Slashdot Mirror
Company Trains the Autistic To Test Software
Aspiritech, a Chicago based non-profit company, has launched a program to train high-functioning autistic people as testers for software development companies. The company says autistics have a talent for spotting imperfections, and thrive on predictable, monotonous work. Aspiritech is not the first company to explore the idea of treating this handicap as a resource. Specialisterne, a Danish company founded in 2004, also trains autistics. They hire their workforce out as hourly consultants to do data entry, assembly line jobs and work that many would find tedious and repetitive.
They own the future.
I know many will say this is reprehensible, but I honestly think this is something respectable for individuals suffering from autism to do. Honestly, besides grocery store jobs, I have never seen other types of companies hiring these individuals. Of course there are others, but I haven't seen any.
Bring on the Epsilons...
This notion was both used in Brave New World and Dean Koontz's Frankenstein - using autistic people to perform as worker bees.
That said, there's been a troubling increase of babies born on the spectrum in recent years, and so finding a productive niche for them is something I'm all for.
(And of course, they'd probably make great software programmers.)
We just have to figure a way to build an economy around the counting of toothpicks.
Betas. Or maybe deltas.
I'm sure some people will be upset by that comment but they are sorting job function by capability.
High Functioning Autism isn't really a condition that impairs people from doing more complex work. It's really similar to Aspergers Syndrome, and people with these two conditions are the kinds of people who would can get good educations and be great programmers.
(I hear Silicon Valley has a higher prevalence of Aspies, likely because the kinds of jobs found there are a good fit for Aspies and tend to attract them to the region.)
The writer must be a programmer because as a tester, I find the phrase "predictable, monotonous work" offending. Sure, parts of testing can be predictable and monotonous, but a good tester goes outside the box and the majority of testing is not the predictable monotonous type. If testing was predictable, then it wouldn't be needed. If it was predictable that certain bugs would be found then a good Engineer would always fix it before it was found, making it not predictable anymore.
Dave had mild Aspergers. We got him to do the hassling as he couldn't sense the irritation of the people he was calling.
consultants? nice way to get out of paying for there health care and makeing them pay all the taxes on there own. How about helping and makeing them w2 workers?
sounds like most jobs these days
That will be a first for me.
Nullius in verba
I'm sure they are also willing work for very low pay and have terrible negotiating skills!
There goes the blackjack and the hookers for Rainman then.
"The company says autistics have a talent for spotting imperfections, and thrive on predictable, monotonous work."
Sounds like manager material to me.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
consultants? nice way to get out of paying for there health care and makeing them pay all the taxes on there own. How about helping and makeing them w2 workers?
You are kidding, right?
Where do you think the money comes from to pay for benefits and employment taxes in the first place?
I'd rather have the cash and spend it the way I want than be stuck in some lowest-common-denominator benefits system.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
On the topic of Autism, I suggest everybody read "The Speed of Dark" by Elizabeth Moon. It puts the condition into a very approachable context that allows the reader to live through the eyes of an Autistic. It also has a great science/research back story that us geeks like.
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
If only we could figure out how to produce these assembly workers en masse from test tubes... We could call them epsilons and use them to free up the alphas for the more fun tasks! If we train the epsilons from an early age to be happy with their role in life it would be a wonderful system for all!
...fall into this category, the way this article is writen is saying that every person with ASD is like this. However, I am not. I hate repeditive work, menial tasks and debugging. I'm a software dev anyway, but I make deal. It's just me who loves to make stuff that does what I want more easily since I am partialy lazy. I guess I'm not like everyone there.
For those who seek perfection there can be no rest on this side of the grave.
Is another man's my wife.
That's why they hired me!
except you just can't get the purchasing power to deliver the benefits you will need for the income you will get.
Nullius in verba
This is no surprise Microsoft has been using the retarded as a QA team for windows security for YEARS
These names seem to be disparaging. Would you work for a contract agency named Shortbusstaffers or a software company named Weonlyhirethementallydifferent?
In Holland Specialisterren (hmm, sounds familiar) does the same.
Whoever came up with this idea is a complete fucking genius. I feel really sorry for the engineers though. It will never work well enough to fully satisfy the testing team.
