[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!