Asperger’s Syndrome in Tech

Danny Lee
Danny Lee
Nov 3 · 9 min read

preRamble

Along with FOSS another subject that is near and dear to me is Asperger’s Syndrome. Lately, its gotten a lot of press and there has been a great deal of association between Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) and the tech industry. Today, I’d like to share a little bit of information about this so-called disorder. Firstly, I think “disorder” is a horrible description of it, because people who are categorized as Aspies revel in orderliness and routine. But, I’m guessing Asperger’s Syndrome Order, would just confuse the neurotypical overlords which rule our lives.

source: giphy.com

Now, let me preface my article by saying I’ve never been diagnosed with Aspeger’s Syndrome, its just given a window into my personality that has helped me tremendously to adapt and adjust, leading to a life where I am much more comfortable in my skin. There’s this great article by Benjamin Nugent of the NY Times that describes the emotional hurt that can come from being misdiagnosed. Also, the American Psychiatric Association has released a new version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) which is used to measure all types of mental disorders. Within it, they narrowed the definition for diagnosing Aspegers and Autism spectrum disorders in an attempt to prevent misdiagnosis by having too broad a set of criteria.


My First Encounters with ASD and AS

ASD (Autism Syndrome Disorder) and AS (Asperger’s Syndrome) are related in ways that are probably too complicated for me to explain even if I tried, but they are definitely a bit much for this article.

The first time I saw the term was in the movie Rain Man with Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman, where Hoffman plays an mathematical autistic savant. One such real life example of a high function autistic savant is Daniel Tammet. It was intriguing but Hoffman’s character did not in anyway remind me of myself, although my interest being piqued by the ability of a person to have photographic memory and such a set of high-performing, specific talents.

Forrest Gump is probably one of my all-time favorite movies, but until recently, I never knew it was based on the book of the same title by Winston Groom which is about a mathematical savant.

The movie that made it click for me was Adam (2009), a romantic-comedy about a man with Aspergers Syndrome and a normie woman.

It made me stop and think “OMG, that movie is about me.”


The revelation

The things that stuck out most about the protagonist’s characteristics were:

  • the obsessive interest and fascination with very specific topics and the need to understand everything about them.
  • the lack of eye-contact, facial expression and reactions normal people will have in conversations
  • believing that people think and feel the same way I do and not being able to discern their moods and feelings of boredom, anxiousness, etc.
  • long-winded conversations about subjects I’m interested, whilst ignoring others feelings of uncomfortableness, lack of interest, or need to leave.
  • taking things literally, also not being able to discern when people are just saying things to be nice or polite (aka ‘reading between the lines’)

What did I do next?

The first step after feeling like I had a possible explanation for years of frustration and social suffering, I did research on how to “get better”. Which mostly entailed learning how to build coping mechanisms. A coping mechanism is simply adjusting your behavior to make up for a trait or skill set you lack.

I had already learned coping mechanisms in my early 20s, after some work with a psychologist who helped me work through dysthemia (depression) issues and subsequently, issued me an ADD/ADHD diagnosis. Although I feel the diagnosis was off, I did learn to manage my diet (hypoglycemia => depression), discovered strategies to deal with my poor memory and coping mechanisms to deal with the after effects of emotional neglect from childhood.

I also learned its possible to teach these “normal” behaviors and to learn how to read social cues. Not much different than learning a programming language and learning how to make it ask for things and return things the way and when you want. The first step, as in most forms of therapy and addiction recovery is admitting to oneself that “I am not great at this. I can learn this. I will put in the work to be a more socially well adjusted person.”.

For me, watching all kinds of movies and specifically analyzing the characters behaviors, the way they react to situations and interact with one another helped. Also, being more attentive to the behavior of well adjust people around me has helped me to mimic a lot of behaviors. It does come with a cost, because I spend a lot processing time (in my mind) on the back end, to keep my behaviors in the middle of the road, as best I can.

Networking and connecting with individuals of like mind, although with different experiences, but all very possibly in the Aspergers/Autism spectrum, and sharing our learnings and strategies for coping has also helped me tremendously.

I also learned many of my childhood friends have children who have been diagnosed on the Autism spectrum, which gave me further incentive to believe that in my life I gravitate towards people with ASD/AS, and understand the benefits and burdens that come along for the ride.