And the deaf might be good at watching surveillance camera video... And those height-challenged might be good in tight spaces.... And those uterus-enabled might be.... well you get the picture. I guess we all "sell" what we are good at but those doing the buying should be careful of enabling exploitation.
These names seem to be disparaging. Would you work for a contract agency named Shortbusstaffers or a software company named Weonlyhirethementallydifferent?
Spicialisterne just means Specialists, nothing derogatory there. Aspiritech doesn't sound to bad either, like a combination of Aspire and tech.
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
The project was a huge database migration, so we would give the kid excell sheets with thousands of records to compare data consistency, validating scripts and data transformations, while management smiled "that'll keep the kid busy for a few months".
Now, he loved wikipedia, and we'd only see him read franically on wikipedia... at the end of the day, he'd walk up to the IT-manager, each time again:
"I'm sorry sir, I did my best today but I could only manage to go through 70% of the list. I found some errors which I marked. Next time, I'll try harder, I don't want to dissapoint you.", while the same look of disbelief was on his face over and over again.
All the consultants that passed through the project with their programming knowledge, could not match the comparing accuracy of this kid with his massive speed, while he just seemed to be reading wikipedia, apoligizing each evening when he went on his way home in all his quirkyness being very thankful to get the "opportunity to work with pcs".
It's maybe relevant to mention the project was an agressively low priced fixed project, going over schedule so the client being hired for the project kept on dumping starters and benchers to finish the project with the problems you could imagine. It's why I was hired the period of the project to support the other consultants who were stuck in the mess they've been creating trying to get the project done.
If I would have the opportunity again to work with and rely on autistics for tasks needing massive concentration and accuracy, I'll put all my trust in their hands.
I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
us^H^Hwe geeks like.
Slashdot has been hiring mentally handicapped people as moderators since 1997. Now that's truly groundbreaking!
... that's just the kind of thing they used to say about women. 'Till we got uppity.
Company Trains the Autistic To Test Software
But if somebody has written some software to train autistic people, it would be:
"Company Tests Software to Train the Autistic"
What if a weird consultant is to do some work for some developer tools company:
"The Autistic to Train a Test Software Company"
What if some ill behaved company is about to release its Railroad tycoon clone:
"The Autistic Company to Test Software Trains"
That spells segmentation fault
Then what about hire paranoids as locksmiths?
ASD isn't a barrier to founding three startup companies or Dealing with other people in a business environment.
Although it can be hard to register your car...
"Einstein argued that [...] God is not capricious or arbitrary. No such faith comforts the software engineer." ~ Brooks
Jesus, I would expect something better from Slashdot
A lot of you are suggesting that high function Autism is mental retardation. It ISN'T!.
I am very disgusted with the fact that people on here are totally blinkered and think its retardation. My 5 yr old son, just last week was tested for three hours and its been found that he has slight Autism. He is NOT retarded in any way shape or form. He is an exceptionally intelligent little boy. He just has trouble focusing on simple to learn tasks that are not within his interest. Case and point, at age 2 he could tell you what every single car was in the parking lot by looking at the manufacture's logo. Every one. even the odd ones that you don't see a lot of like Ferrari and Lamborghini (well you don't see many here in the white mountains of New Hampshire).
At age 3 his focus went from that to NASCAR, and he could tell you every driver, sponsor, number, what car they drove. Now he is into trains, he can watch an episode of Thomas the Tank engine and recite the whole episode word for word in order after watching it ONCE. He could read at age 3, he could write his name at age 4. He can count to 30+ and knew all his ABC's at 2 and a 1/2.
However he has problems if you break his routine, when he talks to you he will turn every conversation around to focus on what he is interested in. He has social skill problems when he deals with his peers who are of the same age. Adults not really a problem, and thats due to most adults being of a higher level than most kids his age. I personally think he has aspergers as he is very social and will will approach people and talk to them. We have has some simple tasks like one half of potty training that he still hasn't mastered at age 5, and we now know how to handle that, because all the ways we were trying were disrupting his routine.
