‘They Get Fired All the Time. And They Have No Idea Why’
From the article: &quot;People with Asperger’s syndrome, the term still commonly used for one of the most well-known forms of autism spectrum disorder, bring serious advantages to the financial markets: extreme focus, a facility with numbers, a willingness to consider unpopular opinions, a strong sense of logic, and an intense belief in fairness and justice. But, like other autistic employees, they often feel alienated from their managers, colleagues, and clients. Sometimes they simply get fired.&quot;<p>I wonder if these people were always fired, or has something in the business changed that made immoderate instances of these traits a liability? Tech has changed in the last decade, to where I don&#x27;t think someone &quot;on the spectrum,&quot; could survive very long in a west coast company without being preyed upon by people who trade on other attributes.<p>Using Pfeffer&#x27;s triad of &quot;Performance, Credentials, Relationships,&quot; businesses seem to evolve to where success becomes weighted to the latter two instead of purely on performance. Arbitrage, startups, and other asymmetric, high risk plays could seem to benefit from high performing people on the spectrum, where people in later stage businesses that have more linear growth or stability benefit from the latter two.<p>To me, the trouble with the most functional edge of the &quot;spectum,&quot; view as presented is it seems to both normalize groupthink and some of the more shameful characteristics of political operators, and pathologizes clear reasoning and principle.<p>I get that expecting others to be accountable to my or any other general ethical rules is to choose suffering, but the tendency to pseudo-medicalize people as &quot;on the spectrum,&quot;  who lose politically feels ominous.