Bill Gates etc.

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I don't know a great deal about Bill Gates, but given his profession and talents, I'd lean towards an ASD. Or at the very least, I haven't heard any contradictory evidence to say he's not.

Einstein I have little doubt. His personality style (I'd say he was a little eccentric, wouldn't you?), visuo-spatial talents, as well as his language delay point most obviously towards HFA.

I don't know whether any of you are familiar with the petals around a rose game, but apparently Bill Gates solved it by memorising most of the combinations.

It seems to me that it is too difficult to say from the sketchy information available that an historical figure denfinately had autism or AS. Even professionals disagree about who has AS. My son was first dx'd with mild mental retardation. Then the school psychologist determined Asgerger Syndrome. Then, yet another, private professional thought that because he made eye contact "he couldn't possibly have AS". Then, yet another specialist in the educational field said that his AS dx was unlikely since he tested slightly below average on intelligence tests. Then there's the dilemma of speech. He began speaking words early (8 mo.) but seemed to lose speech around 1 1/2 and resumed speaking at 4 in complete sentences, howbeit improper intonations and modulation with a phenomenal vocab. and strange "jingle" phrases. We think that he could talk but just chose not too. He has always had an uncanny ability to remember where locations are and has a good rote memory but can't use information in a meaningful way. He has sound sensitivity and talks way too loud. He cannot handle his emotions well reacts too strongly over small disappointments. But he is highly social and enjoys being with people even though this is not often reciprocated. He does perseverate on a few, limited interests. So is he AS or Autistic or neither? Peculiar? Does it really matter? Are there treatments that will "normalize" him? I somehow doubt it. We like him and he isn't what I would consider "disabled". He will suceed with some measure. He is unique in some ways and challenged in others but so are we all. I don't buy the fact that high intelligence is an abnormality and people mainly care about being social and not doing anything of value to contribute to humanity. I think that is broad stereotyping of the average population. I don't know if Bill Gates is AS. Why doesn't he just go get a diagnosis? Of course, his Dx would depend on which psychologist he sees.

I don't really see the point in speculating... if Gates has AS, it's still the least of his problems.

Maybe it's important for Aspies to have role models...

When pseudo-dxing famous people either alive or postmortem, there's clearly more benefit in it for the diagnoser than the diagnosed. It's entertaining. I must admit, I do enjoy it. Though it's always good to remember that, especially with dead people, there's never a way to verify the accuracy of our speculations. It's a moot point in that sense. But as I said, it is an enjoyable passtime and is a bit of an ego-/confidence-booster to think of great people having had similar problems as us but in the eyes of the world, they made almost every success of their lives as they could. Or at least success in the tangible sense.

I think we should continue to diagnose dead and famous people but always remember to never take ourselves too seriously.

The one famous person I find difficult to accept as an Aspie is Steven Spielberg. Einstein, sure. Gates, yes, why not, but Spielberg? Nah, if he is in fact autistic, he's learned to cope very well indeed.

But I agree that it's sort of fun to make these guesses.

Dan Akroyd I think is one of the only Aspies who's "out" with his diagnosis. What's he up to now, btw?

Steven Spielberg's been diagnosed, and has gone public with it. Read an article a while ago about it.