Asperger's: The Engineer's Disease (PBS)

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Space
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26 Oct 2007, 1:36 pm

Some of these stories just make me feel like I am screwed twice in life: I have AS and I am not an engineer/science type :(



AmberEyes
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31 Dec 2008, 2:01 pm

Quote:
Nobody wants to have Asperger's syndrome


Neither did I.
I didn't want to be labeled at all.

I wanted to be me.

I wanted others to respect me for my own personality and quirks.

I wanted people to be friendly, understanding and not bully me if I was slow on the social uptake.

I wanted others to value my creativity and work.

I wanted to be independent.

I wanted to be able to interact with others in an environment where there were unambiguous rules and independent discovery/experimentation/exploration of the physical environment, that fascinated me, was valued.

I didn't want to be pressurised into social participation/cooperation in large groups when I couldn't handle it.
I'm much better at helping/talking to people on an individual basis.



Nambo
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31 Dec 2008, 8:20 pm

Ive got a Lathe!











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MizLiz
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31 Dec 2008, 10:50 pm

Hahaha. My dad is AS and an engineer. I'd show him this, but I don't talk to him about AS because he denies that he has it even though.

Come on. If I have it and we're basically the same person and there's a genetic link...

:roll: :roll: :roll:

Anyway, I think it's pretty bold of them to mention Bill Gates in there. Diagnosing the dead is one thing, but Bill Gates is still alive. Diagnosing the living without ever meeting them is a bit creepier.

Besides, if they wanted to go the computer route, from what I've seen of Steve Wozniak on Kathy Griffin's show, he's a way better fit for AS.



Zonder
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01 Jan 2009, 8:28 am

I didn't consider becoming an engineer because arithmetic didn't come easily for me, even though I test very high in visual-spatial. One tester said to me that if I had pursued math, I'd be working on the space shuttle program now.

My sister works for a major engineering organization in NYC, and does well there, because she understands "quirks" of the engineering personality. As she said, "They're like people in our family."

Z



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01 Jan 2009, 11:54 am

They could have picked some better examples.

I've never been able to admire Newton since I read Steven Hawking's description of the guy. According to Hawking, Newton was a real scumbag.

Bill Gates? I've never heard a computer whiz talking about how Windows is a well engineered system. The guy is undeniably a brilliant snake oil salesman when he's dealing with people who don't know anything and don't want to learn anything, which is most of the population, so he's rich. Also, it's undeniable he's ruthlessly competitive about climbing to the top of the hierarchy. Not somebody I'd admire.

Thinking about Einstein makes me wonder if anybody in the physics community today would bother considering the ideas of a clerk in a patent office. People seem to forget that he contributed very little to science after he left the patent office and became a professor.

The last thing we need is more stereotyping. We're not all males, we're not all geniuses, and we're not all engineers.

A hell of a lot of aspies are just struggling to get by.


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01 Jan 2009, 12:23 pm

alex wrote:
The PBS show Wired Science has a special on Asperger's

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/wiredscience/st ... sease.html


Quote:
Nobody wants to have Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism that limits a person's ability to communicate, often leaving them socially isolated and mired in weird-seeming behavior. But the disorder can sometimes be a strange sort of double-edged sword, coming coupled with powerful, if narrowly focused, intellectual gifts. Put those two together, and it's clear why many people believe any number of scientists and related geeks, from Bill Gates to Albert Einstein, may have or had the disorder.

People with Asperger's generally just seem odd, not obviously impaired - which helps explain why it often goes undiagnosed. Those born with the condition tend not to understand facial expressions, body language and other nonverbal communications, and thus take statements literally, missing implied meanings and subtexts. They often lack empathy, blurting out truthful but unvarnished statements. And they typically fixate on very specific interests-anything from baseball stats to movies to .... (continued by linked page)


Thoughts?


speak for yourself. i'm happy the way i am, and i like the things that i can do because i have asperger's. if i had a choice, i would much rather be AS than NT, despite the social challenges.



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01 Jan 2009, 1:27 pm

No, most boys with Asperger's never finish an ordinary high school education.



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01 Jan 2009, 8:58 pm

Feeling dis-ease about a so-called disease topic

It has been some time since this programme was broadcast. I did not see it, and will try to find out if it can be rebroadcast or available on-line.

