“Simon Baron-Cohen, a psychologist and researcher at the University of Cambridge, has researched the neurological characteristics endemic in certain fields, most notably in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM ) professions. Baron-Cohen has repeatedly found that those with autism or autistic traits are over-represented in these disciplines, particularly in engineering and mathematics,Footnote 36,Footnote 37,Footnote 38 a finding that has been corroborated by different research teams.Footnote ”
There is much anecdotal evidence and growing research that points to a correlation between the type of work necessitated in tech and the analytical, highly intelligent, and cognitively-focused minds of “Aspies” who may be instinctively drawn to the engineering community.
In 2012, technology journalist Ryan Tate published an article in which he argued that this obsessiveness was in fact “a major asset in the field of computer programming, which rewards long hours spent immersed in a world of variables, data Surveillance structures, nested loops and compiler errors.”Footnote 44 Tate contended that the number of engineers with Asperger’s was increasing in the Bay Area, given the skillset many tech positions demanded.
Entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel similarly described the prevalence of Asperger’s in Silicon Valley as “rampant.” Autism spokesperson Temple Grandin, a professor at Colorado State University who identifies as an Aspie, also echoes Tate, Thiel, and Baron-Cohen’s conclusion:
Is there a connection between Asperger’s and IT? We wouldn’t even have any computers if we didn’t have Asperger’s…. All these labels—‘geek’ and ‘nerd’ and ‘mild Asperger’s’—are all getting at the same thing. ….The Asperger’s brain is interested in things rather than people, and people who are interested in things have given us the computer you’re working on right now.Footnote 47
**The most notable result is what many describe as a deficiency of emotional intelligence, particularly empathy, throughout the tech industry**
Alex Stamos, former Chief Security Officer at Facebook,:
As an industry we have a real problem with empathy. And I don’t just mean empathy towards each other… but we have a real inability to put ourselves in the shoes of the people that we’re trying to protect…. We’ve got to put ourselves in the shoes of the people who are using our products.
″...the woman described a systemic belief, particularly amongst executives, which held that those in the industry were the smartest and best suited to solve the problems they were tasked with, and therefore couldn’t “really learn anything from anyone else.”” I asked what she believed informed this attitude, the woman replied the problem stemmed, in her experience, from a lack of awareness and emotional intelligence within Silicon Valley.
Berners-Lee argues that the root cause of this returns, again and again, to “companies that have been built to maximise profit more than to maximise social good.”
I would say that personality type of executives has an impact on final goals and methods of tech firms, hence the comment.
EDIT: One more quote from the book:
“studies have shown how power rewires our brains in a way that Dacher Keltner, a professor of psychology at University of California, Berkeley, explains is comparable to a traumatic brain injury. Research by Keltner and others have found evidence of an inverse relationship between elevated social power and the capacity for empathy and compassion.29,30 These studies suggest that the degree of power people experience changes how their brains respond to others, most notably in the regions of the brain associated with mirror neurons, which are highly correlated with empathy and compassion.31 Keltner explains that as our sense of power increases, activity in regions of the orbito-frontal lobe decreases, leading those in positions of power to “stop attending carefully to what other people think,”32 become “more impulsive, less risk-aware, and, crucially, less adept at seeing things from other people’s point of view.”33”
What are you basing your optimism for Musk’s future for Twitter on?
(Sorry, I’m doing something wrong trying to insert links with markdown on)
[AP: eport: Tweets with racial slurs soar since Musk takeover]
(https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-technology-business-government-and-politics-2907d382db132cfd7446152b9309992c?)
[BBC: Scale of abuse of politicians on Twitter revealed] (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63330885)
[Reuters: Elon Musk’s Twitter slow to act on misleading U.S. election content, experts say](https://www.reuters.com/technology/elon-musks-twitter-girds-surge-us-midterm-election-misinformation-2022-11-08/)
What Musk says: [“Mr Musk insisted that the platform’s commitment to moderation remained “absolutely unchanged”.”](https://news.sky.com/story/elon-musk-defends-culling-twitter-staff-but-insists-commitment-to-moderation-remains-absolutely-unchanged-12738642)
What Musk does: [“Yesterday’s reduction in force affected approximately 15% of our Trust & Safety organization (as opposed to approximately 50% cuts company-wide”](https://twitter.com/yoyoel/status/1588657227035918337)
The market will decide what to do with Twitter, it seems, though these are early days.
