Please wait while the transcript is being prepared...
0:00
It's a real honor to be
doing a Henry Stewart talk.
My name is Temple Grandin.
I am professor of animal science
at Colorado State University.
And today, I'm going to be talking
about how different kinds of minds
can contribute to society.
0:19
On this next slide, I
want you to gain insight
into how different
kinds of people think
and process information differently.
When I was three years
old, I was very severely
autistic, no language
until age four.
Fortunately, I had really good
early educational intervention.
I had really good teachers,
who worked with me.
And when I was young,
I thought everybody
processed information
the same way I do.
And I'm going to show you
how different kinds of minds
process information differently.
0:54
On this slide, I asked
the question, when
does normal variation
become an abnormality?
Because research has shown that
people that are bipolar often
have more siblings
in creative careers.
And Simon Baron Cohen has
found that people with autism,
there's more relatives
in technical careers.
At what point is just
being quirky and nerdy
become an absolute abnormality?
There is no black and white dividing
line between geeks and nerds,
Silicon Valley, and just a mild
autism or an Asperger's syndrome.
Also, these diagnostic
categories are not precise.
They're not like a
diagnosis for tuberculosis,
where you can do a lab test that
says, yes, you have tuberculosis.
