Let's stop talking about Asperger's syndrome, shall we?
Asperger's syndrome is a debilitating clinical condition; it is not a propensity to be solitary, to avoid or "not understand" the chatter of other people, and it is not the personality "most mathematicians" or "most physicists" have. It is not a lack of interest for other people's emotional life, it is not a preference for the pedantically literal expression, and it is not a lack of ability to guess what other people mean when they say some bullshit currently in vogue. All these things are just personality traits within normality.
The persons who actually have Asperger's are strikingly different from the normality; they are barely able to keep their attention on anything other than their chosen topic of monotonous preoccupation. They are barely able to keep a real job and interact with real people. Asperger's syndrome is also known as "highly functioning autism". People with Asperger's are much better off than "less highly functioning" autistic persons; those latter are so obviously lacking adjustment that anyone would see at once that they belong in a hospital.
So let's stop talking about Asperger's syndrome as something that every good scientist "ought to have". A slight developmental disorder is present in everyone; some people fail to learn how to tie their shoelaces, others fail to develop an interest in cars or dolls or whatever at an appropriate age. A clinical condition is something else; it is rare and cannot be missed.
The persons who actually have Asperger's are strikingly different from the normality; they are barely able to keep their attention on anything other than their chosen topic of monotonous preoccupation. They are barely able to keep a real job and interact with real people. Asperger's syndrome is also known as "highly functioning autism". People with Asperger's are much better off than "less highly functioning" autistic persons; those latter are so obviously lacking adjustment that anyone would see at once that they belong in a hospital.
So let's stop talking about Asperger's syndrome as something that every good scientist "ought to have". A slight developmental disorder is present in everyone; some people fail to learn how to tie their shoelaces, others fail to develop an interest in cars or dolls or whatever at an appropriate age. A clinical condition is something else; it is rare and cannot be missed.