Steve Jobs. Aspie?

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20 Dec 2011, 4:24 am

I was talking to a classmate yesterday about our idols. She's a really big fan of Steve Jobs and she told me he was an aspie. I don't really like talking about dead people; he's dead, and we must not judge people postmortem... but I can't help but question myself if he was an aspie too. I told my classmate that the fact of being a genius or pursuing great achievements does not necessarily make you an aspie. But she seemed really obstinate as far as Jobs is concerned.

So, before disagreeing any further, I decided to ask some aspies about their opinion. If you all agree that Steve Jobs was an aspie (or at least, most of you do), then I'll have no choice but to tell my classmate she was right! :dwarf:

Chronos
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20 Dec 2011, 4:33 am

whitemissacacia wrote:

I highly doubt it. CEOs of that caliber usually excel socially and have very good people skills.

Heidi80
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20 Dec 2011, 4:36 am

My aspie friend is reading his biography right now and she says many things about his life sound aspie-like

The_Walrus
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20 Dec 2011, 5:07 am

whitemissacacia wrote:

I don't really like talking about dead people; he's dead, and we must not judge people postmortem...

I can understand that it might be in poor taste to talk ill of a recently deceased person around those that knew him, but not "judging" them at all is a bit silly. Is it wrong to say "John Lennon was a great musician", or "Hitler did bad things"?

Aspies have a tendency to look for Aspie traits in their idols. Actually, NTs do so as well, but they tend not to have special interests in the way that we do so do it less. Usually the people clearly didn't have autism- in Jobs' case, he was in charge of two of the most famous companies in the world.

whitemissacacia
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20 Dec 2011, 5:13 am

The_Walrus wrote:

Aspies have a tendency to look for Aspie traits in their idols. Actually, NTs do so as well, but they tend not to have special interests in the way that we do so do it less. Usually the people clearly didn't have autism- in Jobs' case, he was in charge of two of the most famous companies in the world.

My friend is NT. She just told me about Steve Jobs matter-of-factly. I actually don't believe he was, but I wanted to know what aspies could think. As an aspie, I believe Steve Jobs may have some aspie traits... but so do several NTS! Not enough to be in the autism spectrum, though.

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20 Dec 2011, 5:39 am

I highly doubt it.

TheWingman
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20 Dec 2011, 5:54 am

Of course, most of the highly intelligent people have lots in common with aspies, but bot all are. He is way to confident to be one. However Bill Gates is one notorious big aspie.

pensieve
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20 Dec 2011, 5:57 am

Heidi80 wrote:

My aspie friend is reading his biography right now and she says many things about his life sound aspie-like

Half the engineers at Area 51 would have Asperger's then.

They are similarities between giftedness and Asperger's. Gifted people do fine socially if around like minds.

I read Stephen Fry's biography and he had similar symptoms to Asperger's but he has Bipolar. It's not always Asperger's that makes someone brilliant.

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Last edited by pensieve on 20 Dec 2011, 5:59 am, edited 1 time in total.

nat4200
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20 Dec 2011, 5:58 am

Redacted

Last edited by nat4200 on 19 Apr 2012, 5:38 am, edited 1 time in total.

fraac
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20 Dec 2011, 6:09 am

I think he could be aspie. Woz too. And Gates definitely. No idea about Paul Allen.

thedaywalker
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20 Dec 2011, 6:27 am

i dont think steve jobs was an aspie or a psychopath he was something special though

TheSunAlsoRises
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20 Dec 2011, 6:29 am

I think he was.

TheSunAlsoRises

whalewatcher
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20 Dec 2011, 6:41 am

I think he was a highly adroit, not to say devious, businessman and marketer. To be so successful to in these fields he must have been highly empathetic.

I suspect a lot of highly creative ASDs worked for him though.

AlastorX
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20 Dec 2011, 6:48 am

Being highly intelligent does not make you socially awkward, the opposite is more often the case. I have a friend who is exceptionally intelligent - he is excellent in math, sports, social and natural sciences and he i extremely successful socially. He has a degree in psychology and told me that high intelligence usually means very good social skills. Opposite is rare.

fraac
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20 Dec 2011, 7:18 am

'Tis true. I'm highly intelligent and socially skilled. Intelligence can abstract patterns in any domain.

Asp-Z
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20 Dec 2011, 8:43 am

His personality characteristics sure seem to suggest so, but obviously we have no evidence of any diagnosis.

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