BC FOR LATER READ
Saved by @CodyyyGardner

So, as I said in reply to @NortherlyRose's thread below, here's a thread on #autism and #ageing.

This is purely from a personal experience perspective as someone diagnosed in their early 50s. /

 /
I've written lots already about how I grew up not knowing that I'm #autistic. A good catch-all for that writing is here, maybe:

https://t.co/recFFdkXGx

/
/
My adult life from say 18 to 40 had ups and downs like anyone's. There was much to enjoy, and I was enthusiastic about learning and about using my learning in my career as an engineer / analyst.
/
/
But, as is common for undiagnosed autistic people, this was mixed in with episodes of depression and anxiety and a sense of being different.

By the time I was 40, I wanted to retire. My wife remarked that I was starting to behave like "an old man".
/
/
I had (and still have some) "old man hobbies": astronomy, ham radio, motorcycling, advanced driving.

And I *really* felt the pressure of being the "wage earner" with no option but to carry on earning the salary to which I and my family had become accustomed.
/
/
I *desperately* wanted someone to look after *me*.

Please understand that this was not an accusation aimed at anyone in my immediate family; it was a general exasperation about the situation I found myself in.
/
/
Expressing these feelings to family, friends, medical professionals elicited this type of response:

"You're still young! You have plenty of life left! Wait 'till you get to *my* / *our* age! You're supporting everyone and that's a *good* thing!"

/
/
In other words "Don't be silly, shut up, I don't know what the fuck you're on about, man up(*), suck it up"

(*) thanks mum 🙃🙄
/
/
And so I arrived at 50, self-medicating with every legal addiction I could find, lost. Six months later, burnout hit and I all but gave up.

Then came the realisation of autism and eventual diagnosis.
/
/
Sorry - that's a long introduction to the topic of the thread, which is looking at the future from the perspective of someone diagnosed in later / middle life.
/
/
Autism DX has given me permission to give myself permission to be kind to myself. So there's an awful lot of positive disentangling myself from expectations coming from that.
/
/
I'm allowing myself to consider that I don't *have to* follow the same life trajectory as my neurotypical colleagues. I don't have to aim to retire to a life of relative luxury.

*Importantly, there is no shame in opting out of that.*

(I'm privileged to have a choice).

/
/
But still, when I've discussed early retirement with e.g. medical professionals, eyebrows have been raised; "You're still young! What would you do?".

Neuronormative expectations, again.
/
/
What I'm now realising is that I would be quite happy to live the life of a content & relatively active 70 year old *now*; reading, drinking coffee, walking dogs, engaging with people via social media.
/
/
Where does this pressure to be productive until you die come from?

I am tired.

Doing two degrees and a post-doc meant that I didn't start work until I was 26 and I've now done 27 years at the same company.
/
/
I know that many people work from age 16 to 70; twice as long as I've done so far. Well done them. Not for me.

/
/
I see little opportunity for job-related joy in the future like I experienced when I started work (learning at a fast rate, being super appreciated by everyone as I flexed my unique skills).

My memory seems to be failing & *I* think it's not just typical age-related stuff.
/
/
A combination of burnout, autism, possibly adhd-related issues, and yes age too, mean that I'm losing touch with my distant past as well as the last few minutes and seconds.

My drive to impress at work is fading.
/
/
Partly I think that's a good thing. Burnout forced me to re-evaluate my relationship with work. Where I had previously used my successes at work and the way I was valued at work as maybe *the* foundation of my self esteem,
/
/
now my foundation is *me* and my right to an equitable life where there is no shame in loving and expressing my *true self* (hence my-later-than-I-wished exploration of and rejection of gender stereotypes)
/
/
But, whilst my 13 coaching sessions with the lovely and incredibly wise @FelicityMorse has allowed me to attenuate my drive to control and fully know my future & instead joyfully embrace its possibilities and allow myself to be happily vulnerable and open to it,
/
/
I still come back to my thread from earlier in the year below, asking "How can #autistic people best embrace their final trimester?"

https://t.co/lI2vYvlHw8
/
/
I think I've come to the natural end of this thread (and hit Twitter's limit on thread length!)

It might read a little melancholy, but it isn't, really.

I am now happier, I think, than I have ever been.

/
/
I'm now understanding and respecting my autistic self, thanks to the wonderful shared experience of #autistic Twitter, medical science, and the "official" endorsement of my diagnosis (which is really a magical charm that I use to defeat imposter syndrome, see below)
/
/
https://t.co/xn2GHu8ab9
@threadreaderapp unroll please

More from For later read

Rogier v Vlissingen
Rogier v Vlissingen
@vliscony
@jeffreyatucker In the end, it is all a natural consequence of a very human foible, namely that we all do everything we can to blame anybody or anything else for our problems, if we can get away with it. It's the reason why rulers start wars to squelch domestic dissent - macro and micro the same

The very notion of the germ theory of disease revolves around this and while it is good for selling medical interventions, treatments and pharmaceuticals, it is no good for either personal health, or public health in any way. We need to start looking at health on a holistic level

More of a systems approach to health would get us to see that the whole instinct to stamp out viruses, like the very counter-factual notion of "zero Covid," and other nonsense, are driven by this need to blame somebody or something else for our problems, so we can have our cake

and eat it too, i.e. we can pass the blame to others and go and kill them, be they bugs or other people (lockdowns???). The results are disastrous for health on both a personal and a public level, and we continue on a path of assured self-destruction. But times are changing, now.

