Jeff also links to this 2001 Wired article on the topic: https://www.wired.com/2001/12/aspergers/ "Autism -- and its milder cousin Asperger's syndrome -- is surging among the children of Silicon Valley. Are math-and-tech genes to blame?"
See also: "The Real Problems With Psychiatry: A psychotherapist contends that the DSM, psychiatry's "bible" that defines all mental illness, is not scientific but a product of unscrupulous politics and bureaucracy." https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/05/the-real-...
And from there: "One of the overlooked ways is that diagnoses can change people's lives for the better. Asperger's Syndrome is probably the most successful psychiatric disorder ever in this respect. It created a community. It gave people whose primary symptom was isolation a way to belong and provided resources to those who were diagnosed. It can also have bad effects. A depression diagnosis gives people an identity formed around having a disease that we know doesn't exist, and how that can divert resources from where they might be needed. Imagine how much less depression there would be if people weren't worried about tuition, health care, and retirement. Those are all things that aren't provided by Prozac."
Also, in general, there has been pushback about removing Asperger's from the DSM. As above, it was a "successful" diagnosis in that it helped a lot of people feel less alone and find better ways to cope with a situation once they had a name for it -- see especially the multiple books now on Asperger's and relationships which can be extremely helpful for people with it and their partners (e.g. "Love, Sex and Long-Term Relationships: What People with Asperger Syndrome Really Really Want" by Sarah Hendrickx).
But, moreso, it is not clear that Asperger's is completely the same as "high-functioning autism" in some ways. This is controversial, but just one example: https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/brain-curvature-distinguis... "A region of the brain that controls language is more extensively curved in children with autism than in those with Asperger syndrome, according to a study in the Journal of Child Neurology. The findings offer preliminary biological evidence that Asperger syndrome, a disorder on the autism spectrum, is distinct from high-functioning autism, researchers say."
I wrote "many of the best software developers have some degree of Asperger's...". Someone can have a little of something to some benefits in some area like programming (below the level where a formal diagnosis of Asperger's might be made other than noting tendencies) -- whereas a lot of something might cause profound difficulties in life overall and fit all the diagnostic criterion for a formal diagnosis. There may also be some sweet spot for success given programming in practice especially in a corporate setting does involve dealing with other people to some extent. Labels tend to be binary -- whereas personality trends are more shades of grey (or shades of colors). In various books on Asperger's (e.g. Asperger's on the Job) there are examples of people with Asperger's who excelled in their jobs because of Asperger's and then got promoted to management where they crashed and burned again because of Asperger's (well, usually undiagnosed Asperger's where people were unaware of the particular challenges they would face and did not know how to handle the transition including just asking to go back to their previous role).
I had qualified my comment as "many of the best...". For contrast, here is a Quora article arguing most programmers in general do not have Asperger's though. Part of the reason is explained here: https://www.quora.com/Is-it-true-that-most-programmers-have-... "While in a way aspergers's gives a good aptitude for something methodical and logic based like programming. The deadlines/stress of company life and ‘real world’ work does not provide a good environment for somebody with Asperger's Syndrome."
So, in the right environment and role, a programmer with Asperger's might excel beyond those without it. In other situations (including for some, a promotion to management), a programmer with Asperger's may fail hard and someone with less technical ability or less ability to focus intensely on one task but a better intuitive people-sense and better multi-tasking ability may do much better.
