All right, lovelies. 🤗
I just published a #Humanist essay to #BetterWorldsTheory - as part of the new framing for this newsletter, which will more frequently cover media literacy, humanist topics, and spec-lit publishing news.
If you'd like a wee meditation on neurodivergence as a concept that doesn't properly account for the extremism of many different ways of thinking, seeing, & being... Well, hope you enjoy!
(Off to celebrate a friend's birthday with cheesecake! 😋)
https://mlclark.substack.com/p/on-tankies-street-preachers-and-ye
@MLClark Thanks for the article! I assume that neurodivergent people all fit somewhere on the popular personality tests used by employers. (https://cowenpartners.com/top-personality-tests-used-by-employers/#:~:text=Top%205%20Personality%20Tests%20Used%20by%20Employers%201,Profile%20...%205%205.%20Hogan%20Personality%20Inventory%20) If so, neurodivergence is baked into our business culture. If not, are ND people screened out or employment
@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.