Engineers and Autism

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My engineer brother sent me this link to an article in the IEEE (organization of electronic and electrical engineers) newsletter Spectrum: http://spectrum.ieee.org/dec06/4763

"Getting into other people’s heads requires empathy, a virtue that sometimes does not come naturally to engineers. Our profession tends toward the opposing mental disposition, called systemizing, which attends mainly to rule-based systems, such as those that govern machinery.
In October, we got a big response to an article, by Web Editor Philip E. Ross, on a new theory that links systemizing, engineers, and autism, a developmental disorder that has become more common in recent decades [see http://spectrum.ieee.org/oct06/4665 ]. "
BTW, the study referred to in the article is by Simon Baron-Cohen, cousin to Sacha.

My father, both grandfathers, one uncle, my brother, son, nephew are (or were) all engineers, and I probably should have become one, but that was only barely a career option for me, a woman, in the 60's. I expect most of us show autistic traits somewhere along the spectrum.

(It's amusing that the IEEE newsletter is called "Spectrum")

Thanks for that link. I am an IEEE member and receive the "spectrum" magazine so it will be interesting to look for that. I've been a software engineer for more than a dozen years now.

The systematizing impulse is a useful thing in engineering, but I think it comes from a need in myself to systematize because I can't process things in any other way. It's kind of like praising a blind person for having great sense of smell... well yes they might have a great sense of smell but they would really rather be able to see things instead of trying to smell them to identify.

It seems to me that NT engineerss are just as good at systematizing when they have to do do it, but they don't do it as much because they don't have to.

My father is a PhD engineer and he is Asperger-like as one can get. He has it so bad that he doesn't even talk at home.

I am going off to be an engineer. I have been doubting my path a little bit though as my interests have shifted since I started preparing for engineering in high school and engineering is not the easiest thing to study.

I was rereading parts of the Dilbert Principle book where Scott Adams has advice about the business world and provides Dilbert cartoons as well; as I was reading the chapter about engineers, I realized that he describes them as having some of the symptoms of being an aspie, such as a lack of social skills, not being physically coordinated, and having problems with conversations; I think that he is an aspie himself because his descriptions of himself seem like he is an aspie. What do you think?

Hmm.... should I try again?

Generally if they arent effected enough by it to consider researching it on their own once the possibility has been raised they either arent autistic or its so mild it doesnt matter.

Or theyre in denial.

Regardless yeah you should just let him be.