The pediatrician came up with a very good example of how his life will be with it. If for example he decided to work at a museum as the resident Ornithologist because that is what he was interested in, he would excel at that job. He would have a perfect memory for that task and would know EVERYTHING about it. He would be a walking encyclopedia on the subject. Everything else would be secondary.
If he took up programming he would excel at it if he was interested in it. Seriously HOW IS THAT RETARDATION? Low functioning Autism is totally different end of the spectrum. Its just that all Autistic people have their brains wired differently, they are NOT retarded.
I suggest you read this before posting any more retarded posts ok?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_speculated_to_have_been_autistic
Remember the article says High-functioning autism, please don't jump on the short bus as many of you have on here.
I have Asperger's Syndrome, which as someone said earlier is very similar to high functioning Autism. Personally, I think this is a wonderful use of my talents! I'm always so interested in little details and usability so much that I often get annoyed when people just don't seem to care about them. If I wasn't such a Linux geek, I'd take this job up (if it payed well) in a heartbeat!
"Our country is not nearly so overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded." -Archbishop Fulton Sheen
I, for one, welcome our new Emergent podmaster! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Deepness_in_the_Sky
but what happens when we have too many deltas & epsilons? after all, they are being "bred" all the time: f.a.s., crack babies, whatever...
If this is successful, what happens when they run out of autistic people?
Will there be an incentive to create them? More mercury and formaldehyde in my baby's vaccines please!
In this economy? In a heartbeat. I [heart] ourpeopleareshit.com
It's called "inability to adapt". That's the difference between autistics and us. You and me might not know the answer to a new problem, but we will TRY to figure a way. An autistic will flat out shut down right there. The code just ain't right. Autistics can only survive in the presence of adaptables. Left to their own devices, they will perish. I'm sure you love your son, but you have to face facts. His inability to adapt means he will NOT survive without people not like him.
He would fail at programming. Programming means new and different problems, which have to be reconciled from abstract to explicit. You son seems to simply be a blank slate, a hard drive. Given you description, he would be better suited to being a docent, someone who simply spits back facts that others have already found. An Ornithologist is more than that. An Ornithologist would actually discover new data, and create theories and look at new possibilities, and draw conclusions. At most, he'd be an Ornithologist's 3rd assistant, someone to entrust with raw data for instant recall.
You said he could recite a cartoon episode. Nice feat. But can he draw conclusions from it? Can he make comparisons? Can he postulate new possibilities from existing data? Can he find flaws, posit new improvements?
Along the same lines, I highly recommend "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon. It's fiction but educational.
Are agnostics skeptical of unicorns too?
Not trying to be antagonistic here, but I have to ask. Do you think your co-worker was being paid in-line with the amount of work he was doing? My only fear with this concept is that they may be taken advantage of.
Wasn't there some farm of autistic kids or something in some of the episodes ?
Self-diagnosis is so prevalent these days it's ridiculous. Most people with issues that affect their ability to function to do not talk about them.
He might like blackjack, but I can't really see him caring about hookers.
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
The penal system's method of punishment immediately sprung to mind.
Actually we do this for free, thanks.
Anyone who's interested in this kind of discussion on putting autistic's skills to positive use (for both themselves and society at large) should read Tyler Cowen's Create Your Own Economy. The title really doesn't let on that it's a book about improving your own ability to process information by fostering the skills that autistics tend to have more than their non-autistic counterparts. His introductory chapters clearly explain that autism is not a handicap and that the information economy can provide a place where such personality types and their cognitive skills can thrive.
Our society has a lot of room for people with unique skills, and these middlemen who can bring autistics gainful employment while serving the greater economy should be applauded for their work.
Actually, the Danish word "Specialisterne" includes a [plural] definite article in its suffix and can be translated into English as "The Specialists", or better translated as "The Professionals".
I worked as a QA intern a few years ago testing a web interface, and would regularly come across small bugs that I'd ignore. They'd be cases where a label would take an extra line and throw the layout off, or something similar. I could have reported them, but I'd usually just just ignore them. The reason I'd ignore them was social, I didn't want the developers thinking I was an ass for reporting minor issues. Whereas someone with Autism would most likely ignore any social impact of reporting nitpicky.
