I wish Bill Gates supports "I'm an Aspie" ad

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23 Apr 2009, 7:20 pm

Bill Gates has been fantastically successful at marketing a shoddy product and gaining a monopoly by ruthlessly suppressing honest competition from people dedicated to real quality.

I don't want to claim him.

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sinsboldly
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23 Apr 2009, 11:32 pm

TheKingsRaven wrote:

I hope not, it would be kinda embarrassing if Bill Gates became a "face of Asperger's", sure he's successful but his software sucks and worse, it seems he's ok with that.

I have always wondered why people think he cares about how good his software is. It sells, and sells well. He is from the SeaFirst banking family. He made/makes more money than God. It doesn't matter if the software is good or not.

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23 Apr 2009, 11:45 pm

sinsboldly wrote:

TheKingsRaven wrote:

I hope not, it would be kinda embarrassing if Bill Gates became a "face of Asperger's", sure he's successful but his software sucks and worse, it seems he's ok with that.

Makes perfect sense if your value system is built around money and fame and ego. It's a perfectly normal value system.

Just doesn't sound like an aspie value system.

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24 Apr 2009, 12:27 am

CanyonWind wrote:

sinsboldly wrote:

TheKingsRaven wrote:

I hope not, it would be kinda embarrassing if Bill Gates became a "face of Asperger's", sure he's successful but his software sucks and worse, it seems he's ok with that.

Makes perfect sense if your value system is built around money and fame and ego. It's a perfectly normal value system.

Just doesn't sound like an aspie value system.

it doesn't, does it. . .

Merle

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JohnnyCarcinogen
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13 May 2009, 10:11 am

ensabah6 wrote:

First I want to disclaim that I do not know nor claim Bill Gates is an Aspie, and second, how he chooses to spend his charity money is his business.

But if he is, or at least if he is willing to donate to a good cause (including malaria and minority college funds)

it'd be nice if there was an ad campaign which says "Hi, I'm x, I'm an Aspie", along with the usual donations to foundations that help Aspies and increase profile. Print ads, commericials, internet, etc. along with solicitations of others with asperger's (i.e Vernon Smith, etc)

I don't - Gates was a trust fund baby, was given more than enough money to start his business and get to the best colleges, and pretty much bought his way to the top. The reason why he dropped out of college was because college couldn't keep up with him, not because he was a bad student.

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21 Jun 2009, 9:43 pm

DentArthurDent wrote:

I originally came to this site to find answers and coping techniques, whilst there is support for this, there seems to be a growing perception that the issue lies not with our behaviour but instead lies with the vast majority of the population, I for one do not think this is helpful for a young 'aspie' to get the best out of their life, kids going around thinking that they are superior to the majority because they have aspergers is not only delusional but also it is hardly going to make their interaction in non aspergers society any easier.

So THIS.

I find there's hardly anything on the main AS forums about treatments to make having AS more bearable, instead it seems to be a case of 'why should we change, the NTs are the ones who should be changing!'

And its even worse on Aspies for Freedom, they're so bad they even got their own Encyclopedia Dramatica page

auntyjack
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24 Jun 2009, 6:54 am

knowledgeiskey wrote:

To tell you the truth, I don't think Bill Gates is an Apsie. I think it's based off of wishful thinking.

he does a great impression then. Rocking under stress, strong interests, unusual thinking, dresses for comfort, social disaster on legs, ignores conventions , lack of eye contact, difficulty joining groups and the list goes on.

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24 Jun 2009, 12:49 pm

ensabah6 wrote:

I wouldn't say he had AS I've read mutliple biographies of him, he's just a geek, but a sneaky one.
Don't like the man, don't like what he's done to the computing industry, but damn do I respect him.

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26 Jun 2009, 12:12 am

this thread makes me

sjamaan
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26 Jun 2009, 4:03 pm

sinsboldly wrote:

I have always wondered why people think he cares about how good his software is. It sells, and sells well.

He's not a salesman by trade, he's a programmer. Love of the craft should be enough reason to care.

In the same way you would expect a carpenter to care about selling sturdy chairs instead of ones that would go to pieces when you sat down on them, you would expect a programmer to sell robust software products he would be proud of. I guess that's just my autie naivety showing :shrug:

Anyway, I too do not want to identify with this crook.

discosizzle
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26 Jun 2009, 4:17 pm

Kangoogle wrote:

knowledgeiskey wrote:

To tell you the truth, I don't think Bill Gates is an Apsie. I think it's based off of wishful thinking.

More likely than not he is one. You are just wishfully looking for an excuse for your own failures. Along with everyone else who likes to doubt that successful people can be on the spectrum.

how do you know that he/she is a failure? they're not doubting that successful people CAN be on the spectrum, but they are dispelling the notion that everyone who is successful and highly intelligent is on the spectrum.

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10 Jul 2009, 3:59 am

Yeah, I mean, I don't really see the point to speculating on whether people are/were autistic or not. (I've occasionally done it with fictional characters in a tongue-in-cheek way, but meh.) Sure, there's probably some successful historical mathematicians and scientists (not to mention all the other fields out there - autistics can do more than math and science, and there are plenty of autistics who are not good at math) who were autistic, but it doesn't do much good to speculate based on specious details when it won't do any good.

Sometimes people say, "but it can be good to have a role model, to know that you can achieve things and that you are not automatically going to fail."

I agree, but I don't think the best way to go about this is to trot out historical figures who MAY have been autistic (though, while I think most of these "speculated" figures are extremely, extremely doubtful based on available info, that Einstein probably is the strongest case could be made based on what I have read), especially if you only look for potential autists among the "cream of the crop" so to speak.

Instead, look for known autistic people among all strata of professions, levels of success as it has been defined, whether they're a computer programmer, literature professor, manage a store, or are a Nobel Prize winner in economics, and encourage young autistics to not close down an avenue unless it is because they lack that interest or they, after a realistic evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses, would not be suited well to that career. Heck, it is very rare for an NT (defined as non-autistic, or not with a DSM dx, or however), to be able to achieve as much as Einstein.

So, even if we were to assume that Bill Gates, and everyone else it's been speculated, were actually autistic, then I still don't think that such a campaign would be a good idea, since it sends the message that our worth is based on what we do, how smart we are, and that if we don't "measure up", then why bother making accommodations or pursuing our meager dreams. And it's a very tiny proportion, autistic or NT, that measures up to such luminaries as Einstein.

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