{"id":805,"date":"2018-06-02T23:13:41","date_gmt":"2018-06-03T03:13:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/wordpress\/autisticme\/?p=805"},"modified":"2023-11-26T16:31:23","modified_gmt":"2023-11-26T22:31:23","slug":"finally-reading-neurotribes-and-reflecting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/2018\/06\/02\/finally-reading-neurotribes-and-reflecting\/","title":{"rendered":"Finally Reading Neurotribes and Reflecting"},"content":{"rendered":"

NeuroTribes:\u00a0The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity<\/strong><\/em> by Steve Silberman<\/a>\u00a0is a book I didn\u2019t plan to read until I had a lot of free time \u2014 and only then if I found a discounted copy. Now, I have time and the book was only $1.99 for the Kindle edition this week. I bought the book last night and I\u2019ve been reading it every free moment since it downloaded to my iPhone.<\/p>\n

I posted some time ago<\/a> that I wasn\u2019t going to read the book. It wasn\u2019t that I didn\u2019t perceive the value of the book three years ago, but it didn\u2019t strike me as offering anything new other than gathering information I had already encountered. The\u00a0Wired<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>article by Silberman that launched his fascination with autism, and other similar articles, were familiar to me. Autism was the geek syndrome<\/strong><\/em> \u2014 something curiously associated with technologists and scientists<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, I\u2019m only a fraction into the book, but further than I get in most books within 24 hours. Okay, I\u2019m only about ten percent in to the text because I do read slowly; that\u2019s still quite the clip for me to move through words.<\/p>\n

Paradoxically, I like the stories at the start of the text because they reinforce the stereotypes I wish we didn\u2019t have about autism. I am \u2014 at least in part \u2014 the very stereotypes that unfairly shape perceptions of autistics. For all my protestations that we need to present a wider view of autistic experiences, I am the stereotypes Silberman introduces at the start of NeuroTribes<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here I am, a socially awkward computer geek with rigid routines and an obsessive need to use particular tools. The opening characters would be familiar to friends and family. I can sit for hours trying to solve a problem. I prefer specific brands of pens and pencils. I like to walk, just walk, to clear my head. Even down to liking certain brands of clothing because they feel right to me, regardless of style, I am as odd as the men in these early profiles \u2014 if not as gifted as they were.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll keep reading because Silberman writes well. I\u2019ll keep wishing the autistic traits didn\u2019t describe me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NeuroTribes:\u00a0The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity by Steve Silberman\u00a0is a book I didn\u2019t plan to read until I had a lot of free time \u2014 and only then if I found a discounted copy. Now, I have time and the book was only $1.99 for the Kindle…<\/p>\n

Continue ReadingFinally Reading Neurotribes and Reflecting<\/span> <\/i><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4014,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"iawp_total_views":16,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[39,105,107,170,208,311,347,492,617,641],"class_list":["post-805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-advocacy","tag-book-review","tag-books","tag-computers","tag-diagnoses","tag-geek-syndrome","tag-history","tag-neurotribes","tag-science","tag-silberman","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2023\/12\/Podcast-HD-1920x1080-comp-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1440&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfivLC-cZ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3687,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions\/3687"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/autisticme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}