Just thinking tonight. It is typical in our society to intentionally choose a path to develop oneself through school career. You don't really know ahead of time if your choices were good, but you still are expected to throw yourself into them. Autists are essentially those who have bucked off that prescribed system of development and forged their own way through life, parallel to any social responsibilities. Now, autists are still just as capable of making poor choices as anyone else, but I think that severing the link between social obligation and personal development has allowed many to find paths much more suited for their personal circumstances, which strongly benefits any efforts to develop those talents.