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Today, I want to talk to you about dreams.

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I have been a lucid dreamer my whole life,

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and it's cooler than in the movies.

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(Laughter)

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Beyond flying, breathing fire,

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and making hot men
spontaneously appear ...

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(Laughter)

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I can do things like read and write music.

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Fun fact is that I wrote
my personal statement to college

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in a dream.

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And I did accepted. So, yeah.

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I am a very visual thinker.

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I think in pictures, not words.

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To me, words are more like
instincts and language.

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There are many people like me;

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Nikola Tesla, for example,

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who could visualize, design,
test, and troubleshoot everything --

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all of his inventions --
in his mind, accurately.

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Language is kind of exclusive
to our species, anyway.

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I am a bit more primitive,

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like a beta version of Google Translate.

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(Laughter)

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My brain has the ability
to hyper-focus on things that interest me.

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For example, once
I had an affair with calculus

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that lasted longer
than some celebrity marriages.

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(Laughter)

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There are some other
unusual things about me.

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You may have noticed
that I don't have much inflection

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in my voice.

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That's why people
often confuse me with a GPS.

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(Laughter)

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This can make basic communication
a challenge, unless you need directions.

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(Laughter)

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Thank you.

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(Applause)

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A few years ago, when I started
doing presentations,

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I went to get head shots done
for the first time.

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The photographer told me to look flirty.

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(Laughter)

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And I had no idea
what she was talking about.

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(Laughter)

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She said, "Do that thing,
you know, with your eyes,

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when you're flirting with guys."

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"What thing?" I asked.

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"You know, squint."

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And so I tried, really.

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It looked something like this.

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(Laughter)

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I looked like I was searching for Waldo.

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(Laughter)

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There's a reason for this,

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as there is a reason that Waldo is hiding.

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(Laughter)

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I have Asperger's,

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a high-functioning form of autism

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that impairs the basic social skills
one is expected to display.

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It's made life difficult in many ways,

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and growing up,
I struggled to fit in socially.

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My friends would tell jokes,
but I didn't understand them.

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My personal heroes were George Carlin
and Stephen Colbert --

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and they taught me humor.

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My personality switched
from being shy and awkward

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to being defiant and cursing out a storm.

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Needless to say,
I did not have many friends.

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I was also hypersensitive to texture.

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The feel of water on my skin
was like pins and needles,

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and so for years, I refused to shower.

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I can assure you that my hygiene routine
is up to standards now, though.

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(Laughter)

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I had to do a lot to get here,
and my parents --

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things kind of got out of control
when I was sexually assaulted by a peer,

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and on top of everything,
it made a difficult situation worse.

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And I had to travel 2,000 miles
across the country to get treatment,

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but within days of them prescribing
a new medication,

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my life turned into an episode
of the Walking Dead.

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I became paranoid,
and began to hallucinate

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that rotting corpses
were coming towards me.

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My family finally rescued me,

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but by that time, I had lost 19 pounds
in those three weeks,

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as well as developing severe anemia,

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and was on the verge of suicide.

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I transferred to a new treatment center
that understood my aversions,

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my trauma, and my social anxiety,

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and they knew how to treat it,
and I got the help I finally needed.

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And after 18 months of hard work,

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I went on to do incredible things.

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One of the things with Asperger's
is that oftentimes,

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these people have
a very complex inner life,

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and I know for myself,
I have a very colorful personality,

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rich ideas, and just a lot
going on in my mind.

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But there's a gap
between where that stands,

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and how I communicate it
with the rest of the world.

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And this can make
basic communication a challenge.

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Not many places would hire me,
due to my lack of social skills,

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which is why I applied to Waffle House.

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(Laughter)

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Waffle House is an exceptional
24-hour diner --

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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thank you --

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where you can order your hash browns

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the many ways that someone
would dispose of a human corpse ...

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(Laughter)

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Sliced, diced, peppered, chunked,
topped, capped, and covered.

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(Laughter)

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As social norms would have it,

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you should only go to Waffle House
at an ungodly hour in the night.

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(Laughter)

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So one time, at 2 am, I was chatting
with a waitress, and I asked her,

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"What's the most ridiculous thing
that's happened to you on the job?"

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And she told me that one time,
a man walked in completely naked.

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(Laughter)

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I said, "Great! Sign me up
for the graveyard shift!"

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(Laughter)

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Needless to say,
Waffle House did not hire me.

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So in terms of having Asperger's,
it can be viewed as a disadvantage,

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and sometimes it is
a real pain in the butt,

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but it's also the opposite.

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It's a gift, and it allows me
to think innovatively.

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At 19, I won a research competition
for my research on coral reefs,

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and I ended up speaking

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at the UN Convention
of Biological Diversity,

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presenting this research.

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(Applause)

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Thank you.

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(Applause)

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And at 22, I'm getting ready
to graduate college,

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and I am a co-founder of a biotech
company called AutismSees.

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(Applause)

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Thank you.

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(Applause)

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But consider what I had to do to get here:

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25 therapists, 11 misdiagnoses,
and years of pain and trauma.

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I spent a lot of time thinking
if there's a better way,

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and I think there is:
autism-assistive technology.

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This technology
could play an integral role

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in helping people
with autistic spectrum disorder,

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or ASD.

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The app Podium, released
by my company, AutismSees,

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has the ability to independently assess
and help develop communication skills.

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In addition to this, it tracks
eye contact through camera

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and simulates a public-speaking
and job-interview experience.

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And so maybe one day,
Waffle House will hire me,

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after practicing on it some more.

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(Laughter)

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And one of the great things
is that I've used Podium

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to help me prepare for today,
and it's been a great help.

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But it's more than that.

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There's more that can be done.

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For people with ASD --

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it has been speculated
that many innovative scientists,

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researchers, artists,
and engineers have it;

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like, for example, Emily Dickinson,
Jane Austen, Isaac Newton, and Bill Gates

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are some examples.

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But the problem that's encountered

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is that these brilliant ideas
often can't be shared

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if there are communication roadblocks.

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And so, many people with autism
are being overlooked every day,

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and they're being taken advantage of.

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So my dream for people with autism
is to change that,

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to remove the roadblocks
that prevent them from succeeding.

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One of the reasons I love lucid dreaming

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is because it allows me to be free,

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without judgment of social
and physical consequences.

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When I'm flying over scenes
that I create in my mind,

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I am at peace.

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I am free from judgment,

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and so I can do whatever I want, you know?

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I'm making out with Brad Pitt,
and Angelina is totally cool with it.

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(Laughter)

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But the goal of autism-assistive
technology is bigger than that,

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and more important.

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My goal is to shift people's perspective

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of autism and people
with higher-functioning Asperger's

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because there is a lot they can do.

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I mean, look at
Temple Grandin, for example.

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And by doing so, we allow people
to share their talents with this world

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and move this world forward.

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In addition, we give them the courage
to pursue their dreams

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in the real world, in real time.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)

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Thank you.

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(Applause)