Its okay to be weird, but…

let’s all try to learn the social skills, and to get along well with those who might have ASP/AS orders. Understanding the different ways people think, can help to be better coworkers, managers and managees.

source: giffy.com

There are a plethora of articles about Asperger’s Syndrome in the Tech industry, all of which are interesting reads not just to learn about AS but also to understand the dynamics of creating new technology.

John Slegers’ article @Hackernoon has a great summary of the characteristics of autism, on both sides of the coin:

Typical characteristics of Autism :

Being either hyper-sensitive or hypo-sensitive to sensory stimuli

Behaving either in an extremely rigid or extremely chaotic fashion

Speaking either very slow or very fast

Using language that’s either unusually refined or unusually primitive

Having either a very monotonous or a very expressive voice

Being either extremely introverted or extremely extroverted

Being either intellectually challenged or intellectually gifted

Being either totally obsessed or completely disinterested in something

Coming off as either childishly naive or very wise


As well as some other possible characteristics:

A very direct communication style and distaste for small talk

A very detail oriented mind

A spatially and visually mind oriented

Extreme honesty and/or directness in communication

Unusual interests and/or an unusual taste in multiple areas

Limited, atypical body language

Physical clumsiness

Compulsive acts like fidgeting, body rocking or hand flapping, especially under great stress or great concentration

Relating more with children, animals and/or even machines than with other adult humans


The point is that its hard to just categorize ASD/AS individuals in a neat little box. Learning the signs and symptoms can help us to be more understanding and accommodating, not just for the sake of being a kind human being, but also because ASD/AS individuals have a tremendous amount to give to your organization. An inspired ASD/AS coder would stay at task longer and with more focus, and become obsessive in their interest to solve the problem that you are working on. There are even companies which specialize in adapting work environments to suit ASD/AS individuals so that they can work at their best:


What if I lack social skills?

Are you feeling weak in the social game?

source: giphy.com

If I were to ask you what you would do if you lacked programming skills, how would you answer? Or if you lacked physical strength and wanted to get stronger, what would you?

Study it or work out! You put in the work, you see the return.

But first you have to admit to yourself that you need to do this. If you don’t care about programming, why would you learn it? If you don’t care about physical strength why would you exercise? You have to admit to yourself, this is going to be hard, this is not going to be an overnight change, its going to take effort, and stress, and focus, and my time, energy and money, and in exchange, I will get that set of skills, that specific tool that will help me in the next stage of my life.

There is a great saying by Chuck Norris:

When the only tool you have is a fist, everything looks like a face.

source: giphy.com

I believe Abraham Maslow, known for his Hierarchy of Needs theory, is also quoted with a similar saying:

“I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.”

But, we all know how sometimes these academics steal ideas from the common folk and word them fancy for their own renown.

The point is, when it comes to programming the more tools we have (whether that means languages under our belt, or programming concepts and strategies, or knowledge of different gems (for ruby) or libraries or frameworks) the more capable we become in reaching our software development goals.

The same applies to politics and relationships in an office (as much as we loathe them, they exist) and we can either shy away from getting more adept at navigating the pitfalls and faux pas that exist. Avoiding them entirely, will just leave us “powerless and not being able to get done what you think is the right thing to do” [source: Harvard Business Review: The Best Way to Play Office Politics].


No matter how great a coder is, if you don’t know how to properly interact with your peers in other departments, its going to be harder to find a good fit. Jess Johnson’s article “Be a Paranoid Pessimistic Programmer” gives an excellent example of being a pessimistic coder (as opposed to an optimistic programmer), and yet including the need to interact in a proper social manner with other staff and understand the nuances of role, personality and point of view when it comes to differing responsibilities in the software development process.

Some resources for developing social skills, specific to developers:


PostRamble

I found a great article at the Harvard Business Review about diversity and inclusivity, which talks about how an organization may strive to be diverse, but yet can fall short of being inclusive. And it goes back to the idea of “people gravitating towards people like them”, which can lead to subtle biases and exclusion of people in areas such as: support, interaction or relationship quality. The hope I have is that in sharing the characteristics of ASP/AS individuals, that it may be easier to be understanding, and thusly be more patient with those of us who struggle with knowing how to interact and understand the subtleties of work interactions, but also for those of us with ASP/AS/social awkwardness to grow and learn techniques to help us be well-rounded, well-adjusted, pessimistic programming, but optimistically thinking (and living) coder-tech-type people.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to message me! I’m always open to advice, corrections, positive criticisms and new info.

Danny Lee

Written by

Danny Lee

Full-Stack Developer

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