In a recent article in Business Week, Cohen claims he has Aspergers Syndrome. Mind you, he was never formally diagnosed, which he admits. But he claims he has it because apparently he is an extremely obnoxious person with no social skills whom people truly dislike. I'm not just saying this. I've read it online from more then one source.
He also posted extremely graphic, sexually explicit writings on his website, causing him and his company a lot of embarassment. Because of this, and because apparently he is an extremely obnoxious person with no social skills whom people truly dislike, he claims he has AS as a way of not taking responsibility for his actions.
I get really tired of trying to educate people that people with AS are not necessarily people who have no social skills. Perhaps Cohen is confusing AS with classical autism, where a person cannot communicate with others, and may appear to have no social skills. In fact he apparently referred to himself as "Rain Man" in several articles. Cohen obviously doesn't know that the character in "Rain Man" was an autistic savant, not someone with Aspergers Syndrome.
Regardless of how autism or AS affects a person, a diagnosis is not an excuse for poor behavior. Autism or AS may explain how a person's perception of reality can prevent them from understanding certain social situations, however it is not an excuse for a person to act like an asshole and say he has an autistic spectrum disorder.
I have read Bram Cohen's weblog. He is not the sort of person I would want to meet or be in contact with. I am sure he is brillant and much smarter then I am. But the fact that he claims to have AS as an excuse says more about him being an asshole then the fact he founded a company that drove the music and film industries into the ground. I'm sure everyone who makes their living creatively thanks Bram Cohen for that discovery.
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