His antics and hypocrisy [aren’t a good sign](https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/elon-musk-becomes-the-butt-of-the-joke-after-he-welcomes-comedy-back-on-twitter-338363/)
In terms of your riposte “Your attempt to tie personality-based critiques (stem / white / male) isn’t helpful.”:
The following quotes are from the book: [The Psychology of Silicon Valley, Cook, K. (2020)][https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-27364-4_2)
“Simon Baron-Cohen, a psychologist and researcher at the University of Cambridge, has researched the neurological characteristics endemic in certain fields, most notably in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM ) professions. Baron-Cohen has repeatedly found that those with autism or autistic traits are over-represented in these disciplines, particularly in engineering and mathematics,Footnote 36,Footnote 37,Footnote 38 a finding that has been corroborated by different research teams.Footnote ”
There is much anecdotal evidence and growing research that points to a correlation between the type of work necessitated in tech and the analytical, highly intelligent, and cognitively-focused minds of “Aspies” who may be instinctively drawn to the engineering community.
In 2012, technology journalist Ryan Tate published an article in which he argued that this obsessiveness was in fact “a major asset in the field of computer programming, which rewards long hours spent immersed in a world of variables, data Surveillance structures, nested loops and compiler errors.”Footnote 44 Tate contended that the number of engineers with Asperger’s was increasing in the Bay Area, given the skillset many tech positions demanded.
Entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel similarly described the prevalence of Asperger’s in Silicon Valley as “rampant.” Autism spokesperson Temple Grandin, a professor at Colorado State University who identifies as an Aspie, also echoes Tate, Thiel, and Baron-Cohen’s conclusion:
Is there a connection between Asperger’s and IT? We wouldn’t even have any computers if we didn’t have Asperger’s…. All these labels—‘geek’ and ‘nerd’ and ‘mild Asperger’s’—are all getting at the same thing. ….The Asperger’s brain is interested in things rather than people, and people who are interested in things have given us the computer you’re working on right now.Footnote 47
**The most notable result is what many describe as a deficiency of emotional intelligence, particularly empathy, throughout the tech industry**
Alex Stamos, former Chief Security Officer at Facebook,:
As an industry we have a real problem with empathy. And I don’t just mean empathy towards each other… but we have a real inability to put ourselves in the shoes of the people that we’re trying to protect…. We’ve got to put ourselves in the shoes of the people who are using our products.
″...the woman described a systemic belief, particularly amongst executives, which held that those in the industry were the smartest and best suited to solve the problems they were tasked with, and therefore couldn’t “really learn anything from anyone else.”” I asked what she believed informed this attitude, the woman replied the problem stemmed, in her experience, from a lack of awareness and emotional intelligence within Silicon Valley.
Berners-Lee argues that the root cause of this returns, again and again, to “companies that have been built to maximise profit more than to maximise social good.”
I would say that personality type of executives has an impact on final goals and methods of tech firms, hence the comment.
EDIT: One more quote from the book:
“studies have shown how power rewires our brains in a way that Dacher Keltner, a professor of psychology at University of California, Berkeley, explains is comparable to a traumatic brain injury. Research by Keltner and others have found evidence of an inverse relationship between elevated social power and the capacity for empathy and compassion.29,30 These studies suggest that the degree of power people experience changes how their brains respond to others, most notably in the regions of the brain associated with mirror neurons, which are highly correlated with empathy and compassion.31 Keltner explains that as our sense of power increases, activity in regions of the orbito-frontal lobe decreases, leading those in positions of power to “stop attending carefully to what other people think,”32 become “more impulsive, less risk-aware, and, crucially, less adept at seeing things from other people’s point of view.”33”