Note that this does not require you to have ‘definitive’ proof of something. This would be an unreasonable standard in general, but especially so here, because even if these individuals had been diagnosed (which many autists are not), there is no particular reason to expect them to have shared the diagnosis publicly!
Instead, calling them autistic represents a reasonable summary of Guzey’s views, and is I think a pretty reasonable position. I think if you showed the average person some videos of early Musk or Page (before they got coaching) they would agree the behavior was pretty autistic. This has been often remarked upon—e.g. here.
What’s more, this is important to Guzey’s point. He is not claiming that all visionaries are poor leaders, so your suggested edit would be inaccurate. He is specifically claiming that one type of visionary makes a poor leader, so the qualification is important.
Hi Dale, I agree that we should encourage people here to adopt a scout mindset, and I also agree that this does not require you to have definitive proof of something.
My view on whether Jobs, Musk, or Page are actually autistic are in flux as I read other’s comments here, like yours, and read more about others’ views on them online. I’m not that familiar with autism/Asperger’s, but initially I thought that at least 2⁄3 of them are not autistic. So it’s interesting for me to learn that a couple other people on this forum like you agree that there’s good evidence of them being autistic / having Asperger’s.
Anyway, in what you quoted, we want people to write with “Clarity about what you believe, your reasons for believing it, and what would cause you to change your mind.”
Given that, I just wish that Guzey would have put a caveat near the top of his article that there’s no authoritative source saying that these leaders have been formally diagnosed as autistic. I’m not saying that he should caveat all his claims and always be super clear about everything, but for a topic like autism, I think he should have been clearer about his claim in the title.
Initially, I thought Guzey should change the article’s title. I’m changing my mind now and would be fine if he kept the title as is, but I would slightly prefer it if he added something like this in the article:
“Jobs, Musk, or Page have never been formally diagnosed as autistic, but my impression is that they exhibited a host of traits typically associated with autism/Asperger’s. This is why I put the title as “(Autistic) visionaries are not natural born leaders”.”
In general on this forum we seek to encourage people to adopt a ‘Scout Mindset’:
Note that this does not require you to have ‘definitive’ proof of something. This would be an unreasonable standard in general, but especially so here, because even if these individuals had been diagnosed (which many autists are not), there is no particular reason to expect them to have shared the diagnosis publicly!
Instead, calling them autistic represents a reasonable summary of Guzey’s views, and is I think a pretty reasonable position. I think if you showed the average person some videos of early Musk or Page (before they got coaching) they would agree the behavior was pretty autistic. This has been often remarked upon—e.g. here.
What’s more, this is important to Guzey’s point. He is not claiming that all visionaries are poor leaders, so your suggested edit would be inaccurate. He is specifically claiming that one type of visionary makes a poor leader, so the qualification is important.
Hi Dale, I agree that we should encourage people here to adopt a scout mindset, and I also agree that this does not require you to have definitive proof of something.
My view on whether Jobs, Musk, or Page are actually autistic are in flux as I read other’s comments here, like yours, and read more about others’ views on them online. I’m not that familiar with autism/Asperger’s, but initially I thought that at least 2⁄3 of them are not autistic. So it’s interesting for me to learn that a couple other people on this forum like you agree that there’s good evidence of them being autistic / having Asperger’s.
Anyway, in what you quoted, we want people to write with “Clarity about what you believe, your reasons for believing it, and what would cause you to change your mind.”
Given that, I just wish that Guzey would have put a caveat near the top of his article that there’s no authoritative source saying that these leaders have been formally diagnosed as autistic. I’m not saying that he should caveat all his claims and always be super clear about everything, but for a topic like autism, I think he should have been clearer about his claim in the title.
Initially, I thought Guzey should change the article’s title. I’m changing my mind now and would be fine if he kept the title as is, but I would slightly prefer it if he added something like this in the article:
“Jobs, Musk, or Page have never been formally diagnosed as autistic, but my impression is that they exhibited a host of traits typically associated with autism/Asperger’s. This is why I put the title as “(Autistic) visionaries are not natural born leaders”.”