I have mild aspergers and a controllable obsession with patterns and perfection and flaws in logic. I'm also a very, very skilled software tester (and programmer) so I guess it's true. I catch things that nobody else does and they seem so obvious to me. I've had a few contract testing jobs and I ripped those software packages a new one in every case. Once the designers stopped being pissed at me for finding so many problems, they fixed them and were happy they hired me :P
So what if my brain doesn't associate names with faces with events and I have a poor concept of time, I'm going to pick out dozens of bugs in your software really quickly lol.
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
rely on autistics for tasks needing massive concentration and accuracy, I'll put all my trust in their hands.
The more I hear this sentiment echoed, the more I think they're the ones who came out right, and we're the ones who are broken.
Seconded.
I worked with someone with Asperger's Syndrome as part of a large Government Y2K bug "fixing" team (and it was fixing, not checking). Senior management had prioritised the fixes based on how much each database was "worth" (i.e., how much they paid for it) rather than, more sensibly, on how much the databases in question would affect citizens were they not to be fixed.
The result of this was that three weeks before 1/1/2000, 50 databases critical for functions such as medical care, burials, garbage collection, liquor licences, care homes etc. had not been fixed. This work-experience chap with Asperger's who up until then had basically been the post room / tea-boy (as well as carrying out rudimentary IT tasks) offered to help.
We let him join the team and gave him all the database documentation to read just to keep him quiet as we were busy enough. He sat reading it for two weeks and we got on with our work and left him to it.
Then the tape arrived with a copy of all 50 databases on it for us to fix. Before we'd arrived for work that morning, he'd opened the post, loaded the tape and was fixing the databases one by one (having prioritised them well by importance without our intervention) at an unbelievably fast typing speed. Incredibly, as he finished the fixes for each database (which we obviously tested), it turned out that he had fixed it without error (so far as we could tell).
He finished fixing the 50th and last database on 30/12/1999. The "post mortem analysis" (as far as we could tell) in early 2000 was that he'd fixed all 50 databases perfectly within a week.
I cant believe that I am the first one to say this...
I for one welcome our new autistic overlords!
No, he wasn't under a regular contract, they also didn't know the output he'd have. When he was "hired" (allowed to sit around and have tasks handed to him to "integrate") they thought they were doing charity...
At least that was my impression, I never saw the guys paycheck, but he also wasn't there fulltime :)
I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
Please decant 2 dozen betas for us. We'll need them to assemble the centrifugal bumblepuppies. Capitalism+Genetic Engineering = GMO Slaves
So YOU'RE the one responsible for Internet Explorer!
Probably because they had to keep that movie behind the counter.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.
except you just can't get the purchasing power to deliver the benefits you will need for the income you will get.
It's not so hard if you look enough, especially if you decide that you don't have to fit the mold promulgated in the media.
For example - forget about expecting health 'insurance' to pay for routine medical care. Get a very high deductible policy (with correspondingly very low premiums) for actual emergencies and a tax-free medical savings account and pay for the basics with that tax-free cash - some doctors will give you a cash discount because insurance overheads are routinely 30-50% of their costs, so use those. Added bonus - your personal health information stays out of the hands the people with the most to gain from misusing it.
As for retirement, look into the 'personal 401k' - you can stuff nearly $40K into pre-tax savings using one of those.
Free your mind, and your wallet will follow.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
We can detect things about a running machine that a hundred people walking by can't.
Being able to keep a machine humming at optimum efficiency requires the ability to absorb how things 'are' at optimum. When things go slightly out of whack, we understand how the machine works and can more quickly track down the source. The rhythm of sensing and adjusting can be like a dance.
I prefer high speed machines that require constant, minute, adjustments to maintain efficiency. High speed hydroplane or paper conversion machine.... they both have that same thrill for me, though maybe not the same health hazard level. :D
What I DON'T appreciate (and I've walked out on a lot of jobs for it) is when I have to add extra dance steps to my routine because someone else isn't doing their job. (Poorly maintained machines)
I've heard the same sentiment noted by a mother of autistic child, but for a different reason. She had to teach her boy to lie. A lot. For some reason, our social norms require us to lie more/less constantly.
