Overcoming Autism: Bram Cohen

The San Francisco Chronicle reported a tech story - with a tie that should interest those of us with a child who has Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Success can come to those with autism!

Article here. Some key points:

If life were as straightforward as a Rubik's Cube, Bram Cohen could unravel it in about 90 seconds.

He can solve two Sudoko brainteasers during his 30-minute commute on the ferry between Marin and San Francisco. And he has earned a high score of 320 on Tringo, a combination of Tetris and Bingo.

Other puzzles aren't so easy to crack.

Relating to people can be difficult for Cohen, who has Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism that affects social skills. Unlike Sudoko or a Rubik's Cube, people don't always follow the same patterns. But Cohen has learned to read subtle body language and facial expressions. He practices making eye contact, detecting sarcasm and not taking it literally, and understanding other cues that are natural and automatic to most people.

The 30-year-old software prodigy is also trying to get to the bottom of a business puzzle: how to turn BitTorrent -- a tool he created four years ago that is available free online and can be used to distribute large files quickly through the Internet -- into a successful business.

BitTorrent has become the most popular peer-to-peer tool on the Web, more so than the music file-sharing site Napster in its heyday, according to BigChampagne, a research firm. It has nearly 70 million users...

...Cohen, a college dropout who was once fired from Kinko's for insubordination, is co-founder and chief executive officer of BitTorrent, a startup housed in a high-rise in San Francisco's Financial District.

Glad Cohen could compensate for his disorder with such great success!