Asperger's, the Computer Nerd, and the Elephant in the Room

It seems in Silicon Valley there is a huge elephant in the room that no one is willing to directly address: Silicon Valley is, for the most part, comprised of people born with Asperger's. The "computer nerd", by its inherent definition, is a socially awkward child who is typically good at math and computers, and yet the elephant in the room remains. Perhaps the feared stigma is what holds Silicon Valley's greats from coming forward with this unspoken understanding. For those who claim we live in a world free from judgment, I would beg them to attempt, just once, to tell all their friends they have a disorder, and to see how that goes down. People tend to hate seeing those who had less mobility than them climb higher, and they will do everything to oppress that person, while pretending they would never do such a thing. And yes, I know this from first-hand experience.

Yet I can not help but wonder what a wonderful world we would live in, if this disorder was allowed to become a powerful part of a person's identity, indicative of high intelligence, business acuity, and an ability to see the world differently, rather than the great big secret no one dare utter. The unwillingness to treat this disorder as a form of upward mobility gives power to those who would turn it into a disability. And that is not okay.

Sherlock Holmes, Steve Jobs, and a great many others come to mind when one thinks about the elephant in the board rooms across the world. People with Asperger's range from mildly gifted to extraordinarily brilliant - but the attempt to suppress a label is absurdly self-defeating, though that would seem to be contradictory: For while a label does and always will give little people little guns with which to target at you, to fear one's own abilities and attempt to be ordinary, when your nature makes you anything but, is the most self-defeating notion of all.

Brilliance is not supposed to be ordinary. One who is extraordinary can not, by definition, simply be ordinary. And if you are never given the chance to be ordinary, why would you ever reduce yourself to attempting to blend in with the little people who wish to see you fall, and who showed as much under-handed malice from the start? Yes, to avoid labels is to avoid giving simple people ammunition - but to show that you truly are above caring about small-minded battles gives you the greatest power of all.