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
Of course, that's the only way we could get through a day of speaking to intelligent and charming persons such as yourself. Oh sorry, excuse me, I have to see a man about a horse.
Comment of the year
What happen, your old lady beat you up again? ;-)
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
"Spesialist" is the translation of Expert from danish to english... So personally I think it is a clever name :-p
you're just fucking weird, and have poor memory
Start with a strawman and carry on from there
As a parent of more than two children I'm mystified as to why you even had him at the pediatrician. The behaviour you describe sounds not at all untypical. Five year old boys do have trouble remaining focussed on things in which they're less interested, no matter how intelligent they are, and they can often react strongly to changes in routine. That's not autism, it's normal.
Consultants in Denmark have the same health care benefits as the rest of the population - it's a universal health care system.
Furthermore, the whole point of having them do this work is to give them some meaning to their lives. It is a form of health care, so to speak.
"Specialisterne" Means "The Specialists" or "The experts", the word "special" doesn't have the "special-ed" tinge in Danish as it has in ENglish
All you have to do is pay them in cheaply-painted clay Sonichu medallions instead of money and they're content with their lives.
Get your facts right before you comment.
First of in Denmark health care is free, we all pay through our taxes, so no one is being cheated of anything.
Secondly if you bothered to RTFA or even the summary you would know that these people are hired OUT as consultants. And as for helping them:
"In return, Specialisterne assumes much more responsibility for their employees than most companies, with learning experts and social workers on staff."
ps. I think you're confusing there with their.
40% Funny, 40% Insightful, 40% Informative, 40% Dolomite
The term "REM" in the UK is used by children to make fun of "stupid" people. Imagine my suprise when I encounter the firm "Remploy" who specialise in employment for special needs candidates !
.. parents will only buy alpha genes.
What about politicians secretly creating more autistics? Well how? Mass exposure could easily have unwanted side effects. Individual exposure would prove extremely expensive and make keeping secrets tricky.
I think more likely drive for enforced behavioral medication or genetic modification might be consumerism. Imagine if malls could expose shoppers to chemicals that make impulse buying more likely. Imagine if politicians could secretly require that baby formula include substances taht made children grow up more susceptible to impulse buying. How many times have U.S. President's said "Go buy something!".
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
and he can run circles around most other children his age. He began learning mathematics by age two. By age five, he knows more about the solar system then many adults. He even understand, in principle, the behavior of celestial mechanics (though he doesn't understand why, he is still only five). The reason I say this is because most autistics don't need special jobs nobody else will fill. Most of them are better than average people. They fall behind because the educational system failed them. They were not given therapy and support at a very early age. People really have no idea my son is autistic at this time. He has learned skills to adapt. But he still has his autistic strengths. Data entry and software testing are for muggles. Autistics are meant to be software engineers, software architects, scientists, mathematicians. This company is capitalizing on the failure of society to properly develop its autistic children.
Ever notice how much bigotry is put into the mouths of other people by someone hiding behind satire? Happens all the time here in the UK when people are speaking about The Duke of Edinburgh. He's earned a reputation for making racist gaffes on his various public visits but for every one he's ever made there are 50 put into his mouth by comedians trying to score a cheap laugh, often much worse than anything he's ever said. I always have to wonder exactly how much is satire, and how much is a way of disguising their own prejudice with sarcasm. Which is more disparaging, naming companies using the words "aspire" and "specialist" or describing employed autistics as "short bus staff"?
And behold, a command prompt and he who sat upon it, his name was shutdown and -h 3:11 followed with him
Welcome to the new threat to the welfare of high-school jocks: autsourcing. It used to be that the repetitive and extremely boring tasks belonged to them.
Good news is the aspies might find ways to automate those repetitive task they were prevented to look at before.
This kinda stuff has been done all over Europe for many years, and I suspect the same in the US. How is this newsworthy? Just because the american company needed some publicity?
Hell, I know several software & SaaS development companies that have autistic people just for this. You don't even need an external company to train & employ them.
