Unmasking Autism

What Hacker News says

1. schwaxNov 2024
   It's great the union was pushing for unscented cleaning supplies.

   I have a friend who is very sensitive to scents. She may not be able to work in a typical office again because of it. I'm very sensitive to harsh fluorescent lighting and noisy office environments and get migraines. You can push through for a while but eventually you burn out.

   We've also realized we're both "mildly" autistic [1] over the last few years, along with quite a few other software engineer friends. The sensory sensitivities fall under that umbrella.

   Tech has traditionally been more accepting of neurodiversity than other careers, so it's great to see a tech union raising issue like this that don't cost much but make a big difference for anyone affected.

   [1] Book: Unmasking Autism by Devon Price

   Show morethread
2. larveDec 2022
   I would say the #actuallyautistic hashtag in general (now on mastodon), and I really enjoyed the book "unmasking autism" by Devon Price and Neuroqueer Heresies by Nick Walker.
   thread
3. larveOct 2022
   Autistic here as well, tremendous burnout and trauma from my last job. It took me a lot of writing / reconnecting with why I love technology in the first place, and a 3 months sabbatical at the recurse center to… feel like I’m back. A big part in this is also the very privileged fact that I have total freedom and trust at my current work, which allows me to follow my holistic way of thinking and not having to do hierarchy and workplace cosplay. I do work from home, and it feels like I’m back in my days of freelancing.

   If I ended up in the same situation again, but say, without that job, I would tell my older self:

   - take a big break, and reconnect with your enthusiasm. The book “Unmasking Autism” has a lot of concrete ways to do that, since it can be hard for us. It also talks a lot about autistic burnout

   - go back to freelancing, or find a job where I have lots of freedom to follow my routine, and where I am valued for my thinking and communication style

   - reconnect with writing code for fun. Programming is legitimately the one activity that fully calms me and replenishes me. I stopped doing any side-programming for 10 years, and reviving that atrophied part of myself has been absolutely invigorating.

   - get monster ear protection. This has to be one of the revelations: noise stresses me out sooo much, and I have been repressing it for so long. I now have -35 dB + noise cancelling earplugs and can basically live in complete silence, in the noisiest environment. I can finally think things true the way I want to.

   (edit: formatting)

   Show morethread