But what’s it all got to do with asparagus?

Here’s an interesting pair (Seed Magazine, Wired Magazine) of articles on Autism and Asperger's syndrome, and here’s an equally interesting self-test. The control group (normal folk) scored on average 16 points, Autistic subjects on average score 32. If I answer the questions relatively conservatively (under the assumption that even if present my behaviours are very mild) I score 29. I’m more Autistic than I’m not then.

As usual, I found all the questions lacking definition and context I feel is necessary to properly answer them. This is probably an Autistic behaviour in itself. What does “I find it difficult to imagine what it would be like to be someone else.” Really mean? I can imagine what I’d feel like to be in their position, and I can generally understand their point of view even when I don’t agree (or maybe I can simply construct arguments in favour of it without understanding it... I’m not sure that’s the same thing).

All this should come as no surprise to anyone. Autism is really a spectrum that ranges from “mildly geeky” to “unable to interact with the world at all”. The behaviours and personality traits that make someone geeky are the same things with identify them as having Asperger’s, and no doubt you’d find the majority of any IT department would score highly on this test, as would accounting and engineering disciplines. The “systemising” traits, the focus on detail, the need to understand the inner workings of things, and an affinity for numbers, these are the things that make us good at our jobs. And also make it hard for us to relate to everyone else.