Mark Zuckerberg an Aspie- Yahoo News

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Less details about people (you avoid looking at them) but sounds like you notice more details about objects, an autistic trait. Our eyes aren't special but we tend to notice details that NTs wouldn't care to notice.

Maybe, using the homunculus metaphor, it's like we have the same cameras, but we have larger monitors that display more pixels.

I have had meltdowns/shutdowns in the past. Its gotten rarer as I age, however. Maybe I just know now when to back away from situations that will cause them.
Some AS people have ALMOST no discernable impairment at all.
Having said that, I don't know if he does or doesn't have it.

Sincerely,
Matt

I think it's logical ANYONE famous wouldn't admit it as then they would attract the Asperger community to try and "leech" money off him for donitions etc or whatever

OK, just hypothetically. I´m gonna talk about the actual people, not about their movie, documentary or media portrayals.

Is Bill Gates an Aspie? He could be, but I am not so sure about it. Possibly not.
Was Steve Jobs an Aspie? Hell no, I don´t believe it.
Is Mark Zuckerberg an Aspie? Oh, man. He is painfully OBVIOUS. I am 99 percent sure he has Asperger´s. Now I´m not talking about his media picture or the movie portrayal (I would actually say that in the movie, he was merely portrayed as a chronic narcissist). Just watch a video with this guy and see for yourself. Use your sixth sense. He shows a lot of traits that we Aspies have, like monotonous voice, flat expression on his face, awkwardness, weird posture, inability to "return" verbal jokes or to understand things like irony. It does not matter that he has never confirmed it. He obviously has it. But it is just my opinion, of course.



I was among the no. 1 tabloid redactors, every famous person in my country knew me, I did interviews with presidents and their wives, and I´m an Aspie. I just decide to quit one day because I could not stand the BS we were spreading. I could have stayed there, nobody wantzed to fire me, I was good at bringing good interviews and investigative stuff. When my dad counted how much I earned there, it was half a million. But I was stupid and I spent it all. Next time, I will be more careful with my money, but I doubt that I will EVER make this much. But I surely was not a loser. It does not mean that when you have Asperger´s, you must be incompetent.


I worked with the paparazzi, and I also had to deal with some bad articles and lies that were spreading about me. Like the one article that said I slept with one singer - which I did not. I am a virgin. But I could not tell the paparazzi. I´m 28 and everybody would make fun of me. None of my peers is a virgin. Or at least they say it. What I´m trying to say, that you can appear like you are able to deal with it. But if you are smart enough, you do not rant in public. You rant at home or in front of your trusted friends.


I´ve had a lot of meltdowns, but not at THAT job (in my last job, actually, but it was a different place), so I guess I was OK back then. I still don´t see a reason why Zuckerberg could not be an Aspie.

Exactly!! ! That´s what I´m saying!! ! I agree with you 100 percent. And can´t believe that there are actually ASPIES (and not NTs´) that are able to say out loud that if you are Aspie, you must be incompetent in your job, can´t learn to look people in the eye or can´t learn to hide away from public (like to a toilet, etc.) when you feel you´re about to have a meltdown any next second. I thought that we are "the more intelligent" in the population, the ones that are unlikely to be fooled by the things NT´s can´t perceive correctly. We should be proud of ourselves! It´s not true that ALL of us handle the scary and new situations well, we are just humans, we ALL have our weak moments. Some of us have them more than the others. But at least 70 percent of us has a special talent. How we handle it is our business. But we can do great things! Remember all those great people that are said to have AS traits: Einstein, Mozart, Beethoven, Tesla... Those are great names! Where is it said that once you are diagnosed as Aspie, you cannot excel at something? It is true that only some of us become really useful for community (I mean The World) in general because we rarely know how to use our talents in reality. But we are capable of doing it! We all have the potential - more than the NTs.
Think of it, all of you who doubt yourselves. And if you still disagree, well... it does not mean that if YOU as an Aspie are not succesful, then the other Aspies can´t be successful. You´d be just bullshitting yourselves.

Without taking any stance on Mr. Zuckerberg is any way, shape, or form, I honestly think several posters have a far too high standard for describing an "ASD". Social and interactive impairment is the standard, but success does not preclude impairment.

