By Tim Goldstein Neurodiverse Communication Specialist, TimGoldstein.com
What type of difference in thinking can cause us to be in alternate universes even though we are sitting in the same room? ~Tim Goldstein
Great strides are being made in adult autism awareness. Major companies have programs to hire the autistic and neurodistinct, popular shows with autistic main characters, and an increasing number of tech leaders and entertainers with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) stepping forward and making it known. All of this exposure and support is needed and appreciated.
As a neurodistinct person with Asperger’s who teaches on bridging the non-tech / tech communication gap, I continue to see autism represented as traits a person has. Living on the autistic side of this communication gap and helping many to understand us autistic neurodistinct, I feel the difference which divides us is not traits, it is our alien way of perceiving and thinking. The traits are only the obvious results from wiring a brain to give the unique strengths we on the autism spectrum have.
Not making eye contact as we speak, resisting change, bluntly truthful speaking aren’t traits which define us. What makes us the unique people we are is the different, logical, and often Spock like way our brains perceive and process. This creates a vastly different experience of the world compared to most. We live in an alien world where your traits can be as annoying to us as ours are to you. It is our radically different thinking which can make us amazing innovators and top performing workers but also frequently makes us a challenge in work environments.
What type of difference in thinking can cause us to be in alternate universes even though we are sitting in the same room? There are 2 vastly different approaches to gaining an understanding of something. Most people start with the big picture view, then increment the level of detail to the point where they feel they understand it well enough to do what they need. Us linear, logical thinking “A”SD Listers (the tech world version of Hollywood “A” Listers, hired for skills not behavior) work the other way around. We have a huge number of boxes on our mental form for everything. For us to “get the picture” we have to fill in every one of those boxes with the pertinent details. Until the sheet is filled out, we don’t get it, so we frequently ask lots of nitpicky questions to fill in our mental chart. Once we have all the details, we create our own concept of them which is where innovation come from.
Another big information processing approach difference is where yes/no, true/false changes from one to the other. In our linear logical way, many of us are like the computers we work with. Everything is binary, it is on or off without a concept that something could be 63% true. While this is an amazingly effective approach in many careers, it is very poor functionality for interfacing with the majority of the human race. But, it is how our brains are wired, making it almost impossible for us to see any other way.
Recently my “A”SD Lister thinking almost caused me to make a decision which would likely have cost me an amazing career opportunity. I had an incredible offer in my hand, but it was only valid for 2 days. I liked everything about it. The $$ were generous, the company’s services help people in personal ways, the team’s a great mix of personalities, and the job was highly positioned. There was nothing in the offer I wasn’t pleased with. But, I couldn’t accept by the deadline. You see, the day following the deadline I had a business meeting scheduled. There was a chance something even more amazing could come out of this meeting. A chance about as big as winning the Power Ball then getting hit by lightning, twice. But that minuscule chance was big enough to keep the “YES” contacts in my brain from closing on Yes.
For most neurotypicals (“normal” people) a 1 in 100,000 chance something MIGHT happen would not have hold them back from accepting a true dream offer. They are probably thinking, accept the offer and if a miracle occurs at the meeting, just back out. That is not how our brains process. A commitment is binding in our mind, but that is a different story.
How can such strange binary thinking be a benefit when it is obviously a big problem dealing with other humans? In the data architecture roles I do, I have to consider all possibilities. The question isn’t “does this happen often?”, but instead “does this ever happen?” Even if as rare as once, I have to be able to accommodate what happens without a glitch. The Techie, fill in all the details first approach we use probably seems overly picky and splitting hairs to most. But it is this innate drive for a comprehensive understanding which makes me and many of my “A”SD Lister tribe the amazing innovators, technologist, and worker we are.
It is time for the understanding of adult autism to move beyond it being social gaffs, talking too much or too little, viewing everything literally or any of the huge list of traits common with the neurodistinct autistic. Until we can rewire brains, we need to look at the autistic as if each is a unique Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithm. Just as AI can achieve amazing feats, each algorithm is unique and narrow in its capabilities. An algorithm that can autonomously drive a car likely is not very good at being a virtual assistant on your phone. When dealing with the neurodistinct, just imagine we have one or a few AI algorithms we excel at. But, that is all we have and they give very poor results when applied to interacting with humans.
The question isn’t “will you hire the neurodistinct”, you already do. The real question is “will you accept we are different and give us that little extra slack that you give when working with an artist?” After all, we may be artists or techies but create reality out of nothing but ideas. Seems pretty creative to me, making a drawing or creating code out of something that doesn’t exist.
The question isn’t “will you hire the neurodistinct?”,
you already do. ~Tim Goldstein
