[davidadsit]

Since is it fairly common to hear mention of Asperger's syndrome in reference to software developers, I went out and found this study: http://www.la-press.com/gender-ratios-in-autism-asperger-syn...

It turns out that there is a 12:1 ratio of males to females with the Asperger's diagnosis.

I wonder if the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders in males contributes to behaviors that might give one an advantage in the software development field? It only takes a quick reading of the characteristics of the disorder to see that many of them are common among software developers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome

Of course, there are exceptions and I don't mean to imply that one cannot create good software without these characteristics. I only suggest that perhaps these characteristics provide some advantage in a field that is young and constantly changing.