Erdos was almost certainly on the autism spectrum. Lots of people on the autism spectrum don't end up even as moderately functional in life skills as Erdos did, and the overwhelming majority don't make the kinds of intellectual contributions that he did.
My hope and plan for my AS son certainly includes him being functionally independent, but that self-care list that someone else (La Texican?) posted didn't get completed until pretty late, and it involved accepting a certain amount of Velcro and elastic in clothing choices. While he has made great strides, it is by no means certain that DS won't need significant supports into young adulthood to navigate situations that most people find simple. If giving him those supports means that he can make great contributions because he isn't spending all of his mental energy figuring out how to make coffee by himself, fry an egg, and not set the kitchen on fire, I don't think that is such a bad thing.
We are working hard to give him the best neurological toolkit he can manage to acquire while trying to also make sure that he gets opportunities to work hard in passions that can take him far. It is one of the great challenges of life that saying yes to anything means saying no to all of the alternatives, and the hour that you spend here can't be spent any other way later on if you change your mind. Finding the balance is a never-ending task.
