
Why business needs people with Asperger’s syndrome, ADD and dyslexia - shill
http://www.economist.com/node/21556230?fsrc=scn/tw/te/ar/inpraiseofmisfits
======
poundy
Dr. Temple Grandin, an adult with autism who became a successful engineer,
academic and speaker, believes that her disorder is an asset. She once
famously called NASA a sheltered workshop for people with autism and Asperger
Syndrome. She believes that people with autistic spectrum disorders are the
great innovators, and "if the world was left to you socialites, nothing would
get done and we would still be in caves talking to each other."

~~~
gaius
I'm sure the special needs teachers who made that possible, and the taxpayers
who fund them, are delighted to hear that. Maybe the socialites would still be
in caves, but the "aspies" would be outside starving.

The symptoms of Asberger's are so indistinguishable from "being a dick" that
they might as well be synonymous.

~~~
windsurfer
Your post angers and insults me. Everything you said is negative and mean,
while the original poster was at least trying to add to the conversation. Even
calling those with Asperger's "aspies" is condescending.

~~~
Spooky23
People find their place in the world. I cannot imagine being dyslexic or
unable to empathize with people. It's inspiring that people can turn those
"handicaps" into competitive advantages.

While the comment wasn't very sensitive, it also happens to be true. Our
society tries to build a support structure around folks to enable them to
reach their potential. Sometimes we're successful, other times we're not
successful. In the past, unless your family was able to help you find a place,
folks with mental problems were basically discarded by society.

~~~
option_greek
"Our society tries to build a support structure around folks to enable them to
reach their potential."

I would argue most of the success is due to coping mechanisms developed by
people than societal support structure. In fact, the free markets probably
have more to do with their success than society.

~~~
gaius
NASA isn't a product of the free market, except in the sense that that
"socialites" who work in the free market pay their taxes so Dr Temple can
sneer at them from her ivory tower.

~~~
anigbrowl
NASA is hardly typical of employers, and the free market is not the sole
origin of value. Perhaps you are taking a tongue-in-cheek remark a little too
personally. It's a big world, and it has room for some generally anti-social
loners as well.

------
jere
"Recruiters have noticed that the mental qualities that make a good computer
programmer resemble those that might get you diagnosed with Asperger’s
syndrome... an addiction to repetitive tasks"

I think someone is forgetting one of the three virtues of programming:
laziness.

<http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?LazinessImpatienceHubris>

~~~
Sunlis
I thought the same thing. If there's anything a good programmer shouldn't be
doing, it's repetitive tasks. If you're coding the same thing over and over
again, you're doing it wrong.

~~~
sageikosa
By the time I find myself doing something for the third time, I start
thinking: automation.

------
CodeMage
I wonder just how much I'm overreacting by feeling disgusted about the way
that Asperger's, ADD and stuff like that are suddenly a thing of fashion. It
seems to be a trendy thing for journalists to discuss and a sort of a fashion
statement for geeks.

Maybe I'm wrong, but to me this is a rather simple matter: there are great
people who happen to have Asperger's syndrome, ADD, dyslexia, autism or what
have you, but unless someone proves some sort of link between their greatness
and things they were diagnosed with, then that's just what it is -- people who
happen to be both great and have one of the above.

~~~
anigbrowl
As someone with ADD, I have trouble gaining and maintaining focus while
ignoring distracting factors. However, in an environment where distractions
are minimized (eg a traditional library), or where there is an agreed-upon
system for handling distracting factors - some kinds of workplaces, or an
understanding about personal space/time boundaries - then the flip side of
this is an ability to stay focused on something for hours, days, weeks, if
necessary and a capacity for very rapid adaption and innovation.

In film production, which I used to work at, a _lot_ of people have ADD - but
the highly procedural (and proceduralized) nature of the work optimizes for
this. You need to be willing to keep doing the same thing until you get it
right 10, 20 or more times in a row, but also to drop it and switch to
something completely different at short notice if other conditions change. I
have a strong hunch that people with ADD are considerably over-represented in
the military as well.

------
j_baker
I can't speak for dyslexia or asperger's, but there _are_ documented
advantages to not being able to pay attention:
[http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/02/why-being-
sleepy-a...](http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/02/why-being-sleepy-and-
drunk-are-great-for-creativity/)

------
tmcw
And maybe the way Bill Gates rocks in his chair is low-level aspbergers and
the incidence of aspbergers in men explains why men dominate the computer
industry and possibly these disorders are both indicative of strength in the
area and encouraged by the usage of technology.

Yeah, either that, or pop-science doesn't actually have much explanatory or
prescriptive power in this area until they clear up their own messes with ADD
diagnosis and poorly crafted studies.

~~~
strlen
I don't know about Bill Gates, but several of the people mentioned (e.g., CEO
of Jetblue) have clinical diagnoses and would not have been able to be where
they are without understanding their conditions.

------
roguecoder
Two of the three of those have prevalence rates at around 10% of the
population, so if nothing else not effectively employing such people cuts your
pool of potential employees by 10%...

------
gshakir
Sure, the outlook for people with these disabilities look good. But it is no
fun raising a child with one, every day is a challenge.

------
brudgers
I recently read Elizabeth Moon's Nebula Award winning _Speed of Dark_. It's
about a cure for autism being forced upon employees by a corporation.

[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FC1B2Y/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FC1B2Y/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-
top-
stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0345447557&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1AZESFK9ENHSB7612CV9)

~~~
kstenerud
It wasn't forced upon the employees; they were free to choose to take the cure
or not. Personally, I think Moon's portrayal of the protagonist was overly
dark and depressing (probably to shed some light into the kind of nasty shit
that can happen to an autistic). Given the choice, I'd refuse the "cure".

------
excuse-me
There is no such thing as Asperger's or ADD. It's just the term boring morons
use for interesting clever people.

If we were in charge we would have medical terms for "unable to set the clock
on a VCR" and "unable to read a book when Oprah is on"

But fortunately we don't care what a bunch of dreary moron office drones think
of us - even when we bother to notice them.

~~~
lmkg
I met a friend in college with _real_ ADD. The type where the medication he
takes is about 2 chemical reactions away from straight-up cocaine. One day, he
forgot to take his meds, and I was talking to him at lunch. He was in the
middle of a sentence, and he just... stopped. Completely frozen. Motionless,
mid-gesture, staring off into space. He stayed like this for close to a full
minute, and just as I was about to ask him if he was ok, he yelled out "SHIT,
WHERE'D IT GO!?!" Apparently the sentence he was saying evaporated from his
head while he was in the process of speaking it.

So yeah, there really is such a thing as ADD. I won't contest that it's
overdiagnosed to hell and back. I wouldn't be surprised if only 1 case in 100
is the real thing, or even 1 in 1,000. But there actually is a real thing,
that exists, underneath all the misdiagnoses.

~~~
finnw
Could that not have been withdrawal symptoms?

~~~
cynest
From my personal experience this is an entirely plausible reaction.

------
swedenborg
wannabe big soon companies want socially nice ppl . very few companies hire
for shear capacity because their culture can not handle it ... capacity is
looked at with fear since plain jon/jane can not simply grok ...

is it a problem ? well really its a opportunity ...

the most wanted ppl. is free for hire ...

~~~
Karunamon
Legitimate post, but you're probably being downvoted for the txtspeak and
grammar.

