On Wed, 24 Jan 2007 01:45:58 +0100 "Tayssir John Gabbour"
<tayssir.john at googlemail.com> writes:
>
>
> Stallman opines that he has mild autism. (Perhaps think of him like
> Zizek, but without the neurotic misanthropy which apparently comes
> from having to behave conventionally.) Stallman will sharply correct
> his introducers, and yawn and pass gas during his own talks.
A friend of mine regularly conducts philosophy cafes in the greater Boston area. Several months ago, Stallman attended one with his friend, the computer scientist and philosopher Gary Drescher. I don't recall Stallman yawning or even passing gas (good grief) but he did spend nearly the entire evening twirling his hair which drove my friend crazy.
> And
> that
> autism gives him the focus to fight every day, to keep on message.
Well it is said that Aspergers' Syndrome is relatively common among people who work in such areas as software engineering, mathematics, physics or electrical engineering. Certainly one does tend to bump into a lot of people who seem to fit the profile, regardless of whether or not they may meet the clinical criteria that the medics invoke for classifying people.
> Not
> to mention he's very nuanced and honest.
>
> He even (permanently?) damaged his wrists coding Free Software like
> a madman.
I am not terribly surprised. Carpal tunnel syndrome is a genuine occupational hazard for programmers. An acquaintance of mine suffers has a rather bad case of it.