zlacker

Sort of like having any kind of strong interest in any kind of niche topic apparently now magically teleports you onto the autism spectrum. No, that's not how that works . . .

>>psunav+(OP)
Don't forget being observant of things that many people in our distracted (attention economy) society tend to miss/ignore.

I had a friend's wife gas-light him into thinking he is on the spectrum and that many of his friends from college are as well... A well established and respected engineering school in the US. I'm not saying there aren't people there who would most likely fall onto it, but being detail oriented or interested in science and engineering enough to get credentialed in it being a signifier of autism was just sheer lunacy.

It really is frustrating how fast our society devalues and dilutes the meaning of any word these days.

>>doctor+n8
If his friends are engineers that's, uh, believable. It depends on the kind of engineer of course, but they are certainly like that. The question is if they're high-functioning or not.

I always think of the SMBC "old physicist" comic: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2012-03-21

>>astran+Cb
"High-functioning" is contextual for most autistic people. (The trick is to remain in those contexts, while developing skills to push the boundary a bit further out: get good enough at it, and even your closest friends will say "wow, that meltdown came out of nowhere!".)

>>doctor+n8
Autism spectrum highly favors jobs where it's basically person with data. I have seen estimates that a *majority* of programmers (my own field) lie somewhere on the spectrum. I suspect I lie at the mild end of the spectrum--and I see programming as playing to my strengths and against my weaknesses.

>>LorenP+As
Before software paid as well as it does now, the percent on the spectrum was definitely a high double digit %.

Normies have since invaded and finding someone to geek out with has become hard. (No one wants to discuss the finer points of CPU architectures anymore!)

>>LorenP+As
> I have seen estimates that a majority* of programmers (my own field) lie somewhere on the spectrum*

That seems incredibly unlikely today, and doesn't at all match with my experience. Obviously I am not qualified to diagnose someone with autism, but the idea that more than 50% of my colleagues, past and present, are on the spectrum... that just doesn't pass the smell test.