[ExI] How to build a happier brain

[Kelly Anderson]

On Thu, Oct 31, 2013 at 7:28 AM, Anders Sandberg <anders at aleph.se> wrote:

>  On 2013-10-31 12:15, KPJ wrote:
>
> Wed, 30 Oct 2013 16:35:58 +0000, Anders Sandberg <anders at aleph.se><anders at aleph.se>scripsit:
> |OCD is great for science, as long as it is not extreme enough to prevent
> |you from finishing. Just like Aspergers the right pinch of
> |non-neurotypicalness can be very useful in the right context.
>
> Explain.
>
>
> Yes.
>
> The classic example is how the systematizing approach of autism works well
> with programming - it is a domain where the approach works well, and
> traditionally at least, programmers did not have to interact much socially
> with co-workers. But I suspect it is great for plenty of other domains,
> whether it is taxonomy or mathematics.
>

Asperger's leads people to reduce their interactions with other people to a
bare minimum because other people are hard to understand for them. They
bury themselves in their work and focus on it in an obsessive way because
it's what they understand.

Great examples of people with probable Asperger's include Sir Isaac Newton,
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs (to a slightly lesser extent than the other two).

-Kelly
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