I wish people would stop talking so much about neurodivergency in this way. I think we just need to be aware of the differences, to help neurodivergent people where they need help, to adapt to what needs adaptation, and to give them the space they require, as is true to all human beings.
Talking about neurodivengency as a general advantage (or disadvantage) brings no benefit and adds nothing but noise to the discussion.
Personally, I love it when my disability and source of lifetime trauma is treated as a capitalist fetish.
Perhaps ironically, it's one of the many things that makes being an autistic person even harder. As if baseline expectations of you aren't already too much, you're now a hyper-profitable 400x engineer. But you can't be one of the weird ones or your social awkwardness gets you canned no matter how good an engineer you are.
The great thing about remote work & open source is that you can be one of the weird ones, create your own social interface for work, and let your accomplishments speak for themselves.
I strongly agree. It's particularly grating when someone who claims to be neurodiivergent talks about what an advantage it is (as in the linked article).
As someone with ADHD, but who hasn't kept super abreast of official developments in its diagnosis:
My understanding is that while this may have been the case at one time, it is not now.
I believe that there are something like nine symptom clusters for ADHD, and a standard diagnostic measure is whether you have at least X of them at a moderate level, or Y of them at a severe level. Something along those lines, anyway. And the clusters include things like "time blindness", "task initiation", "task perseverance", etc.
(Again, this isn't based on any recent and specific knowledge, but amalgamated recollections of some things I've read on the subject over the past several years.)
> There is clear evidence that the symptoms interfere with, or reduce the quality of, social, academic, or occupational functioning.
That criteria is not optional.
(Someone please correct me if I’m wrong)
Edit: Same applies to Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Criterion F:
> The anxiety, worry, or physical symptoms cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
So if the disorder positively impacts all areas of your life, you can’t be diagnosed with the disorder. Which kind of makes sense.
I agree a rounded view is needed. I just happen to find a lot of discussion online as well as irl to be very demotivating (sometimes bordering on a pitty party, especially on some subreddits), which is why I posted this. Ofc not expecting this to be a "well rounded" analysis - it's a very specific look they wrote about.
Talking about neurodivengency as a general advantage (or disadvantage) brings no benefit and adds nothing but noise to the discussion.
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