Guys, stop it. Nick has told us he has Asperger syndrome; as such, he
is not likely to understand facetious or flippant remarks for what
they are. The time you've spent responding to Nick's emails would be
much better used reading a little about autism spectrum disorders
[1,2] and the kinds of difficulty and confusion they cause in more
normal ("neurotypical") contexts, for both AS people and the people
they interact with. Otherwise, just move on.
I am not a psychologist or an expert on autism spectrum disorders, but
I know enough to recognize that his behavior on this and other lists
is consistent with several aspects of those disorders. The sad thing
is that he's getting treated as a malicious troll or a fool, when it's
pretty clear (to me, anyway) that he's fascinated by the kernel and
just trying to learn as well as he knows how.
Without going into autism spectrum intricacies or speculating on
Nick's particular traits, I'll note that Aspergers is "characterized
by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal
communication" (from Wikipedia) -- which we have seen repeatedly in
Nick's frequently inappropriate and unresearched questions and
misunderstanding/misuse of the good advice he has received.
The resulting frustration is understandable. I acknowledge that the
format of this and especially the working kernel lists is simply not
equipped to handle Nick's sort of engagement. The best practice, if
you're frustrated by Nick's emails, is probably to follow the protocol
for feeding trolls -- ie, don't -- even though his motivations are
different from what I'd consider a "real" troll's. You simply cannot
expect him to respond (neuro)typically to your input.
I don't intend to discuss this here anymore, but I really hope the
above can provide a little context to help the community make more
fruitful decisions in response to Nick's questions, or at least temper
your frustrations.
Jason Conklin
[1] http://bit.ly/1odpfrd (Wikipedia: Autism spectrum)
[2] http://bit.ly/1rmgrHg (Wikipedia: Asperger syndrome)
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