Are there any IT Skills that require high intelligence

[GJABS]

In a broader sense, emotional intelligence is the skill to work on IMHO. It's often in short supply in IT and if combined with business domain knowledge along with your functional technical skills, it makes you a very rounded individual.

I think, what with having autism, I've got no chance of having any emotional intelligence

[GJABS]

I don't agree with that. As has been mentioned many times styles of thinking can vary greatly. This an argument that high intelligence people can often be lacking in common sense so if they are in a role that isn't aimed at their level they may struggle to apply other skills/common sense that a lower intelligence person would have.

It's a massive area to cover with just two sentences but I don't think that's true as you've stated. Doing a better job doesn't always mean apply more intelligence. You could need to apply other types of thinking like time management, risk, stakeholders and other ways of thinking to do a better job and high intelligence isn't likely to help in those areas. Competency approaches can help more than intelligence for a start. Depends on the job I guess but I think, having a son similar to GJAB's, doing the wrong job for them, better, isn't the answer in this case.

I think that's right.
I can see where the other guy's coming from, in that you don't want to fall into the trap of thinking "I am highly intelligent, so this is why I'm crap at A,B,C etc", which might be demotivating and lead you into doing nothing and slacking off. But as Clint Eastwood once said "A man's got to know his limitations", and by investigating my own limitations rather than sticking my head in the sand and hoping for the best, I am hoping to home in better on what my real assets are, such as I hope they might/should be.

[edison]

I think, what with having autism, I've got no chance of having any emotional intelligence

I was talking in broader terms, not just your individual case.

Several people have suggested data science/AI/machine learning as a topic that you might find intellectually challenging. Maybe take a look at some online courses with EdX or Coursera. There are supposedly some good ones from the likes of Stanford and Harvard universities and they don't cost much to do.

[SueEllen]

I think, what with having autism, I've got no chance of having any emotional intelligence

Wrong!

You have self-awareness. That is part of emotional intelligence.

[PerfectStorm]

I've noticed that I'm surrounded by people who know their job is 'to do' something, but not 'why' they should do it or being particularly inquisitive about it. They just do, like robots.

[TheDude]

In my experience those who treat software development as an academic exercise are doomed to spend their careers working on tedious projects for poor pay.

[edison]

I think, what with having autism, I've got no chance of having any emotional intelligence

I was talking in broader terms, not just your individual case.

Several people have suggested data science/AI/machine learning as a topic that you might find intellectually challenging. Maybe take a look at some online courses with EdX or Coursera. There are supposedly some good ones from the likes of Stanford and Harvard universities and they don't cost much to do.

[GJABS]

In my experience those who treat software development as an academic exercise are doomed to spend their careers working on tedious projects for poor pay.

I think you might be mistaken about this. Isn't it best to adopt a working style that is the best fit to your personality, academic or not?

[GJABS]

I was talking in broader terms, not just your individual case.

Several people have suggested data science/AI/machine learning as a topic that you might find intellectually challenging. Maybe take a look at some online courses with EdX or Coursera. There are supposedly some good ones from the likes of Stanford and Harvard universities and they don't cost much to do.

My older brother is a data scientist contractor. Interestingly he says his chief problem with contract roles is that he tends to get diverted away from doing data science, which he wants to do, towards data engineering which is less interesting. I wonder whether this might be happening because there might be more demand for data engineering skills in the marketplace, than data science, despite it requiring a little less brain-power. Which might undermine my reasoning for going after a job requiring high intelligence...

Anyway, I've started on an AI course, as you suggest, a course for a Microsoft exam in the subject. I like doing exams because they provide a discipline and a target to work towards. Looks interesting.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cr.../exams/ai-900/
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/tr...1-introduction

[GJABS]

Wrong!

You have self-awareness. That is part of emotional intelligence.

I do sometimes