Diagnosing Bill Gates

In its Dec. 27/Jan. 3 issue, the New Yorker ran a long piece about autism called “An Anthropologist on Mars,” and in the following issue the magazine ran a long piece called “E-Mail from Bill” about Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft. In some ways, the articles were strangely and intriguingly similar.

AN ANTHROPOLOGIST ON MARS

Some autistics possess an “excellent ability of logical abstract thinking.”

E-MAIL FROM BILL

A Microsoft executive is quoted: “‘Bill is just smarter than everyone else.”‘

AN ANTHROPOLOGIST ON MARS

Autistics suffer “impairment of social interaction with others.”

E-MAIL FROM BILL

A former girlfriend is quoted: “‘People who know Bill know that you have to bring him into a group because he doesn’t have the social skills to do it on his own.”‘

AN ANTHROPOLOGIST ON MARS

* Many autistics show “repetitive or automatic movements, such as spasms, tics, rocking.” Some autistic children “rock back and forth.”

E-MAIL FROM BILL

“While he is working, he rocks . . . ((H))is upper body rocks down to an almost forty-five-degree angle, rocks back up, rocks down again. ‘They claim I started at an extremely young age,”‘ said Gates.

AN ANTHROPOLOGIST ON MARS

Autistic children sometimes suffer “sudden panics or rages, and scream or hit out uncontrollably.”

E-MAIL FROM BILL

“If he strongly disagrees with what you’re saying, ((Gates)) is in the habit of blurting out, ‘That’s the stupidest f — — ing thing I’ve ever heard!’ People tell stories of Gates spraying saliva into the face of some hapless employee.”

AN ANTHROPOLOGIST ON MARS

Autistics “do not make eye contact.”

E-MAIL FROM BILL

“‘He did not look at me very often but either looked down as he was talking or lifted his eyes above my head to look out the window.”‘

AN ANTHROPOLOGIST ON MARS

The home of one autistic family had a “well-used trampoline, where the whole family, at times, likes to jump and flap their arms.”

E-MAIL FROM BILL

“He has planned a full-size trampoline for a house he is building.”