Resources
Below is a growing series of curated resources aimed at helping neurodivergents to learn more about themselves and the world around them. Help support us by purchasing through the affiliate links to Amazon. Only resources that respect and promote the neurodiversity movement and spirit are included. Please feel free to contact us via the contact page or add to the forums and recommend further materials.
Thank you for contributing to a better world that celebrates all kinds of minds!
ADHD: A Hunter in a Farmer’s World
By Thom Hartmann
A newly revised and updated edition of the classic guide to reframing our view of ADHD and embracing its benefits
• Explains that people with ADHD are not disordered or dysfunctional, but simply “hunters in a farmer’s world”–possessing a unique mental skill set that would have allowed them to thrive in a hunter-gatherer society
• Offers concrete non-drug methods and practices to help hunters–and their parents, teachers, and managers–embrace their differences, nurture creativity, and find success in school, at work, and at home
• Reveals how some of the world’s most successful people can be labeled as ADHD hunters, including Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, and Andrew Carnegie
With 10 percent of the Western world’s children suspected of having Attention Deficit Disorder, or ADHD, and a growing number of adults self-diagnosing after decades of struggle, the question must be raised: How could Nature make such a “mistake”?
In this updated edition of his groundbreaking classic, Thom Hartmann explains that people with ADHD are not abnormal, disordered, or dysfunctional, but simply “hunters in a farmer’s world.” Often highly creative and single-minded in pursuit of a self-chosen goal, those with ADHD symptoms possess a unique mental skill set that would have allowed them to thrive in a hunter-gatherer society. As hunters, they would have been constantly scanning their environment, looking for food or threats (distractability); they’d have to act without hesitation (impulsivity); and they’d have to love the high-stimulation and risk-filled environment of the hunting field. With our structured public schools, office workplaces, and factories those who inherit a surplus of “hunter skills” are often left frustrated in a world that doesn’t understand or support them.
As Hartmann shows, by reframing our view of ADHD, we can begin to see it not as a disorder, but as simply a difference and, in some ways, an advantage. He reveals how some of the world’s most successful people can be labeled as ADHD hunters and offers concrete non-drug methods and practices to help hunters–and their parents, teachers, and managers–embrace their differences, nurture creativity, and find success in school, at work, and at home. Providing a supportive “survival” guide to help fine tune your natural skill set, rather than suppress it, Hartmann shows that each mind–whether hunter, farmer, or somewhere in between–has value and great potential waiting to be tapped.
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder
Antifragile is a standalone book in Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s landmark Incerto series, an investigation of opacity, luck, uncertainty, probability, human error, risk, and decision-making in a world we don’t understand. The other books in the series are Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, Skin in the Game, and The Bed of Procrustes.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the bestselling author of The Black Swan and one of the foremost thinkers of our time, reveals how to thrive in an uncertain world.
Just as human bones get stronger when subjected to stress and tension, and rumors or riots intensify when someone tries to repress them, many things in life benefit from stress, disorder, volatility, and turmoil. What Taleb has identified and calls “antifragile” is that category of things that not only gain from chaos but need it in order to survive and flourish.
In The Black Swan, Taleb showed us that highly improbable and unpredictable events underlie almost everything about our world. In Antifragile, Taleb stands uncertainty on its head, making it desirable, even necessary, and proposes that things be built in an antifragile manner. The antifragile is beyond the resilient or robust. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better and better.
Furthermore, the antifragile is immune to prediction errors and protected from adverse events. Why is the city-state better than the nation-state, why is debt bad for you, and why is what we call “efficient” not efficient at all? Why do government responses and social policies protect the strong and hurt the weak? Why should you write your resignation letter before even starting on the job? How did the sinking of the Titanic save lives? The book spans innovation by trial and error, life decisions, politics, urban planning, war, personal finance, economic systems, and medicine. And throughout, in addition to the street wisdom of Fat Tony of Brooklyn, the voices and recipes of ancient wisdom, from Roman, Greek, Semitic, and medieval sources, are loud and clear.
