Double empathy
The empathy gap runs both ways — neurotypical and autistic people misread each other about equally. Applied here to pull requests, to diagnosis, and to who gets believed when they explain themselves.
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Unmasking and stress as competence: honest signals, real budgets, and taking the mask off slowly
Masking is skilled labor with a budget — shutdowns, short fuses and long crashes are the system doing its job. Unmasking is gradual, safety-dependent, yours to pace.
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Different minds in the age of average
AI is a regression-to-the-mean engine — the more it mediates, the more output converges on the modal. That makes genuine cognitive difference rarer and more visible.
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The double-empathy problem lands in your pull requests
Autistic communication friction is bidirectional — both neurotypes misread each other. The fix is protocol design, not coaching the autistic person to mask.
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Race × autism: the diagnosis gap as a gatekeeping problem
Black and Brown autistic children are diagnosed later, misdiagnosed more often. A diagnosis is access, unequally gated — a gatekeeping problem, not a clinical fact.