Let's Overthrow the Neurodiversity Movement

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Many in the movement say Silicon Valley, Hollywood, corporate labs and IT departments are often "loaded" with well-paid individuals who live somewhere on the spectrum of autism, but provide no real examples. Studies show the exact opposite.

I will call it NT (Neurotypical) Club, based off Fight Club.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fight_Club

Can you link to the studies which show the exact opposite?

I, too, would like to see these supposed studies.

Also, where is this monolithic movement you disdain? I hadn't realized we organized so well already.

I'm not understanding...? By "exact opposite" are you saying Silicon valley has a lot of NTs rather than a lot of people on the spectrum? And how would overthrowing the neurodiversity movement help this?

By loaded it is higher than the national average. This still isnt a high number just a higher number than elsewhere

Any lab I've worked at has also been "loaded." Still not sure what the OP is getting at though.

I wonder if the OP has broken the first rule of NT Club?

I think the first rule of NT club is always talk about nothing....at length.

Isn't that also an autistic thing? Getting fixated on a small, particular, otherwise insignificant thing or detail and speaking at length about it? I'm guilty of this.

But that small thing is very important to you. It's a THING to talk about. If you can find someone else also into that small insignificant thing, you've got a great conversation ahead of you.

By "nothing," I meant jumping from the Kardasians to the latest starlet in rehab to yet another person you'll never meet and who doesn't know you exist.

I'm all for talking about you THING. The cellular automata of snail shell pattern generation, anyone? How about the counter-intuitive behavior of low Reynolds number flows? Star Trek? Trains? My Little Pony? Those are all THINGS I can get behind someone taking a deep dive into. It's the deep divers who move the world forward, from the obsessive minutia of finch beaks on a remote, insignificant archipelago, to the painstaking minimalist artistry of Wozniak's arrangement of NAND gates.

Their interest in the Kardashians is equally as valid as my interest in equally trivial subjects.

I didn't say that had an interest. It was just of the topics that gets glossed over without really saying anything meaningful.

And I think you could argue that if your special interest is in the living members of any family, then you can only dive so deep before you've crossed the creepy line and the police get involved. Maybe you should try hard to find a different special interest.

Article by Aspergers psychologist with 25 years experience cites studies showing the education of parents is a significant factor in autism rates and those with parents in the tech field have a very slight higher rate then other educated parents.
Is Silicon Valley a breeding ground for Asperger Syndrome?

Thanks for that. I hadn't seen those two studies. Which raises the whole question: Does having educated parents increase the likelyhood of autism, or does carrying genes associated with autism predispose someone to achieving a higher education?

I could see possible mechanisms either way. And of course, they're not mutually exclusive.

That whole higher education/autism link might end up being explained by people with more education being older when they reproduce.

I conjecture. Don't have any data to back it up, but it seems plausible.

Are you saying from the standpoint of, the older one is the more chance there is of having a non-NT child from a genetics perspective? That's interesting...that could mean a genetic component (beyond the already recognized genetic correlation, please realize I'm not saying causation)...OTOH, it could be that the more "nerdy" individuals in society have a somewhat more difficult time with socialization and therefore, marry (and have children) later due to that factor.

There are so many possibilities. I'm fascinated by all of them.

p.s. This all made me think of the movie Idocracy where the narrator said the smart people waited until their educations were done and careers established before trying to reproduce, at which time they had infertility problems due to their age and didn't pass along as many genes; whereas the average idiots had five kids by age 25. (Or along those lines.) I don't mean disrespect or offense, the movie was a comedy and not meant to be taken seriously.