2 ms·

I feel like this overgeneralizes autism. It's not the guaranteed social death sentence you seem to be describing. It's a spectrum, and there's more to it than s

I feel like this overgeneralizes autism. It's not the guaranteed social death sentence you seem to be describing. It's a spectrum, and there's more to it than social issues. One aspect you're discounting is obsession. Imagine the stereotypical person who knows everything there is to know about trains. Now imagine they were born a millennia ago and focused instead on the weather or soil or logistics or taxes. I can see that being quite valuable, not just to the individual, but to society around them! Value can drive success (particularly if you obsess about it), and success is attractive. As an extreme example, Elon Musk is autistic. I'm positive he got bullied in school, but I'm also sure he has more kids than you and me.

mrangle 2y ago
Not only those essential bodies of knowledge, but anyone who has tried to develop not even a novel product but simply a well executed brand knows the level of almost superhuman focus it takes. Implying that much of what is on the shelf is brought to us by such individuals. That said, this observation is classically subject to survivorship bias. The real issue is the masses of failures underneath, and those who were never even given an opportunity to fail. Their lives were and are also valuable.