Temple Grandin, PhD

Author, Autism Advocate, and Professor of Animal Science

One of the main core deficits in autism is you’re not very social. You see, if you look at how brains can develop, a brain can develop to be more cognitive and thinking, or a brain can be developed to be more social. I think there’s a big wide variation where it's just normal personality variation. Then it gets to where it becomes an abnormality. I mean, half of the people in Silicon Valley have some degree of autism. When you think about it, who do you think made the first stone spear? It wasn’t the social yackity-yacks around the campfire, that’s for sure. It was the guy sitting off in the corner figuring out how he could chip this rock and fasten it onto a stick to make a spear.