ACHIEVEMENTS BY PEOPLE ON THE AUTISTIC SPECTRUM.

ACHIEVEMENTS BY PEOPLE ON THE AUTISTIC SPECTRUM. This interview with Temple Grandin by Bari Weiss in the Wall Street Journal (February 20-21) begins with her speculation that it was somebody on the autistic spectrum who made the first stone spear. She adds that “without some autistic traits you wouldn’t even have a recording device” to use in the interview. Bari Weiss describes Temple Grandin as “easily the most famous autistic woman in the world.” Temple Grandin gives reasons for her claim: “People on the ‘spectrum’ tend to be just as obsessed with things and the way things work as they are uninterested in social relationships. And, as Ms. Grandin observed, people interested in things make important advancements—particularly in engineering, science and technology.” Tyler Cowen, the economist, has making similar arguments, including in this article. He says: “there is a lot more autism in higher education than most of us realize. It’s not just ‘special needs’ students but also our valedictorians, our faculty members, and yes —sometimes —our administrators.” Cowen gives the powerful example of Vernon L. Smith, a winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, who “attributes his extreme focus, his attention to detail, and his scholarly persistence to his connections to the autism spectrum.”