Antifragile is a blueprint for living in a Black Swan world.
Erudite, witty, and iconoclastic, Taleb’s message is revolutionary: The antifragile, and only the antifragile, will make it.
Praise for Antifragile
“Ambitious and thought-provoking . . . highly entertaining.”—The Economist
“A bold book explaining how and why we should embrace uncertainty, randomness, and error . . . It may just change our lives.”—Newsweek
Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar: How Self-Education and the Pursuit of Passion Can Lead to a Lifetime of Success
By James Marcus Bach
“A Buccaneer-Scholar is anyone whose love of learning is not muzzled or shackled by any institution or authority; whose mind is driven to wander and find its own place in the world.”
The volatility of the job market and the limitless opportunities afforded by the internet have forever changed people’s attitudes about schooling. In this world of rapid technological development, people are becoming successful, making money and finding personal satisfaction through non-traditional means. Ideas have become more important than training; innovation is more important than credentials. The ability to educate oneself — to learn how to learn — is crucial.
James Bach, the son of bestselling author Richard Bach (Jonathan Livingston Seagull,) understands that. Like so many young people, James struggled in school, eventually dropping out at age sixteen. A few years later, he was leading a team at Apple Computer. Now an internationally recognized expert in the field of computer software testing, James has written Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar: a groundbreaking book that shows how anyone can create their own education on their own terms. It is nurturing our individual curiosities and relishing the learning process that will lead anyone — from children struggling in school to professionals looking to jumpstart their careers — to success.
In his unique pithy and anecdotal style, and combining his personal story with proven methodologies, James describes the relentless, whimsical, low-intensity learning process he calls “buccaneering.” Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar demonstrates that it is the people who chart their own course, who never stop learning, who will come to dominate this new world.
The Highly Sensitive Person: How to thrive when the world overwhelms you
By Elaine N Aron, PhD
Do you have a keen imagination and vivid dreams? Is time alone each day as essential to you as food and water? Are you noted for your empathy? Your conscientiousness? Do noise and confusion quickly overwhelm you? If your answers are yes, you may be a highly sensitive person (HSP) and Dr. Elaine Aron’s The Highly Sensitive Person is the life-changing guide you’ll want in your toolbox.
Over twenty percent of people have this amazing, innate trait. Maybe you are one of them. A similar percentage is found in over 100 species, because high sensitivity is a survival strategy. It is also a way of life for HSPs.
Dr. Elaine Aron, a research and clinical psychologist as well as an HSP herself, helps you grasp the reality of your wonderful trait, understand your past in the light of it, and make the most of it in your future. Drawing on her many years of study and face-to-face time spent with thousands of HSPs, she explains the changes you will need to make in order to lead a fuller, richer life.
Along with a new Author’s Note, the latest scientific research, and a fresh discussion of anti-depressants, this edition of The Highly Sensitive Person is more essential than ever for creating the sense of self-worth and empowerment every HSP deserves and our planet needs.
“Elaine Aron has not only validated and scientifically corroborated high sensitivity as a trait—she has given a level of empowerment and understanding to a large group of the planet’s population. I thank Dr. Aron every day for her having brought this awareness to the world.”
—Alanis Morissette, artist, activist, teacher
The Power of Neurodiversity: Unleashing the Advantages of Your Differently Wired Brain
By Thomas Armstrong
ADHD. dyslexia. autism. the number of illness categories listed by the American Psychiatric Association has tripled in the last fifty years. With so many people affected, it is time to revisit our perceptions on this “culture of disabilities.” Bestselling author, psychologist, and educator Thomas Armstrong illuminates a new understanding of neuropsychological disorders. He argues that if they are a part of the natural diversity of the human brain, they cannot simply be defined as illnesses. Armstrong explores the evolutionary advantages, special skills, and other positive dimensions of these conditions.
A manifesto as well as a keenly intelligent look at “disability,” The Power of Neurodiversity is a must for parents, teachers, and anyone who is “differently brained.”