Why business needs people with Asperger’s syndrome, ADD and dyslexia

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."

"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"<p>I think someone is forgetting one of the three virtues of programming: laziness.<p><a href="http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?LazinessImpatienceHubris" rel="nofollow">http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?LazinessImpatienceHubris</a>

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.<p>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.

I can't speak for dyslexia or asperger's, but there <i>are</i> documented advantages to not being able to pay attention: <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/02/why-being-sleepy-and-drunk-are-great-for-creativity/" rel="nofollow">http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/02/why-being-sleepy-a...</a>

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.<p>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.

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%...

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.

I recently read Elizabeth Moon's Nebula Award winning <i>Speed of Dark</i>. It's about a cure for autism being forced upon employees by a corporation.<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FC1B2Y/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=486539851&#38;pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&#38;pf_rd_t=201&#38;pf_rd_i=0345447557&#38;pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&#38;pf_rd_r=1AZESFK9ENHSB7612CV9" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FC1B2Y/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp...</a>

There is no such thing as Asperger's or ADD. It's just the term boring morons use for interesting clever people.<p>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"<p>But fortunately we don't care what a bunch of dreary moron office drones think of us - even when we bother to notice them.

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 ...<p>is it a problem ? well really its a opportunity ...<p>the most wanted ppl. is free for hire ...