WaPo | If you want to be a true innovator, be prepared to leave everyone behind. (Christof Stache/AFP/Getty Images) The
individuals who have founded some of the most success tech companies
are decidedly weird. Examine the founder of a truly innovative company
and you’ll find a rebel without the usual regard for social customs.
This
begs the question, why? Why aren’t more “normal” people with refined
social graces building tech companies that change the world? Why are
only those on the periphery reaching great heights?
If you ask
tech investor Peter Thiel, the problem is a social environment that’s
both powerful and destructive. Only individuals with traits reminiscent
of Asperger’s Syndrome, which frees them from an attachment to social
conventions, have the strength to create innovative businesses amid a
culture that discourages daring entrepreneurship.
“Many of the
more successful entrepreneurs seem to be suffering from a mild form of
Asperger’s where it’s like you’re missing the imitation, socialization
gene,” Thiel said Tuesday
at George Mason University. “We need to ask what is it about our
society where those of us who do not suffer from Asperger’s are at some
massive disadvantage because we will be talked out of our interesting,
original, creative ideas before they’re even fully formed. Oh that’s a
little bit too weird, that’s a little bit too strange and maybe I’ll
just go ahead and open the restaurant that I’ve been talking about that
everyone else can understand and agree with, or do something extremely
safe and conventional.”
An individual with Asperger’s Syndrome
— a form of autism — has limited social skills, a willingness to obsess
and an interest in systems. Those diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome
tend to be unemployed or underemployed at rates that far exceed the
general population. Fitting into the world is difficult.
While
full-blown Asperger’s Syndrome or autism hold back careers, a smaller
dose of associated traits appears critical to hatching innovations that
change the world.
