Basically all this. I happen to be in the right vertical, but definitely haven't been making $200k/yr for the last 10 years like many of them have. So dropping $5k, or $3k was just too much, even if I did save up for a year and spend a bit more than I originally hoped.

For the "good answers to techy questions"... ehh. I promise it's the same "everyone strangling each other" problem with techy questions. Just look at a programming subreddit talk about javascript, or vice-versa. I'm surprised nobody has been literally swatted yet for advocating OOP over functional programming or the opposite.

But for autistic? Oh fuck yeah. Those same folks tend to be on the spectrum, without a doubt. It's a balance between being social enough to function and negotiate, and autistic enough to be able to stare at a line of code for 36 hours straight without meals or sleep. I wouldn't change it for the world, but I also don't hang out with many people in the industry either.