Lifestyle Medicine @aclifemed provides the new paradigm, more of a systems approach to health, in which personal responsibility for our habits comes first, starting with nutrition. Immune systems become depressed by fatigue, stress, inner conflict, malnutrition and so on. Change
FOR LATER READ
David Boxenhorn
David Boxenhorn
@davidboxenhorn
1. The death of Silicon Valley, a thread

How did Silicon Valley die? It was killed by the internet. I will explain.

Yesterday, my friend IRL asked me "Where are good old days when techies were


2. In the "good old days" Silicon Valley was about understanding technology. Silicon, to be precise. These were people who had to understand quantum mechanics, who had to build the near-miraculous devices that we now take for granted, and they had to work

3. Now, I love libertarians, and I share much of their political philosophy. But you have to be socially naive to believe that it has a chance in a real society. In those days, Silicon Valley was not a real society. It was populated by people who understood quantum mechanics

4. Then came the microcomputer revolution. It was created by people who understood how to build computers. One borderline case was Steve Jobs. People claimed that Jobs was surrounded by a "reality distortion field" - that's how good he was at understanding people, not things

5. Still, the heroes of Silicon Valley were the engineers. The people who knew how to build things. Steve Jobs, for all his understanding of people, also had quite a good understanding of technology. He had a libertarian vibe, and so did Silicon Valley
FOR LATER READ
Advertisement
John Hayward
John Hayward
@Doc_0
Time once again to emphasize the differences between totalitarianism, authoritarianism, and fascism. They're often used as synonyms but they are different, although they do tend to lead to each other. Order one, and the other two are usually delivered soon enough.

Totalitarianism is best understood as the politicization of everything. Every facet of life is infused with political meaning... and subjected to political control. There is little room for privacy or individualism. Every word and deed is seen as a political action.

Totalitarianism does *not* require authoritarian government, although it usually leads to such. You can be totalitarian without having any real government power at all, enforcing your political will through mob actions and corporate power. Examples from recent history abound.

Totalitarianism is the easiest of the three deadly "isms" to slide into, because it can easily be disguised with claims of its good intentions. Totalitarians usually claim to be motivated by the Greater Good. They claim to represent the interests of sympathetic victims.

Totalitarians claim that society is unjust and must be corrected by force. Before they gain the power to become authoritarians, they often assert the right to use force outside of the law because the government is corrupt or serves the interests of their ideological enemies.
FOR LATER READ
GAVNet
GAVNet
@GAValueNetwork
Daily Bookmarks to GAVNet 02/16/2021
FOR LATER READ
Lyman Stone \u77f3\u4f86\u6c11
Lyman Stone 石來民...
@lymanstoneky
the strange reality of strict calvinism is that it makes a mockery of God's claims to hate, abhort, or even be theoretically opposed to evil

the calvinist solution to the problem of evil, which I have *literally heard from the lips of a faithful well-catechized Presbyterian* is, "well, all that happens is God's will, and to do His will is to manifest goodness, and goodness gives God joy, so God must rejoice in evil"

The hypothetical I gave was, "Suppose that there was a city of Christians, and a bomber flew over the city, and the guy at the controls tripped and accidentally armed and dropped a bomb, and wiped out the city: is that God's will? What does God think of that?"

His answer in addition to the above cited the Flood, Soddom, and Nineveh.

Because we all know that God's response to the Flood was, "I REALLY liked that, it was AWESOME, it satisfied my will and purposes to obliterate my creation!"

Once you have drunk the "but muh sovrintee" Kool-Aid you cannot escape the argument that literally everything that happens is not just God's will in some philosophical sense, but His will in the sense of "things that bring him pleasure."
FOR LATER READ

You May Also Like

Vibhu Vashisth
Vibhu Vashisth
@VIBHU_Tweet
दधीचि ऋषि को मनाही थी कि वह अश्विनी कुमारों को किसी भी अवस्था में ब्रह्मविद्या का उपदेश नहीं दें। ये आदेश देवराज इन्द्र का था।वह नहीं चाहते थे कि उनके सिंहासन को प्रत्यक्ष या परोक्ष रुप से कोई भी खतरा हो।मगर जब अश्विनी कुमारों ने सहृदय प्रार्थना की तो महर्षि सहर्ष मान गए।


और उन्होनें ब्रह्मविद्या का ज्ञान अश्विनि कुमारों को दे दिया। गुप्तचरों के माध्यम से जब खबर इन्द्रदेव तक पहुंची तो वे क्रोध में खड़ग ले कर गए और महर्षि दधीचि का सर धड़ से अलग कर दिया।मगर अश्विनी कुमार भी कहां चुप बैठने वाले थे।उन्होने तुरंत एक अश्व का सिर महर्षि के धड़ पे...


