Re:Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for ...
by throwanem on Tuesday November 08, 2016 @05:57AM
(#12899212)
I've never felt stigmatized because of my profession, or as though I have to "switch between two worlds". I suppose there's a point to be made that it's not easy to discuss with someone outside the field the difficulties of implementing algorithm X or integrating API Y with service Z, but I imagine the same must be broadly true of any highly technical field. Are biology and surgery and piloting "Asperger professions", too?
If anything, I've often found that the perspective and knowledge that come with my professional experience are socially valuable, rather than the converse. I get a fair bit of my social interaction over beer and cider at a nearby bar, and it's pretty common that, when a conversation gets around to professions, I find myself fielding questions on all manner of subjects from the plausibility of widespread voting machine fraud to the rise of the machines - I spent a good few minutes the other day allaying fears that turned out to go back to that Ars article with the picture of Arnold as the T-800 that turned up here a little while back. I suppose the possibility exists that I did so in a particularly Aspergery way.
If anything, I've often found that the perspective and knowledge that come with my professional experience are socially valuable, rather than the converse. I get a fair bit of my social interaction over beer and cider at a nearby bar, and it's pretty common that, when a conversation gets around to professions, I find myself fielding questions on all manner of subjects from the plausibility of widespread voting machine fraud to the rise of the machines - I spent a good few minutes the other day allaying fears that turned out to go back to that Ars article with the picture of Arnold as the T-800 that turned up here a little while back. I suppose the possibility exists that I did so in a particularly Aspergery way.