Famous people with AS

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Famous people with AS? The Bicycling Guitarist!
Oh wait, I'm not famous (yet), lol. [edit added: Well, I am locally famous where I live. I've never got any national or international exposure though except for my web site that gets about 200 visitors a day, mostly US but some from all over.]

As an example of the "usually something useless" from the quote above, I know insane amounts of information about the World Wars of the 20th century: the events, people, technology (especially the military technology, even more especially the ships and airplanes but not quite as much about the tanks or guns), battles, campaigns, strategies, etc.

I might win bar bets or trivia contests, maybe a game show that had these as categories, but so far all this knowledge has never been of any financial advantage to me. Perhaps I could be an instructor in a college course about it? Oops no wait, would have to get a degree then to teach. I tried more than twenty years to get a degree, and all I got on paper is a two year degree. At that rate I won't live long enough to do that.

Also, once I had the degree, my erratic sleeping patterns would interfere with being able to function on a regular schedule like "normal" folks, and even if that wasn't a problem sensory overload would make it painful to be in a room full of people. I could shut down any time from sensory or psychological overload from the stresses of the job. Not reading social cues means my students could BS me more about missing assignments or such without my realizing it, and...maybe not such a good idea after all.

The internet opens up new possibilities. Who knows what will happen? I especially hope medical science can come up with some relief for my sensory and social issues where I can function better with less pain and loneliness. For now though, I see my job as being The Bicycling Guitarist. If there is a meaning to life maybe that is the reason I'm here and why everything turned out the way it did. I haven't yet made a dime from my music yet either, but when people see me doing what I do it brings a smile to their faces.

Last edited by TheBicyclingGuitarist on 30 Nov 2010, 9:50 am, edited 4 times in total.

I think Eminem has undiagnosed AS.

One word: Spectrum. I suggest watching this great video from Alex (this website developper), at the beginning Temple Grandin explains

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLOCYubVc7g[/youtube]

Donna Williams - one of the first people with Autism to be published with her book Nobody Nowhere. She's a special education consultant in Australia.

Marty Balin of Jefferson Starship

Somebody i've been following and observing for a while now : John Lydon aka Johnny Rotten frontman of Sex Pistols and Public Image Limited (undiagnosed). Just look at his awkward behaviour in interviews and how he looks in his music videos. A good example is [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BZ2UoBZzEI[/youtube]

I doubt about Da Vinci - he was very "multidisciplinar".

A guy who rarely is refered in these speculations is Immanuel Kant, but I think that he was a quintessential Aspie - his daily rotine was so rigid that the people of his town used him as "a clock"!

Probably the reason because Kant is ignored as possible aspie is because of the steretype of technical/scientifical aspie.

TPE2 Kant also had a humongous head (macrocephaly is not uncommon in the spectrum)

Just remembered another one of my list of 'possible aspies, but maybe not diagnosable level' Sir Peter Jackson. and since i didn't see them mentioned in THIS thread yet (this is not the first "famous auties thread" by far), Steven Spielberg was officially diagnosed i read and George Lucas seems probable. Also, Robert Zeckemis.

People with AS are smart people, I strongly believe they can overcome their social impairments, there was a time I just wanted to sit in a corner in a social gathering, can anyone here relate to this? I challenge those with AS go to a social gathering as much as possible.

AS people can overcome their problems, the more you socialize the more confident you get.

Here is my list what I think has it:

Mark Zuckerberg - Facebook Inc
Bill Gates - Microsoft
Steve Jobs - Apple
Robin Williams

I think the main problem of AS people is not lack of confidence (although can be an additional problem), is things like not knowing to choose appropriate topics of conversation, not knowing when is the moment to stop talking, etc.

I anything, I suspect that a confident aspie could be much more socially awkward than a shy aspie

Definitely, in my opinion... And likely also Thomas Edison, Edwin H. Armstrong (inventor of FM radio). It takes an obsessive personality to do things as those men did, and both were loners and had "no friends", and both were the victims of severe bullying as kids, and in fact Armstrong was bullied all the way to suicide by David Sarnoff (president of RCA), after RCA stole his FM radio invention and ran him broke when he tried to defend his rights.

Charles

I've heard of Thomas Jefferson as being a possible aspie.

Learning to channel these talents can be life changing. Sometimes you can do this yourself but sometimes it takes outside help. When I was in the Army, my LT recognized my knack for firearms (mechanical and tactical) and sent me for additional training and certification to fully develop my skills. He also gave me responsibilities in that area that were unusual to say the least. The result was the focusing of my talents and my feeling needed and useful to the unit.

Prince (more likely HFA, he is eccentric and aloof beyond belief, look at video's of kevin smith talking about working with him..) and of course Michael Jackson