I said the thing about the autism, because I've seen a loooooot of people that I strongly suspect are in the spectrum. And "the good ones", the ones that are truly remarkable researchers, have spent their lives obsessing with every single detail of a certain area.

Again, not a law, but in that context it seems to be, to some degree, an advantage.

Oh I agree with you in that, being detail and consistency focused are autistic traits that are very helpful to complex research, and yeah, you're probably not wrong, a lot of PhDs probably are on the spectrum.

I guess I'm just trying to be more broadly encouraging of anyone who wants to pursue research, education, learning the scientific method.

Autism is not a hard requirement, is what I'm trying to say.

The flip side of autism being a benefit for PhDs is that, well, autists tend to hyperfocus, burnout, snd not be so great with social skills...

... and social skills are often quite a necesssry component of becoming a PhD, overfocus and then burning out can be quite detrimental to the pursuit.

Well, in most reputable universities you can take a phd program for free, indeed, they pay you. (yes, also is US). It is understood in academics that "you should not buy your way to a phd, but earn it".

... What I am aware of is a paradigm where, when you are pursuing your PhD, you teach undergrads, usually for not really enough money to comfortably pay your CoL + all the loans you likely had to take to get to the academic level where you would be considered for all that.