Cory Doctorow Quotes

My autism is a very mild form. It was diagnosed at the age of 25, partly because it wasn't diagnosable as a teenager (this is Asperger's syndrome, specifically). But there were certainly traits within that condition, within the autism spectrum in general, especially at the high functioning end, that I think are best looked at as pluses.

Autism's a very big spectrum. At one end of the spectrum, Einstein would probably be labeled autistic, Steve Jobs, half of Silicon Valley, you know, Van Gogh. And at the other end of the spectrum, you got much more severe handicaps where they never learn to speak.

Certainly not everybody that is different is necessarily autistic, but there are a lot of undiagnosed people, and it's not necessarily something that needs to have attention to it, unless that person is feeling uncomfortable in the world or they need extra help or something.

The majority of autists - as well as their parents - seem to be genuine victims of environmental stress.

Yes, I was a big math and computer geek, that's true. I was driven by the scholastic side of things. For me, it was all about what I could do with math and computers.

Normal people have an incredible lack of empathy. They have good emotional empathy, but they don't have much empathy for the autistic kid who is screaming at the baseball game because he can't stand the sensory overload. Or the autistic kid having a meltdown in the school cafeteria because there's too much stimulation.

Autism is a very serious condition.

I think I had a mild case of Asperger's as a younger guy, but that typically just wears off after a while. For some people, anyway.

I think I had a mild case of Asperger's as a younger guy, but that typically just wears off after a while.

You don't need to have Asperger's to feel bewildered in a culture that relies so heavily on inconsequential chit-chat to grease the wheels of day-to-day life.

Normal people … believe that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet.

I am, and will always be, a white socks, pocket protector, nerdy engineer.

Autism doesn't seem to have a seasonal component, unlike some forms of depression.

By looking at autistic kids, you can't tell when you're working with them who you're going to pull out, who is going to become verbal and who's not. And there seem to be certain kids who, as they learn more and more, they get less autistic acting, and they learn social skills enough so that they can turn out socially normal.

The thing is, autism is all different, you know, variables. And you start out with a certain amount of, you know, the point where the differences in the brain are going to just be a personality variant and, like, for very mild Asperger's. But you get into more severe kinds of autism where there's obvious speech delay, obvious abnormal behavior in a two and three-year-old child, you know, the initial neurology is different from case to case. But all children with autism are going to do better if they get really good educational intervention.

Those of us concerned with developing new technology should consider ourselves to have a major undertaking to try to meet the expanding needs of the increasing number of people in the world with its finite resources and environments constraints.

This new form of communication could have some utility.

The energy in Silicon Valley is because of the very talented engineers immigrating from around the world, especially Indians and Chinese. They are the best engineers, and Japan doesn't have enough of them.

Technical people tend to be more 'techie,' and management people are more 'managerial.'

I'm wired differently.

We all want our children to be the best they can be; and one of the blessings of having an autistic child is that you notice every little achievement, and it becomes cause for celebration.

Science, as opposed to technology, does violence to common sense.

What makes autism different is the history of neglect into the disorder. It's remained such a mystery that science has been very slow to address it.

It is possible that by studying autism we'll learn about the nature of talent. Supposedly there's no connection between scientific talent and autism, but if we look closely, we find a very basic connection.

I have a son, and my son has autism. There's certain things that I deal with that a lot of people don't deal with.