We are a small enterprise, and we employ one such person for 3 days a week.
They will be the ones crawling out of the Cube, once all us engineers have finally imploded up our own arses.
I agree, autism is not retardation. Everyone has a slightly different way of thinking and being, whether because of genetic or experiential variability. Some of us do not get on well with their social environment, because they differ too much, or on the wrong points, from the cultural norms. But the "problem" is in the incompatibility, not in one side or the other. When it's one against many, however, the minority (or the ones with least legitimacy) will become regarded as "abnormal", as people who have a certain syndrome, though we might just as well say everyone else has a "syndrome".
It even doesn't have to be a minority. The situation may be much more complex than a black and white division. If only enough people keep on carrying an ideal that never totally fits anyone, and if they keep on hiding their own "imperfection" because they are afraid to be "deviant", the ones who do show the despised traits - because they are too different, maybe, to be able to keep up the appearances, or because they feel imprisoned by what society imposes on them and, consciously or unconsciously, chose to do away with it - will still end up to be considered less fit, less worthy. Even these persons, for whom the ideal turns out to be a very negative thing, often keep on supporting it, by thinking they are "different" and "unable to attain" it.
And there the labeling comes into play. A person may be relieved to find out he's "autistic". It may help him to get recognition, support and understanding from people around him, and his family and friends may be relieved and better able to give him a place. But it can also promote a negative self-image, rigidly structure other people's reactions - as if the person they deal with is only an instance of the "autist" type and noting else - and thereby impose yet another regime of norms and expectations on the "deviant" person. As long as the person concerned is happy with that - not problem. But we have to keep in mind the label is very much a self-fulfilling prophecy. At he same time as it is a road to a more or less culturally accepted way of being, it is a powerful device for society to keep the labeled person in check, even if never consciously designed for that purpose.
As such, the label is a cultural construct, not a reflection of unquestionable, empirical reality. The only way to escape the restrictive simplifications imposed by the label, is to realize it's existence and to transcend it, to face what it hides, what lies underneath, in all it's complexity. Even though a full understanding is not withing human reach, we can try and use more sophisticated, colorful, and - precisely because such an understanding is unattainable - fluid and open conceptions.
As for autism, while i'm aware that it is reified by scientific research, by standardized diagnosis, descriptions, therapies, statistics, organizations and popular conceptions, i'd argue that it's still a model, that there is no such thing as the ultimate autist, but only people, *human beings*, to whom this model, even if not fully applicable, is applied - and *ascribed*. As i said, and as everyone who knows an "autist" will probably agree with, people labeled autists are persons and should be dealt with as persons, not as a personage from a psychology manual, popular book or expert's description. Manuals will never fully describe what a person is like. They may be helpful, but only if we remain open to different realities, if we are willing to see the person we are dealing with not as an example of a certain category, but as a human being just as much, and on the same level, as ourself. I think the world would be a better place if we tried to do so, if we tried to be understanding to each other, regardless of alleged "syndromes", and to find ways - not in general, codified on a high level, but on the ground, in practical situations - so that everyone can feel okay with his or her place in society. It's idealized, i know, but we can try our best...
What this means for the main s
Well, at the very least, it's pretty clear that they didn't come out wrong, but with a very useful skill set. I have similar sentiments about ADHD: if you're in a group of cavemen going out hunting, you want someone in your group who will notice all the little things that folks who don't have ADHD ignore because that's not what they're focusing on. So if I have a task that involves looking around for anything unusual or interesting, I want someone with ADHD along, because he or she will find things I'll miss.
In fact, any "disorder" that is as common as high functioning autism or ADHD often indicates that it's not a disorder at all, but more a personality type that the rest of us have decided was annoying to deal with. For instance, autistic people are the most likely to announce that the emperor is walking around naked, which is extremely inconvenient for anyone who is selling clothing that everyone claims they can see but no one can.
I am officially gone from
The dog dies.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
I would work at a company named dorks'r'us if I was good at what they did and it paid well.
You forget, we are in a recession,er, I mean a jobless recovery, er I mean the 'new normal'.
