As I mentioned in Everybody is the Same, I never even realized I was different than anybody else. Sure, I seemed to have some talents in software development, but everybody has things they are good at and bad at. Looking at myself after knowing more about what is going on, I can identify parts of my life that benefit.

Are there downsides? Maybe! See Friction and Communication. An oddity of having no Social Salience is that I can’t perceive many of the limitations and don’t have much feeling about it one way or another. I can see secondary effects in communication with my wife as the biggest issue.

Note that I work in software development, which is highly aligned with my Functional Cognitive Architecture. Computers and people who are dealing with them are typically very literal. The computer will do as programmed, even if it doesn’t make sense, so being literal is key. Of course where there are people, there are emotions, but in a workplace these tend to be more along the lines of frustration or boredom – nothing tricky.

Autism and ADHD Experience

I have read about and heard from friends with ADHD that there is some benefit to their condition in the software industry. Outside of that field, I am not sure. There are certainly stressful and tiring parts of autism and ADHD. Of course individual experiences vary. These are things that I have heard of that are sometimes a benefit (paraphrased from an LLM):

• hyperfocus: might spend ten hours in a “flow state,” solving a complex architectural bug that others couldn’t crack. The trade-off is often physical exhaustion, forgetting to eat, or “autistic burnout” afterward.
• pattern recognition: many autistic individuals excel at seeing systemic connections or edge cases in code that others miss – this is the key to debugging as well.
• deep interest: when a job aligns with a “special interest,” the level of dedication and knowledge acquisition can be far beyond average.
• literal communication: many ND people prefer direct, honest, and transparent information exchange. This can lead to incredibly efficient collaboration because there is less “reading between the lines.”

  My Experience

Although I am Not Autistic I do share some of the same benefits:

• hyperfocus: It isn’t hyperfocus in the ADHD sense, but my lack of distractions (social pings) gives me considerable focus ability. I doubt I can spend ten hours in the zone, but when I am deep into something several hours is easy. I never (mostly never) miss a meal and don’t feel burned out after – if I fixed something I feel a Dopamine hit.
• pattern recognition: understanding systems and debugging are two areas where I am very strong. Debugging in particular benefits from recognizing subtle clues, understanding techniques for catching bugs and quickly understanding code as you read it.
• deep interest: although I don’t have the same special interest (as a soothing mechanism) that autistic people sometimes have, I do tend to learn a lot about what I am working on. I have both breadth in computer science and programming and depth in a few specific areas. Even in hobbies I often go all-in – I get more out of it with some investment in knowledge.
• literal communication: I don’t have anything else. As I mentioned, this works well in software companies.

Where else do I benefit?

• Logical: I use Propositional Logic and Functional Logic Modeling in how I think
  • this works well in STEM fields and software development
• Calm and Quiet: I don’t experience the social pings
  • I don’t pick up emotions or reflect them back
  • I am Mid-happy Default
  • I am reliable in a crisis – P0 tickets, no worry!
  • cognitive efficiency
  • patient
• Self Esteem: my sense of self worth is entirely internal and stable
  • I have no Shame
  • I want the Truth and Facts
  • my identity is not tied to these facts
  • I am willing to say I don’t know or I was mistaken
  • I can apologize – I have no social status to worry about
  • I have no Ego
• Objectivity: I am status blind
  • high-fidelity information auditor – no ignoring fallacies even from high status individuals
  • immune to shame-based manipulation
  • immune to gaslighting and groupthink

Sadly I do not have the power of flight.