There's a line in Citizen Kane, "It's no trick to make a lot of money if all you want is to make a lot of money" that captures something fundamental about being human. Any goal is very much easier to achieve it's your only goal...But being human almost always means having more than one goal. … Continue reading One Thing Relentlessly: Why Humans Always Fail
Category: Mental Health
Delivered as a talk on may 14 2020 at "Disability in the Context of Coronavirus" hosted by the Bonavero Institute for Human Rights There are few better indicators that an individual or an institution does not understand the uneven distribution of the effects of Covid19 than statements welcoming a newfound sense of community or questions … Continue reading The Message is not Mixed: How Covid Communications have Clarified Society’s Erasure of its Mentally Ill and Neurodivergent Citizens
I want to talk about the particular kind of uncertainty that neurodivergent and mentally ill folk like me experience. But because most other people don’t, let’s first take a step back and understand what it is that we in higher education do.
I’ve thought about this for the more than 3 decades since I arrived in Oxford as an undergraduate, and my conclusion is very simple. The one thing you do at your core is this.
You burn books.
Full text of the talk I gave for the panel: "A Future Worth Fighting For: technology, disability, and ways of being" at the Futures Thinking Conference We are increasingly reimagining what it means to be-in-the-world. Particularly, we are accepting that we cannot live in the future as we live in the present. Indeed, if we … Continue reading Holiness. Utopia. Disgust. imagination, disability, and the mechanisms of erasure
The final piece about my "Can Blue Planets Find Space for Rainbows?" project is the book outline. Expect the following 9 chapters, largely in manifesto form, then detailed papers based on each. 1: A Tale of Two Scientists Using responses to the broadcast of Blue Planet 2 to illustrate the way that much-needed activism in … Continue reading The City and The City and the city, and
One of the most important things Greta Thunberg has highlighted is the structural problem with neurotypical discourse. It is acceptable in this discourse to say one thing "we must tackle the climate crisis" and do something totally at odds with that (doing nothing).For me, it is this disconnect that has been the single greatest cause … Continue reading You Cannot Be Serious
It is impossible to overstate how important technology will be in reframing the conceptual dynamic between abled & disabled people in the coming decade. It has always been a matter of choice (or, too often, simply not thought about, and therefore a result of unintended consequence) for abled people whether disabled folk have a place … Continue reading How Radical is Technology for Disabled Rights?
The incorporation process has begun. Papers sit on my desk waiting to be signed once final passes have been made. This is, of course, ridiculously exciting. It also feels like an incredible responsibility. I have always been totally open about my mental health, and the struggles it has caused me. I speak at conferences and … Continue reading Disability Anxiety: Starting Up Without Breaking Down Part 4
Part 2 of the Starting Up and Breaking Down series. What had started as an introductory note has ended up as a separate post. It probably serves as a useful preface for the series, which gets out there in one go why I am taking the approach I am with regard to talking openly about … Continue reading Full Disclosure?
Becoming an Entrepreneur when you have Poor Mental Health: A Journey in Unknown Parts You are probably here because you know one of three sides to me. As very few people know all three, let me say a paragraphette about each. They will quickly make clear why I am keeping this very public diary. I … Continue reading Starting Up and Breaking Down
Rogue interrobang 