Hey, are you the guy who ran the Millenium Store? all the stuff we were supposed to buy when the world fell apart on January 1st 2000? I've still got some of your freeze dried food packs, can I get my money back?
Didn't you used to write novels in the 1980s about how we'd be foraging for food and ammo from1988 after the Soviets invaded and turned out country into a wasteland? I am sure I grew up reading those knowing the sky was going to fall on my head by 1989 *latest*! ;-)
(yup we should definitely use less energy though and live more simply so our resources can go on for longer, people are too extravagant and wasteful. But people do seem to love the idea of living in a Mad Max movie).
Please note that while the article and she summary are about the Chicago based Aspiritech, the "hourly consultants" quote refers to the Danish Specialisterne, so I am not sure how W-2 comes into the picture.
Specialisterne has valid reasons to go that route. From TFA:
"Potential employees go through months of screening and training before they are sent as hourly consultants to clients who must understand that the specialists will work only part-time, and they cannot work in a chaotic environment with more than a few other people in the room. In return, Specialisterne assumes much more responsibility for their employees than most companies, with learning experts and social workers on staff."
I assume that Aspiritech intends to follow a similar model, especially as they mention Specialisterne as "Proof of Concept" on their site.
I am not an American so I am not familiar with your intricacies of employee classification but this is what I found on the Web:
A 1099 employee has a contract with a very specific end date. The worker is free to set their own schedule, and is only responsible for completing the project by the date specified in their contract. On the other hand, a W2 employee has a set schedule of work hours managed by the employer and has no specified end-date of employment. Essentially, a 1099 employee is paid on a project basis, whereas a W2 employee is paid based on hours worked.
Not all companies allow telecommuting for full-time workers and having an employee in the office that cannot fit the workplace dynamics is usually bad for both said employee and for others. Having a firm that would subcontract their services no a per-project basis while ensuring the best work environment for them and taking care of all the aspects of interpersonal interaction that may cause them (or their employer) discomfort seems like a good solution to me.
And by the way, it's "making" and "on their own".
No, she denied him sex again because he hasn't taken out the trash.
Free health-care in Denmark. And everyone pays all their taxes on their own, but being an intelligent country, tax-related business has been digitalized and automated already.
I don’t think you get it. Being brutally honest is not always a good thing.
For someone who is socially inept, it is hard to know when to take the edge off the truth.
“This bench is scratching my legs” should never be answered with “that’s because your shorts are too short.” Yes, I learned that the hard way.
I always have to wonder exactly how much is satire, and how much is a way of disguising their own prejudice with sarcasm. Which is more disparaging, naming companies using the words "aspire" and "specialist" or describing employed autistics as "short bus staff"?
Given that the topic at hand was that Aspiritech specifically seeks out workers with Asperger's Syndrome, and those same people refer to themselves collectively as Aspies, it makes more sense to draw a connotation between Aspiritech and Aspie than it does between Aspiritech and Aspire. Now that the basis for offense is nestled in the mind, reading about Specialisterne makes "Special" stand out, not Specialist.
Or maybe it's self-loathing; I might be an aspie.
...autistics have a talent for spotting imperfections, and thrive on predictable, monotonous work. Great... so then why doesn't the TSA hire them to monitor the X-ray machines?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
I prefer to think we're all alright, just different. Diversity is a survival factor; if everybody had the same aptitudes, we would have died out as a species long ago. If somebody is good at highly structured, repetitive tasks, then by all means, put them to work doing highly structured, repetitive tasks. Don't try to make them into something their not just to fit your preconceived notions of "normal".
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Not to sound insensetive, but the rule has never been "You are paid in-line with the amount of work you do." Just look at salaried programmers that put in death-march hours near the end of projects for an example.
Sadly, the rule has always been "You are paid what you can negotiate." And in the case of someone with a disorder like this, they will never have the perspicacity to negotiate a good wage for their service, no matter how miraculous and invaluable they seem to the rest of us.
Your fears are sound. It may never become an issue, though. The stigma of workers with "disorders" will keep most companies from tapping into this resurce, and the philanthropic-shield effect of "giving a retarded guy a job" (as incorrect as that sentiment is, most will see it in that light) will deflect most of the outrage and invective.
