I think the author is trying to say that "not good with people" is rather different than "autistic". Yes, as a consequence of their disability, autistic people

I think the author is trying to say that "not good with people" is rather different than "autistic". Yes, as a consequence of their disability, autistic people often do have trouble interacting with other people, but there's a specific pattern to their difficulties which is not shared by your typical "not good with people" geek. > But saying someone displays autistic behavior doesn't say he's autistic. Actually, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism#Diagnosis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism#Diagnosis "Diagnosis is based on behavior, not cause or mechanism". I.e., autism is defined by exhibiting autistic behavior. (Although, I grant that in this case the person labeling the behavior as autistic is not a doctor and not qualified to make just a diagnosis.)