Peter Mark Roget, best remembered as the person who compiled Roget's Thesaurus. He was a physician by trade, but was actually pretty slow to start up that career, taking multiple detours along the way. Biographers noted that he suffered from depression most of his life, and, from an early age, compiled lists as a relaxation mechanism. After he retired as a physician, he earnestly compiled lists and lists of meanings of words and phrases, and indexed and organized them so that they could be referenced.
this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2025
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Isaac Newton.
Alan Turing, I bet
Bet.
Alfred Krupp, German steel manufacturer, inventor, and the largest arms dealer of his age.
He was obsessed with building cannons and built the first successful breech loading cannon of cast steel. Common wisdom was that such cannons would explode and kill their operators. He kept building cannons even though nobody would buy them.
He was an extreme hypocondriac who also suffered from depression. He would not leave his bed for weeks or months at a time. He would weigh anyone who visited his house and kept over thirty years of records before he died. He loved the smell of horse dung and had his office built over the stables so he could always smell it.
jesus christ bro was cooked
Probably a major amount of important scientists. Many are known to have been eccentric or downright socially inept; while social ineptitude can be a bit of a hindrance for becoming famous, eccentricity helps a lot with making people remember you. Do most people know Einstein because of his science, or because he's visually distinct and has that wild photo with his tongue out?
Probably Newton and Tesla. Both seemed to not really understand other people and were more focused on their specific hobbies
Newton is known for physics but I just learned from the Stuff You Should Know pod cast that he was also an alchemist and really worked and studied a lot trying to turn things into gold and discover the elixir of youth
Definitely both of them.
I think I know Einstein because it was so common to call people Einstein either genuinely or sarcastically, I didn't see the tongue out photo til probably a decade after
I'd assume that he got that reputation because of that image. Once a person becomes a household name, the original thing that made them famous often becomes somewhat forgotten; it's similar to how today's memes work. As an example, I've been somewhat involved with pokemon online culture for over 10 years and knew about the nuzlocke challenge, but only today did I learn that it came from a webcomic. And I actually read a lot of webcomics, and the webcomic in question was pretty high quality.
The Einstein picture was on his bIrthday when he wad asked to smile. Not sure if that confirms or refutes your argument
Thomas Jefferson. Good at writing, shit at social conventions. Developed a whole mechanised house via slaves. Slavery might not be an autistic trait, but mechanizing your house is.
I wouldn't consider him a positive example, but he almost certainly was autistic.
Mozart. Dude heard an exclusive Catholic track and copied it at 14.
So I am sure he had a touch of the 'tism.
Mozart was a sex crazed party boy. He liked fancy clothes and dancing.
Nice.
That only shows that he was uniquely talented at a young age, which isn't really that common for autists.
OG pirate
David Lynch.
Nikola Tesla
There is a legit theory in historical circles that Galileo Galilei was brcause he clearly didn't understand some social conventions. Additionally, he was really ok with home arrest.
Oh no, sentenced to stay at my house where all my favorite stuff is, and a legally binding excuse to not have to go to that thing someone invited me to. You sure showed me, whatever shall I do?
Henry Cavendish
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Cavendish
Scientific genius, asocial and probably asexual, extremely shy, especially so around women, could only talk to one person at a time, and then only if he knew them, and they were male. Also the largest depositor at the Bank of England in his day.
All religions figures and or founders.
I remember reading about some crazy military guy that was like charging machine guns with a bayonet and winning, or something equally absurd. He was like the one Centurion that lived three ages later and is now like the best guy in the army.
Can't think of his name & I need to go to bed since I've had like 3 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours so I can't fall down the "crazy military story" rabbit hole right now. I'm sure someone smarter than me can link a Wikipedia page.
Anyway, that dude definitely had a touch of the 'tism.
Euler, most probably.
Buddha
Nietzsche
Kant
they say you could set your watch by when his Dino nuggets timer dings
Diogenes
I feel like a lot of philosophers were on the spectrum. Socrates is a definite contender.
I think very few of them would have been famous, even posthumously, if they had lived today.
In what sense? That their work wouldn't be appreciated or they wouldn't have reached that point of success due to society?
There are way more people today and we compete with the entire world so it's harder to stand out.
And progress is a lot more complicated today. It requires bigger teams working with more complicated equipment and more data than ever before. That means more people involved and, again, less opportunity for any one person to stand out.
This is all exacerbated by scientific journals and media companies that are more interested in making money than in making sure the best stuff rises to the top.
And people aren't on the same page like they used to be. When there are a billion books, movies, songs, etc. to choose from, pop culture becomes less and less of a thing. People end up in their own increasingly atomized camps and can spend whole lifetimes there, not really caring about stars from the other camps.