When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
What is "right"? From an evolutionary point of view, group members have an advantage over solitary individuals. If Autism hinders effective communication and group cohesiveness, it will be selected against.
No, what I wrote was shorthand for "I have two children of my own, with a third on the way, and have also been the carer ("parent") of a significant number of others, so I do actually have some clue about this subject". By contrast, you appear to have nothing to add to the discussion except childish interjections. It seems that two complete sentences is your literary zenith.
A-frikkin-men!
Too many people seem to 'want' to be classified with some kind of disorder or use it as an excuse. Your post is spot on.
It's simple having a disorder accounts for individual differences between people. It also gives us excuses for the way we act and the mistakes we make. Diagnoses also give a person some hope that they may be able to 'overcome' these differences. The need for some sort of diagnosis stems from the feeling that we all need to be as smart, sexy, savvy, and sociable as the next person.
My direct experience is limited to my six-year-old son, but he is at least partially 'wrong'. He will struggle with human interactions in extremely frustrating ways on a regular basis. He will regularly feel compelled to do things he knows well will suffer for doing and will endure emotional pain due to the conflict. While I feel I can relate to what he struggles with in a lot of ways, I can also tell that the magnitude of his pain is greater than any I'll likely know.
Yes, he'll have a lot of really unique skills that should help him to succeed where others fail, but he's paying an obscenely high price for them.
And I'll bet he was paid at or just above minimum wage. This guy (or gal) saved your multi-million dollar bacon, earned everyone else a big bonus, kudos all around and got precisely jack in compensation. I've got the dumb today, please explain how this is NOT outright explotation of a possibly illegal kind.
The mistakes of a clever man are equal to the mistakes of a thousand fools.
That book is what convinced me to disregard the garden-variety psychologist who said I definitely wasn't autistic and talk to a specialist. See, I read the book a few months after getting it, and I'd forgotten what the deal was. About three chapters in, I realized that the *intent* was probably that the main character would seem alien to the reader, but he was the first rational protagonist I'd ever seen... Oh! Insight occurs.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
wow, this thread actually stays on topic...but i didn't find anything about choosing work for yourself. Those with disabilities usually have someone to help them make bigger decisions in there life (if they're lucky and have family that cares), my point is that when any one of us puts thought into what we really want from life, work friends, recreation, we can be incredibly successful. I work with special needs individuals...specifically "real work for real pay". If you are going to place someone with *insert label here* into a real job, they have to be successful and at least equal to others in that position. If we look back on our own careers (or lack there of) we were probably most happy and therefore successful in a position that best suited who we are. It is called Person Centred Planning (yes that is how canadians spell centered).....so to get back to the story...if an autistic, asbergers (any other label including \.ers) is going to be employed for the long term, they have to be doing what they want. If you like computers but don't know anything about them, read \. (or check out ggl similar pages extension in Chrome)...and then look for a job in the tech industry...shit you might like to count the number of grammar errors in online posts (apparently a favourite past time of \.ers)...then find a way to get paid for it. Any 18 yr old may not be able to jump into a top level job scanning code for errors, there are all kinds of skills to learn first, but as mentioned by some parents, they teach their autistic kids about social rules etc...wow, they teach their kids....so is the difference between asbergers and \.ers the fact that your moms never taught you shit cuz you thought you knew it all first....well good luck trying to get that tech job...if you don't like what your doing, and don't have any help to learn how to do it your scewed, 'special' or not.
Actually, he was awarded a c. $1,500 bonus for each database he'd fixed which (x50) meant he received c. $75,000 well-earned dollars for two or three weeks most excellent work ...
The rest of us got some kudos (but no bonuses) and his mum was very proud of his contribution.
Coming back to my original point, I'd recommend anyone seriously to consider engaging the services of people with Asperger's in IT endeavours - whilst paying a fair wage - as, despite perhaps being a bit "odd" socially, they tend to be fiercely focused and extraordinarily fast and accurate in matters IT.
Consider learning more about ASD at: http://www.parentingkidswithaspergers.com/