There are known cases of highly successful figures who have ASD-like traits mentioned in biographies. I would think there is a selection bias there, because less successful figures would'nt have biographies.

If you took the biography of some individuals, stripped out the indentifying parts, and submitted a description of childhood and adult behavior, there are people where you would probably would get a DX of an ASD.

I don't think he is on the spectrum - personal opinion, and neither are Gates or Jobs.

I just think this is the old nerd = aspie stereotype at play.

I've only ever thought that Nikola Tesla and Franz Kafka were Aspies, a lot of their traits were autistic, like being sensitive to noise and their almost erratic obsessiveness.

Last edited by Acedia on 10 Dec 2012, 12:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Check out Alan Turing. He's probably the easiest one from that era to look at, because he was surrounded by other scientists and went through a high-level background check, so there is an extensive paper trail.

One starts to come up with a great many possible Aspies when looking at the history books.

* minor tangent*
I think some of the arguement comes down to how many traits are enough to have a case. By definition, you really can't make a DX of a dead person, but you can make a convincing arguement.

From the interviews I've seen, he does come across as a great guy and not at all like his portrayal in the film but its pretty obvious he has aspergers. I think the only reason its not mentioned is because its not really a problem for him, the guy's a billionaire.

Exactly - that´s exactly what I said about Zuck, too.

I think we're all missing one of the most important requirement for an Asperger's Diagnosis; "(III) The disturbance causes clinically significant impairments in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning." Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are billionaires, married and incredibly successful. If either of these people went for an unbiased assessment, they would most certainly not be diagnosed and therefore, would never be Aspies. Now I'm not saying Zuckerberg, in particular, is not neurologically atypical in nearly all the same ways that someone with Asperger's is and I'm certainly not saying he doesn't show most or even, all of the traits; what I am saying is that, unless he has a midlife meltdown, he can't be diagnosed with an ASD. That said, I bet a pre-Facebook Zuckerberg could have been diagnosed.

Well, his dad is a renowned psychiatrist in New York, isn´t he? (Or am I mistaken? I dunno). If it´s true and Mark really has Aspergers, he probably must be already (discreetly) diagnosed by his own dad. As a matter of fact, his own dad even SAID that Mark has always shown signs of hyper-focusing on a single subject - to the point he is not even listening. I think that´s what he said, but I don´t claim I remember it well. Don´t take me from granted in this matter.

Oh yeah, I totally believe it SoftKitty, I mean, I'm sure he IS Asperger's neurologically and I wouldn't be surprised if he was diagnosed but unwilling to share it (a darn shame, since he somewhat represents the best of us), I just think that his success and huge wealth have allowed him to circumvent most of the symptoms and therefore negate part 3 of the criteria. Maybe I'm just splitting hairs though, haha. Either way, hope you're having a good week.

Does it matter one way or another? Just because someone who became famous or created something that caught on really well has something you have, that doesn't mean you share in the fruits of his labor, or ANYTHING at all, really. Plenty of people throughout history have had brown hair or brown eyes. Should I associate with all of them because I have that too? What about freckles? What about everyone who was overweight, or was 5 feet and 6 inches tall? None of us are Einstein, Gates, or Zuckerberg, so it's all irrelevant.

Supposedly that 20 year old guy who shot a buncha kids at the elementary school in Connecticut was autistic too...

Zuckerberg does NOT "represent the best of us." He pretty much stole someone else's idea... Yeah, that's great. We should all aspire to be thieving little s**ts... Even if he didn't, he created facebook, which, despite what you might think, is NOT a good thing. Remember when people would complain about not having privacy? Well, now they share it all on stupid ass facebook, so nobody has to tap any wires to get the info they want anymore. Congratulations. Make sure you tell everyone about that sandwich you ate...

I think it's possible. Some HFA's are very good hiding and some can afford to have great doctors and trainers.

But still... Even if Zuckerberg is Autistic, he won't come out for a very, very long time. Unfortunately, NT's knowing you're Autistic is bad for your business. Shareholders will sell their stock because they no idea what Autism is all about and they fear the worst. Business partners and competition would start trying to take advantage of this knowledge and use it against him. It's a dog eat dog in the large business world. Nothing is too unethical to them.

Considering that, I wouldn't worry about it.