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Re:Ask HN: I am the dumbest person in the room. What should ... by swayvil on Thursday March 26, 2015 @11:55AM (#9270530)
Intelligence, the engineeringly problem-solving version anyway, looks like focus to me. So the superfocused win. The autistics win.

But those guys like to eat their own poo.

Re:Ask HN: I am the dumbest person in the room. What should ... by spdustin on Friday March 27, 2015 @01:59PM (#9277970)
FFS, autism isn't about focus. Find a more meaningful and less insulting word.

You'll find that those on the spectrum who gravitate to technology jobs do so not because they can focus any better, but because they are more comfortable with systems that are predictable (computers) rather than capricious, condescending, noisy and random (humans).

Re:Ask HN: I am the dumbest person in the room. What should ... by swayvil on Monday March 30, 2015 @03:39PM (#9292030)
Autism, being "on the spectrum" is very much about focus. It is permanent focus. A chronic pinching of awareness. You are stuck, focused. Bright and narrow. It is a different shape of human. It brings a strength and a weakness.

I speak from personal experience. I've been studying the subject my whole life. My family has much AS.

Also, the discipline of meditation sheds much light on it.

Re:Ask HN: I am the dumbest person in the room. What should ... by Simiyu1 on Saturday March 28, 2015 @09:48AM (#9281473)
It is very tempting to classify people. It makes you have the illusion of understanding their behavior. Don't fall into the trap. People my think a certain way twenty years and change in a day. I have heard tjat people think in a million different ways....
Re:Ask HN: I am the dumbest person in the room. What should ... by spdustin on Sunday March 29, 2015 @11:10PM (#9287476)
I speak as someone "on the spectrum" and the father of a boy "on the spectrum" - it's not a sweeping generalization, it's a matter of how the brain differences affect the "theory of self" in the "autistic mind", to turn a phrase.