...प्रत्यारोपित कर उन्हें जीवित रख लिया।उस दिन के पश्चात महर्षि दधीचि अश्वशिरा भी कहलाए जाने लगे।अब आगे सुनिये की किस प्रकार महर्षि दधीचि का सर काटने वाले इन्द्र कैसे अपनी रक्षा हेतु उनके आगे गिड़गिड़ाए ।

एक बार देवराज इन्द्र अपनी सभा में बैठे थे, तो उन्हे खुद पर अभिमान हो आया।


वे सोचने लगे कि हम तीनों लोकों के स्वामी हैं। ब्राह्मण हमें यज्ञ में आहुति देते हैं और हमारी उपासना करते हैं। फिर हम सामान्य ब्राह्मण बृहस्पति से क्यों डरते हैं ?उनके आने पर क्यों खड़े हो जाते हैं?वे तो हमारी जीविका से पलते हैं। देवर्षि बृहस्पति देवताओं के गुरु थे।

अभिमान के कारण ऋषि बृहस्पति के पधारने पर न तो इन्द्र ही खड़े हुए और न ही अन्य देवों को खड़े होने दिया।देवगुरु बृहस्पति इन्द्र का ये कठोर दुर्व्यवहार देख कर चुप चाप वहां से लौट गए।कुछ देर पश्चात जब देवराज का मद उतरा तो उन्हे अपनी गलती का एहसास हुआ।
ALL
foone
foone
@Foone
An interesting set of games that I've been vaguely interested in since I was a kid, after seeing one at a friend's house and never being able to find it again, was the BATTLES IN A DISTANT DESERT/BATTLES ON DISTANT PLANETS series.


These are turn-based wargames for windows 3.x, sharing the same engine.
Battles in a Distant Desert is from 1992, and is based on the first Iraq war (Desert Storm)


and Battles on Distant Planets is from 1991, and takes place in SPACE!
I'm pretty sure this is the one I played as a kid.


They've got 3 options to play with:
* Player vs. Player
* Player vs. Computer
* Computer vs. Computer

So it's a 0-2 player game!


They also did a DOS strategy game called "STARDATE 2140.2: GALACTIC CONQUEST" in 1990, but it seems to be lost.
All the games share an experimental AI system based on neural networks.
FUN
Advertisement
Noah Smith
Noah Smith
@Noahpinion
1/People I know on the Right tend to be obsessed with the idea of "crimethink", taboos, and the (supposedly) oppressive, omnipresent enforcement of liberal cultural norms.

Why?

My new theory: A lot of it is guilt.

2/It's true that in some circles - the media, universities, many big corporations - liberal norms *are* enforced to some degree, and the enforcement has probably gotten stronger in recent years.

But I don't think this explains all of the Right's obsession.

3/The stereotype is that people on the Right tend to be more threat-sensitive. That would help explain the perception that liberal norm-enforcers are lurking everywhere, ready to pounce and anathematize anyone who makes a misstep.

But I don't think that's all of it either.

4/And of course, it's always fun - whether you're on the Right or the Left, or playing a video game, or whatever - to style yourself as the brave iconoclastic rebel fighting against the oppressive forces of blah blah blah.

But I don't think this is all of it, either.

5/The reason I think it's more than these things is that even *in private*, people on the Right express their "crimethink" ideas very gingerly and hesitantly.

I get the sense that they're not just afraid of external censure, but have also internalized liberal norms.
SOCIETY
Erik Torenberg
Erik Torenberg
@eriktorenberg
1/ Some initial thoughts on personal moats:

Like company moats, your personal moat should be a competitive advantage that is not only durable—it should also compound over time.

Characteristics of a personal moat below:


2/ Like a company moat, you want to build career capital while you sleep.

As Andrew Chen noted:


3/ You don’t want to build a competitive advantage that is fleeting or that will get commoditized

Things that might get commoditized over time (some longer than


4/ Before the arrival of recorded music, what used to be scarce was the actual music itself — required an in-person artist.

After recorded music, the music itself became abundant and what became scarce was curation, distribution, and self space.

5/ Similarly, in careers, what used to be (more) scarce were things like ideas, money, and exclusive relationships.

In the internet economy, what has become scarce are things like specific knowledge, rare & valuable skills, and great reputations.
LIFE
The Troll Zoo
The Troll Zoo
@TrollZoo
1. This is "Hollie The Card".

She's a Doctor, Physician, PhD, MA, Clinical Psychologist, Hospital Consultant, PTSD consultant, Long Covid Consultant.

(Thread)


2. Although sometimes she’s also an AUTHOR and English Academic.


3. A Hospital Consultant and ex Gymnast.

(Pinterest public profile)


4. A Physician, Doctor, or hospital consultant.

A “Hospital Consultant”, would probably mean a senior doctor, in the UK at least.


5. Hollie changes her Twitter picture and bio so often, it’s hard to keep up with her qualifications.
TWITTER