Einstein couldn't tie his shoes?

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I was walking with two people I know today and we some how got discussing Einstein and one of them said "Did you know Einstein couldn't tie his shoes?" and me, who had read a biography about Einstein and obsess over him at times, said "no I think that is just a myth, like the myth that he flunked a math class which isn't true". Then one of them said "No it is true Einstein had Aspergers he was autistic, he couldn't tie his own shoes even as an adult. My little brother has Aspergers, trust me I know". I was a little shocked that the person thought of Aspergers like this when it seems like she would be better informed knowing her brother and all. I wanted to tell her she was wrong but didn't want to end up fighting because i was a little worked up over the discussion and knew it would come out a little angry.

Would that bother you hearing an opinion of Aspergers like that? What would you all have done in this situation? Correct them?

There are thousands of myths about autism and aspergers and Einstein that you just can't fight so don't bother. Some people actually believe that he deliberately didn't comb his hair becasue he didn't know how to but he did comb it. It was just kinky, curly and unruly when it got long and the press loved it since it made him look like a genius is supposed to look and he loved the press. He went out of his way to please the press. He in some ways had a huge ego so I have serious doubts whether he was anywhere on the Spectrum to begin with as it is presently defined.

people need to know [[[a lot]]] more than one person to be able to make a proper understanding of a condition,would neither believe some of the crap some new support staff will come out with.

the person who said that didnt get it quite right anyway,if he was on the spectrum,Einstein would have been diagnosed with classic autism not aspergers,because of some criteria differences including his significant speech delay.

outside of autism,young children cant tie laces,and adults with the mental age of young children have the same problem-ignorants see not being able to tie laces as a child thing,this is why auties without severe MR and aspies are badly treated and stereotyped in different ways for not being able to tie shoe laces.

Significant speech delay?? Have you ever seen a film of Albert taking to reporters? You couldn't get him to shut up.

It's not all that insulting. If you don't learn when you're a kid, it's logical enough that you'll wear slip-ons instead of spending a lot of time learning, even though theoretically you could have learned. Some things aren't worth the bother. Tying shoes is one of them if you're dyspraxic and care a lot more about other things. I don't think it says anything about somebody that they can't tie shoes, except maybe that they've got clumsier fingers than most.

Dunno how many times this has been said, but:

If you've met one person with autism, you've met... one person with autism.

The IDEA that someone could believe that someone didn't know how to comb their hair is RIDICULUS! BESIDES, most people's hair falls FAR better than his, EVEN UNCOMBED! As for people with AS not knowing how to tie their shoes? It isn't that necessary, and it isn't like people get a lot of attention, etc... HECK, I couldn't tie my tie until I was like 16! BTW Some people NEVER learn how to tie their ties, and MANY are CLIPON!! !! ! Almost 100% of those people are NT! MOST are of average intelligence!

It's far more likely that he simply forgot to comb his hair. I was able to do it when I was four, but still don't comb my hair more than once daily, as part of my shower routine. it's part of the reason I keep my hair short--otherwise, it would be a tangled mess.

I would not say that he had a field he was obsessed with but rather that things 'intruded' into his mind as he explained it and he could not ignore them. His insights came in daydreams as intrusions into his regular world, I imagine that had he been autictic or an Aspie that he couldn not have managed to get his work published as it would not have seemed so unimportant to him or he could not have writen about it so others could comprehend.

I don't agree with that. Being able to write about your ideas is nowhere near impossible to an autistic person. I can do it; plenty of autistic authors exist; and anyhow, who says you have to have wonderful writing skill to publish a scientific paper? Why should autism stop Einstein from publishing his ideas? My obsessions tend to include writing, explaining, trying to get my ideas on paper. Even as a child, I was writing fifty-page novelizations of The Brave Little Toaster... Granted, it isn't relativity; but then, I'm not Einstein! If you are autistic, and you are obsessed with something, writing about it may well be part of your fascination...

I think you missed the point and that was that we could write about it so others could comprehend it all. Many of us write and calculate but that doesn't mean our work is understandable by other people. He took the unimaginable and wrote about it so a layman could understand the concept. That took planning most Aspies are just not good at.

For example Steven Hawkings may be our modern equivalent with Einstein but even many of Hawkings peers cannot fully understand some of his theories and philosophies because he can't express himself in laymans terms.