Is There a Correlation Between Asperger's and Successful Founders? (2014) | Hacker News Reader

Is There a Correlation Between Asperger's and Successful Founders? (2014)

capitalandgrowth.org

32 pointsjkuria8 comments

Interview with Peter Thiel by Wired UK at Oxford in 2014

Only the first paragraph addresses the topic

"In its mildest forms, yes. And I think it is an indictment of our society that the people who are most socially adept end up having so little conviction about their ideas.

Since they are so good at picking up on social cues, they quickly internalize any rejection they get and move on to the next thing.

If you go to a place like Harvard Business School, where arguably the people are bright and socially savvy, there is so much groupthink.

In 1989 they all wanted to work for Michael Milken. In the late 1990’s and early 2000’s it was dot com companies. And most other times it is either banking or consulting."

It's not even clear to me if he means there's a positive or a negative correlation. If I could go back in time and not read this article I definitely would.

I was diagnosed with Asperger’s as a child. I have all the symptoms, including compulsive organizing of objects.

Relating to humans is very hard for me, so I built electronics instead and was making radios in first grade. Later I moved to Silicon Valley to start an electronics business, since it was where I knew I could fit in.

I think there is merit to this sentiment. In the technology industry, certain aspie traits, like attention to detail and systems thinking, are uniquely helpful.

But some traits are harmful. I invest a ton of energy into communication and empathy development as both of these things don’t come naturally to me. I know I’ve been set back in ways compared to my other peers, by being weak in these areas.

> I invest a ton of energy into communication and empathy development as both of these things don’t come naturally to me. I know I’ve been set back in ways compared to my other peers, by being weak in these areas.

Any good recommendations? Any books you've found significantly helpful?

The most important thing I have learned is to never approach a situation with preconceptions about the way you think things should be, and instead be absorbent of the moment so you collect the best possible data.

I'm surprised that this article with this title made it to the second pool chance list.

It is just an interview and it also miss the 2014 tag

From the article: "London is a great finance center in a way that New York is not." It became a great finance center in part because the UK was in the EU and also had strong connections to the USA. That is broken now, so it is all downhill, a lot of that business (not all of it, but a significant amount) will leave town.

this interview reads like someone running an 6th grade school newspaper asked the questions - nothing against 6th graders, but this entire article was pathetic.

1/Do you think there is a correlation between Asperger’s and successful founders ?

In its mildest forms, yes.

Dear God this. Imagine being a founder who (by all other measures) is smart articulate and friendly, but completely unable to form a theory of mind for anyone you interact with. Imagine this makes EVERY interaction with another human anxiety inducing and fraught with danger because there’s a company at stake. Imagine dealing with crippling depression and ADHD because it comes with the territory of “mild” ASD they say. Imagine taking this unfortunate mishmash of a brain and trying to be a fucking founder with it.

Being in combat in Iraq was easier. I’d literally rather get shot at and blown up every fucking day like 2004 than constantly fuck up customer and co-founder interactions because my mind is such a worthless broken tool.

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