Elon Musk opened up on Thursday about his experience growing up with Asperger's syndrome, or autism spectrum disorder.
Why it matters: Most adults with "invisible disabilities" such as Aspergerâs conceal them professionally to avoid stigmas and potential discrimination, research has found.
As the founder of numerous companies, "acknowledging the influence of Asperger's ... given the relatively few known examples of successful entrepreneurs and business leaders with Aspergerâs, Musk's may inspire the next generation of young adults with Aspergerâs," Amy E. Hurley-Hanson and Cristina M. Giannantonio, workplace neurodiversity researchers and management professors at Chapman University's Argyros School of Business, tell Axios.
Growing up, âthe social cues were not intuitive,â Musk said when asked about it on stage at the TED2022 conference in Vancouver, Canada.
âI would just tend to take things very literally ⦠but then that turned out to be wrong â simply saying exactly what they mean, there's all sorts of other things that are meant, and took me a while to figure that out,â he recalled.
Flashback: Musk widely revealed having Aspergerâs last year when he hosted âSaturday Night Live.â
In his opening monologue, Musk said: "To anyone who Iâve offended , I just want to say I reinvented electric cars, and I'm sending people to Mars in a rocket ship. Did you think I was also going to be a chill, normal dude?"
When asked about a potential link between his companies and Aspergerâs, Musk said itâs âcertainly possibleâ that it was valuable from a technology standpoint.
âI found it rewarding to spend all night programming computers, just by myself. ⦠But I think that is not normal.â
He said he also became âobsessedâ with physics and trying to figure out the meaning of life.
âMy driving philosophy is to expand the scope and scale of consciousness so that we may better understand the nature of the universe.â
The big picture: Asperger's and other similar disorders that were previously diagnosed separately are now part of a wide diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Roughly 1.5 million people with ASD are expected to reach adulthood in the next decade and poised to enter the workplace in unprecedented numbers, Hurley-Hanson and Giannantonio say.
and this may help people understand certain behaviors/tendencies
Difficulty with nonverbal conversation skills (distance, loudness, tone, etc.)
Uncoordinated movements, or clumsiness
Anxiety and depression
The tendencies described above vary widely among people. Many learn to overcome their challenges by building on strengths.
I read an article some years ago that I think mentioned Jeff Bezos and a few others as examples of business revolutionairies who credited at least some of their success to Asperger's.
Elon Musk opened up on Thursday about his experience growing up with Asperger's syndrome, or autism spectrum disorder.
Why it matters: Most adults with "invisible disabilities" such as Aspergerâs conceal them professionally to avoid stigmas and potential discrimination, research has found.
As the founder of numerous companies, "acknowledging the influence of Asperger's ... given the relatively few known examples of successful entrepreneurs and business leaders with Aspergerâs, Musk's may inspire the next generation of young adults with Aspergerâs," Amy E. Hurley-Hanson and Cristina M. Giannantonio, workplace neurodiversity researchers and management professors at Chapman University's Argyros School of Business, tell Axios.
Growing up, âthe social cues were not intuitive,â Musk said when asked about it on stage at the TED2022 conference in Vancouver, Canada.
âI would just tend to take things very literally ⦠but then that turned out to be wrong â simply saying exactly what they mean, there's all sorts of other things that are meant, and took me a while to figure that out,â he recalled.
Flashback: Musk widely revealed having Aspergerâs last year when he hosted âSaturday Night Live.â
In his opening monologue, Musk said: "To anyone who Iâve offended , I just want to say I reinvented electric cars, and I'm sending people to Mars in a rocket ship. Did you think I was also going to be a chill, normal dude?"
When asked about a potential link between his companies and Aspergerâs, Musk said itâs âcertainly possibleâ that it was valuable from a technology standpoint.
âI found it rewarding to spend all night programming computers, just by myself. ⦠But I think that is not normal.â
He said he also became âobsessedâ with physics and trying to figure out the meaning of life.
âMy driving philosophy is to expand the scope and scale of consciousness so that we may better understand the nature of the universe.â
The big picture: Asperger's and other similar disorders that were previously diagnosed separately are now part of a wide diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Roughly 1.5 million people with ASD are expected to reach adulthood in the next decade and poised to enter the workplace in unprecedented numbers, Hurley-Hanson and Giannantonio say.
and this may help people understand certain behaviors/tendencies
In the past two weeks Musk reinstated the account of former US president Donald Trump based on the results of a Twitter poll and unblocked a series of other users previously banned from the site for breaching content rules. Musk also championed the return of Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, whose account was restricted in October after Ye posted an anti-Semitic tweet. (Restricted accounts still appear on the platform, but its users canât post or interact with them.)
Yet Musk this week announced that Ye would be suspended all over again after tweeting an image of a swastika inside the Star of David. His reasoning, which academicsandjournalists have called out as unclear, was that the post was a breach of Twitterâs rule against incitement to violence.
Like the Twitter staffers who deliberated on the New York Post story in 2020, Musk was caught in a tough spot and appeared to feel under pressure to make a decision. And, as with those past arbiters of Twitter policy, the behind-the-scenes action seemed a little messy.
A text message leaked by Ye appeared to show Musk messaging the rapper directly first, showing that heâs willing to extend personal service to some violators of his moderation policiesâeven if they are espousing anti-Semitic views. âSorry, but you have gone too far. This is not love,â Musk told Ye, according to screenshots the rapper shared before his Twitter account was again suspended. âWho made you the judge,â Ye texted back.
Muskâs moderation assignments will only get more complicated from here. The longer he owns the site, the more likely he is to face a challenge with political entanglements. And research has suggested that hate speech has already become more visible on Musk-run Twitter.
Twitter did not respond to a request for comment about its incitement-to-violence bans and how rules against violators will be enforced. The company has disbanded its communications team.
