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Comment by dschobel | Hacker News Reader

Bram Cohen's Aspergers is well-publicized (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_43/b41050468...) and essential context for anything you read about/by him.

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I find that really patronizing. The subtext of your comment is that "people with Aspergers can't help but be douches with a massive ego". On the contrary, I think that many people with Aspergers are quite nice. Autism is not an excuse for publicly "shaming" a Freenode volunteer.

From my experience, I think Aspergers can be an excuse for saying irrelevant things like changing the subject to baseball cards in the middle of a conversation or casually commenting on someone's weight, not realizing that that is taboo. However, it has little to do with entitlement and in general being rude.

I don't want Aspergers to become synonymous with douche and ego. When someone says something awkward or inappropriate -- sure. Don't associate it with "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM -- FIX THIS YESTERDAY -- I'M POSTING THIS ON MY BLOG". That's not Aspergers.

You can read whatever subtext and be as offended as you wish. My only purpose was to highlight his well-known issue with Aspergers. You can do with it as you like.

As pointed out below, he doesn't even have a real diagnosis. He hides behind the label to excuse himself from learning appropriate behaviors.

The syndrome exists (or does not exist) independent of the diagnosis.

I can't comment on your second sentence but it seems completely speculative and I can't imagine how you can substantiate it.

"Cohen never sought a formal diagnosis but turned his considerable attention to the matter"

Self-diagnosis. Are you fucking kidding me?

Just because you were picked on in highschool and are a huge pain in the ass to work with, doesn't mean you have Aspergers.

Guess what, Bram Cohen's probably just an asshole who writes good software.

Watch any of his talks or speak to anyone who has ever worked with him.

It's not just about being rude but genuinely not understanding the socially correct behaviour to his own detriment.

Exhibit A: not realizing that it is a bad idea to post a chat transcript of you dressing down a volunteer to a free service.

Not understanding social contract is not necessarily Asperger's. Also, exhibit A could also be seen as not caring, there is no proof that he did not realize.

I agree and am really sick of self-diagnosed "Aspies". Asperger's is the new ADHD, which is to say, the new favored scapegoat for an awkward child (or adult in this case). This will only get worse as publication of Asperger's increases; there's a new movie coming out about some guy with Asperger's, I expect it to do bad things.

ADHD remains the favored scapegoat for a disobedient or hyperactive child.

I think this is the difference between a reason and an excuse. Though his condition may have contributed to his behavior, it's still not a reasonable way for an adult to act. Part of the burden of Aspergers is having to learn what others intuitively understand about social interactions. I hope Bram learns something from this.

I completely agree and don't think it excuses his misbehavior but rather helps explain it.

I'll leave the moralizing and righteous indignation to the others.

I had forgotten about this and it changes my feelings about his encounter with the admins. Everyone on the autism spectrum that I've known in my daily life was very rude. If he truly has a mild form of autism then publicly flogging his actions is insensitive and overkill. There's a real difference between the stereotypical rude entitled college student, and someone with a real medical problem. The real question to ask is should he have known better. It's reasonable to suggest that perhaps he did not.

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