@Amyfb Thanks for reading, Amy! Really glad it was worth your time.

@LiseL Thank you for your presence with it! Hope the day is filled with lots of other lovely encounters - onscreen and off. 🙂

@peterquirk Oh, fantastic point, Peter. You're touching on all the other, more business-oriented language we've used for neurodivergence over time. In my lifetime there was the "multiple intelligences" phase, "true colours" testing, Myers-Briggs framing, Enneagram numbering... (Heck, even Hogwarts Houses fits in there somewhere.) The desire to categorize abounds. The only difference is that none of those tests imposes a typical/atypical binary on outcome: everyone has their own niche instead.

@MLClark In my experience, these tests were used to ensure diversity in high performance teams. All team members were encouraged to use a communications style that matched the recipient's need.

@peterquirk It's a great mindset to cultivate: the idea that we *all* have communication, problem solving, & conflict resolution styles that might feel intuitive but aren't universal.

This is the sort of perspective we need well outside the workplace. In culture at large, we need the language to recognize that we all engage differently with the world, and to normalize seeking out the complementary value of each neuro-type at its best. Everyone needs to feel valued in the democracies we build.

@Apocryphiliac "I’m thinking we need a sweeping re-calibration of our ideas of practicality."

Whew. 100%. That's going to take some damned doing, but I'm totally on board with the attempt.

And thanks for sharing about your grandfather! Shifting to adjustable design was clearly still a sluggish process long after they realized the problems they'd created for themselves, as the timeline for your grandfather's career service amply indicates. Glad the poor tech design didn't affect him as much.

@MLClark
Let me clarify the remark:

I don't see differing perspectives or beliefs as neurodivergent, but the article reads that way sometimes. E.g. the street preacher just has the problem of identifying with his beliefs so strongly, he's incorporated them into his entire concept of himself: he doesn't separate his religiosity from his sense of self, so to impugn or express religiosity counter to his perspective means you impugn/counter *him* personally (in his perspective).

@MLClark
... This identify issue is not what I would normally call ND, it's just an immature, flawed way to approach life.

That's what I'm trying to say, I guess.

@FernLovebond

Thanks for engaging with the piece!

I had hoped that by contrasting so many different external manifestations it would be clear that the specific ensuing beliefs aren't the issue; it's an underlying behaviour type.

There are many ways that we come to ND outcomes (the ND universe struggles with "born this way" rhetoric the same as queer communities) but whether by make-up or conditioning, these people are all wired in ways that yield very different ways of perceiving and being.

@FernLovebond That's also why I brought up the ND labels we don't exactly boast about - the NPD, the ASPD, the psychopathy. These also fit your definition of "immature" thinking, but they nevertheless describe real people--lots of 'em!--whose divergent ways of perceiving & being are very destructive.

The rhetoric in ND communities is about empowerment, but it takes a false baseline of "typical" human behaviour that doesn't address how much our society is built for destructive divergences, too.

@FernLovebond That said, I love your thoughts, love this feedback, love the thoughtfulness and shared linking too. Thank you for setting up such constructive frameworks for dissent with the work! Always makes the conversation stronger in the end. 💛

@FernLovebond (And I hope that doesn't come off as insincerely gushy. I just *really* love constructive dissent and don't think our culture does enough to create space for it. Everything that isn't 100% fawning sometimes gets taken as an attack, and that doesn't help any of us to keep growing, stay mindful, differentiate between our Self and our output, and refine our thinking on a topic all along the way. So thanks again for this.)

@MLClark
Well that's very nice to hear, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Also, you make it possible to offer real feedback by demonstrating your capacity for nuanced perspectives. It's why I love your writing: it's thotful, well-considered, nicely researched, & respects the reader to keep up & think for themselves. It makes reacting far more comfortable, since I feel like I'm talking to someone who can maturely accept responses w/o getting wounded.

It's all thanks to you, so hooray for that 🙂

@FernLovebond I somehow missed this message last night, so I get the beautiful boost of reading it at the start of a new work week instead. 🙂 Thank you for such kind and affirming words. It's really nice to be part of a community of thoughtful people again. Gives me a standard to live up to, and hope even in rotten political times.

Hope your own week is starting splendidly, Fern. May there be safety (if not sanity - let's not get greedy 😅) in all that you're moving through. 💛