[smoyer]

It's not so much as a "thing" as it is "shades of grey". Autism is considered a spectrum disorder with a huge range of capabilities included.

I've got some of the tendencies too. I've overcome all the social aspects, but I still often prefer being alone to think. Being social actually takes work but "being the machine" (as the article calls it) is easy.

EDIT: And of course I'll hire someone with Aspergers ... but maybe not for a sales position where schmoozing customers is a big part of the job. The hiring process is the same regardless as you need to evaluate each candidate's suitability in filling the open position.

[JohnBooty]

I love what you said about the spectrum; it can't be re-said enough because I think it's a thing a lot of people don't get.

  > ... but maybe not for a sales position where 
  > schmoozing customers is a big part of the job.

I think that makes sense the vast majority of the time. I think in some cases Aspergian tendencies can be an aid to salespeople.

I've never been diagnosed with Aspergers, but I definitely share some of the tendencies. At some point around junior high / high school (in the late 80's and early 90's, having never heard of "Aspergers") I realized I had to really start putting a lot of effort into figuring out how other people thought because it wasn't something that came naturally to me.

Over the years I got a lot better at it. I certainly get it wrong a lot of the time (who doesn't) but overall I think I'm better than average at it.

To me it's similar to the phenomenon of non-native English speakers often speaking English more properly than native English speakers: the non-native English speakers have often made a conscious effort to learn the language from books and professionals whereas most native English speakers simply pick up an imperfect version of English from their parents at a very young age without conscious effort.

Since understanding others didn't come naturally to me, I had to actually really think about it and work about it for a lot of years!

[wizz15]

I think it was precisely because of those "shades of grey" characteristics it was decided Aspergers should be eliminated from the new DSM V.

When it gets released this means no-one will be diagnosed with Aspergers (along with other forms of autism) from then on, it will all fall under the same autism umbrella because of the range of the spectrum.

[smoyer]

I'm not sure I disagree with the decision to remove it ... and there's still no proof that all the diagnoses of autism are actually the same disorder (we have a lot of research yet to be undertaken).

On a side note, paging through the DSM can be both amazing and scary. My wife waves it in front of the students in her "Introduction to Psychology" classes just to show how many different types of formal disorders there are. As well as reading selected sections to them. What becomes quickly apparent is that there is no "normal". Everyone has tendencies towards (usually) multiple disorders and it seems (to me ... but I am not a Psychologist) that most of use reign in those tendencies for the benefit of society.