Baron-Cohen is neither an engaging nor persuasive writer. Even through clumsy and constant repetition of his Systemizing Mechanism and Empathy Circuit theories, this book fails on account of its over-simplicity and often lazy anthropocentrism. I don't doubt his expertise, but he is not an effective communicator here.
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I saw Simon Baron-Cohen appear on a UK Channel 4 documentary about how a DNA analysis of Hitler's blood revealed he was very likely autistic. The autism expert was wheeled out to say "it's important that we recognise that not all autistic people have genocidal obsessions" as if it were a very caring, nuanced and important caveat to make. And of course delivered with the smugness of a psychologist. I'm really not fond of the whole autistic thing in general. Disabilities ought not to be shamed, but I think people have gone a little too far in the direction of celebration. It's not cool to be a hyper-individualised atom disconnected from normal society. Pattern seekers might draw conclusions as to why Baron-Cohen and his kind are promoting this sort of thinking.
Yes, the subtitle on the front cover is schlocky in implying that autism is responsible for most technological and idealogical progression in human history. He takes a more conservative approach in the book itself by claiming that most inventors possess a 'highly-tuned' Systemizing Mechanism (his theory: the brain's ability to reiterate "if-and-then" logic in novel ways), and an often poorly-developed Empathy Circuit (another term of his: the ability to understand and predict the thoughts, feelings, behaviors of other people). He links such traits to autism, but he doesn't come out and say his example inventors -- Tesla and Bill Gates -- are autistic. Also, Simon constantly (as in every fucking page) states that no hominid or non-human animal is capable of this Boolean logic, nor bears enough cognitive ability for a legitimate empathy circuit. Any evidence of tool-use or predictive behaviors, he will wave away as not conclusive enough, or not "genuinely" inventive in the case of early hominid tool-making. So, it's quite funny that he's also posited Hitler's autism from DNA-chicken scratches. He's even put quizzes at the back of the book so the reader can assess their SM and EC scores, as well as a RAADS-R quiz to see if the reader might also have autism. There is an asterisk to the RAADS-R quiz, stating that one should see a professional before assuming an autistic identity, but the presentation of this book is clearly intended as uplifting pop science for people with autism, relatives of those with autism, and socially-maladjusted people who deem themselves autistic and want to believe in their personalities as potentially invaluable. It's similar to the undercurrent of Kay Redfield Jamison's "Touched with Fire", but with a much worse thesis and prose. All the big-wig psychologists, Pinker and the like, wrote their blurbs for Baron-Cohen to legitimize the work, but it's just so shoddy. Took me three months to slog through it, and I had to give up by the 7th of 9 chapters.