Is there a high proportion of engineers with AS. or a high proportion of AS persons who are engineers? Silicon Valley is supposed to have a high proportion of persons with AS who are computer scientists/software developers, or is it the other way around? Of course, not everyone is going to admit being AS, or want to be tested. Had I been successful in my studies or employment, I might have not have needed to be tested. (As it is, for me there is a combination of factors that prevent me from succeeding, and some are extraneous and merely co-exist with AS, but are not synonymous with AS.)


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02 Jan 2009, 1:50 am

Hell, most of my family is undiagnosed AS (me being the most affected, and the only one with a diagnosis.) My dad's a civil engineer, my mother is going into environmental sciences but with a job background in civil/environmental engineering, and I'm planning on majoring in mechanical with emphasis on aeronautics. Coincidence?


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03 Jan 2009, 2:30 pm

God invented computers just for the Aspies.

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garyww
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04 Jan 2009, 2:36 pm

Nice Lathe


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04 Jan 2009, 7:06 pm

garyww wrote:
Nice Lathe


Engineer is something new. Before that were skilled craftsmen, they owned, understood, and used tools.

My injection mold maker fits the AS profile, but as a successful business owner, does work for NASA, no one notices.

Most machine shops I have dealt with have several.

The guy who does local warrenty work on electronics, the guy who fixes microscopes,

Up intil 1990, no one had a degree in computers.

The traits of a narrow and intense long term focus lead to doing well in some fields.

A degree in engineering was a form of managment that at least knew something about production.

They learn about, but cannot run a lathe, milling machine, make a die.

Knowhow and original thought are not taught.

In Startrek Engineering are advanced repairmen. Not designers, but mechanic techs.

When airlines buy a plane from Boeing, they have it delivered, then tear it down and have real mechanics put it back together right.

BMW supports bike shop mechanics, will fly them to Germany for training, for they are seeking the naturals that schools cannot produce, and there is promotion into other industries.

It is two different worlds. Schools are by nature ten years behind, and an Engineering degree has a half life of five years, in that time, half of all you know is obsolete.

Taking natural mechanical talent, training them at the factory, working with the best on the front line is what keeps production and development going.



zoeseek
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21 Mar 2013, 10:45 pm

Yes, most engineers are afflicted with AS. Unfortunately the world needs human calculators and as an Architect I have learned to coexist with these beings. As an architect, it's a cruel trick of the universe that we must tolerate and coexist with engineers. I have never witnessed such degrees of cruelty and insensitivity as I've seen among engineers. They are narrow, uninspired, vicious and self-agrandising. Just remember, at the final curtain call, we will ALL answer for our actions. Good luck with that........



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22 Mar 2013, 10:18 am

Well, let's see.

My dad's father was an electrical engineer, though I don't think that's the side of the family the AS came from.

My dad loved being a coal miner-- lots of tools and machines and working alone. He was the self-described King of the Short-Handled Shovel. In retirement, he discovered that he was and enjoyed being an intuitive jackleg handyman.

My mom's father also enjoyed a career in the mines. After being forced into retirement, he found a lot of fulfillment as a trustee for the church. He spent a lot of his free time fixing drippy faucets and peeling paint and wiggly pews. He liked to wax and polish things. He could not drive-- fried his nerves-- and stuttered painfully when he tried to talk-- unless he was working on something, building a birdhouse, building with blocks or models with me, showing me how to hunt arrowheads in the field by the creek...

Every guy I've dated (all 3 of them) have been engineers. My son is always happier with Legos or an erector set or a crayon or a hoe in his hands.

I have greatly enjoyed teaching myself carpentry and plumbing. I look forward to learning electrical work. The world just looks like a better place when I'm taking something apart.

I would not have lasted in engineering school-- I do not have the working memory for higher mathematics; algebra drove me absolutely insane and you couldn't get me near calculus with a cattle prod-- but I really blew it when I listened to all those as*holes who said I was too smart for trade school.

Getting a degree in English Lit was easy and fun, but I'd have been much happier as a master plumber or carpenter or mechanic or something.

Yeah, I can see it.

Being as to how the original article was written in 2007, I will try very hard not to have a temper tantrum about confusing "tact" with "empathy."


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23 Mar 2013, 12:06 am

Necro much