> If you're autistic, don't mask

I strongly agree. Masking is a maladaptive strategy and it's described that way in the literature.

But you do have to figure out who you are and what matters to you. A lot of autistic people spend much of their youth trying to be other people and only really figuring out what they like when they're in their 30s, 40s, or older.

You could drop the word “autistic” from that last paragraph and it would still be accurate.

This is just the human experience.