicated include increasing parents age at time of birth(mother's
and father's), more frequent ultrasounds, more chemical environment, etc. Once
you start to think through each factor, the N^2 effect of geeks marrying other
geeks is unlikely to explain the 5-10X increase in autism over the last 20
years.

~~~
cabalamat
> One of the big mysteries is that Somali immigrants to the US and Sweden have
> a much higher rate of autism than their native counterparts.

Given that Somalia lacks a government, I would imagine health care there is
rudimentary, and it's likely that autism (and other conditions) is under-
diagnosed.

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sridharvembu
This whole autism-geek connection is a useless myth. I have a son with autism,
and we know a lot of parents with autism. Parents come from every income
range, social class, profession and "geek orientation".

And contrary to another myth, most autistic kids (the vast majority) have no
savant skills. It is a disease. The ones who recover do tell how they felt
trapped inside.

For those of you who have young children or planning to have children, here is
a suggestion: investigate just how many vaccines we are giving kids these
days, and compare that to how many were given 25-30 years ago. Educate
yourself - I wish I had. I trusted the "system" implicitly, without realizing
that the average doctor and certainly the average pediatrician is an
unthinking protocol pusher. The average pediatricians typical workload could
be automated. Enough said.

~~~
trapper
Seriously, while I feel for you, get the facts. There is no evidence linking
autism to vaccines. While dosing frequency has increased, dosing volume has
decreased. Not only that, even if you are right, a lot more kids would die
from the vaccinated diseases if we lose herd immunity as a whole.

Don't you find it the least bit suspicious that the only people who "figured
out" this mystery are quacks with books and supplements to sell? Isn't it much
more likely to be caused by our terrible food, chemical-laced water or other
modern issues like proximity to high-strength EM?

~~~
sridharvembu
For your information, the government recently legally conceded a case of
autism-vaccine connection where the parents (both medical professionals) had a
perfect record of their daughter's medical history.

Keep down-voting me; but if you have a kid, please, please investigate this
before you accept conventional wisdom.

~~~
trapper
I know both sides. I have a friend who is one of the greatest proponents of
alternative medicine treatments of autism. Both my children have been
vaccinated.

[http://www.babble.com.au/2009/02/24/bad-science-how-the-
auti...](http://www.babble.com.au/2009/02/24/bad-science-how-the-autism-
vaccine-scare-snowballed/)

I shouldn't have to explain how a legal ruling doesn't equal evidence.
Scientific proof is demonstrated using repeatable studies, which have been
done. Go look them up.

There is no validated mechanism by which vaccines cause autism. At the moment,
my money would be on things like genes (highly likely) or environmental
contaminants. But, it's just speculation. We just don't know at the moment.
This may be hard to accept as a parent, but it's the reality.

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DenisM
_Lou has to have the right music in his head to spot his patterns and I, like
many developers, have experience of getting into the zone with the help of
familiar ambient music. It’s as if the regularity of the music, it’s lack of
surprising contrast, drowns out the rhythmless noise of our environment. The
alternative is to completely remove all noise..._

Any suggestions on this kind of ambient music? Thanks!

EDIT: I'm looking for specific suggestions of which artists/collections/radio
channels worked best for you. Thanks to all who replied!

~~~
caudicus
On iTunes you can go to Radio -> Ambient and there are a bunch of stations
that play the style of music. I'm a fan of StillStream and Drone Zone.

~~~
prodigal_erik
Pandora also has a good selection of electronica and ambient music, and can
store and learn what you like in a custom "station".

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saurabh
Just out of curiousity, does anyone here listen to old Bollywood songs while
coding; the likes of Kishore Kumar and such? They are very melodious.

