Dec 27, 2022Elon Musk’s Autistic Anti-PatternsHow Not To Do Being Autistic — Elon Musk — until recently, the richest man in the world — is probably autistic. We know this because he once mentioned he ‘has Asperger’s’ as part of a comedy routine. …Tech13 min readTech13 min read
Nov 11, 2022Colours, Categories and the Pursuit of ObjectivityAlso available as video or audio. Are colours real? Are they things that objectively exist in the universe? Or do they exist only in the mind of the beholder? The answer to all of these questions is, I think, not really. Colours are a human response to complex — but…Perception10 min readPerception10 min read
Jan 7, 2022Autism and ScientismWhy science is not always the best way to learn about autism — There are many ways for people to come to understand the world. Many different approaches to learning about things, including minds. Scientism — the belief that science is the only route to useful knowledge — is a philosophical mistake. I say this as someone who loves science, who teaches it…Autism7 min readAutism7 min read
Oct 28, 2021Outstanding Concerns about Spectrum 10KI’ll try to keep this brief; if anyone wants the long version, I would point them to this highly intelligent and well-informed panel discussion and the very detailed statement put out by Boycott Spectrum 10k. Eugenics While it is now well-understood that autism is genetically complex, this does not altogether…Science4 min readScience4 min read
Aug 14, 2021My ‘Rather Weird’ MumDr. Dinah Murray (1946–2021) — If you knew my mum, I don’t have to tell you that she was kind, passionate and sometimes fierce: she was appalled by injustice and unfairness, and she was outspoken in challenging it. …Obituary3 min readObituary3 min read
Jul 18, 2021Craft, Flow and Cognitive StylesOriginally a talk to the Waldorf Handwork Educators Teacher Conference on the 15th of July, 2021. Watch a video here. Hopefully this is of some interest to anyone interested in autism and learning, not just teachers of fibre-craft… I want to talk today about different experiences of education, of making…Neurodiversity17 min readNeurodiversity17 min read
Apr 4, 2021Is autism a disability? Is toadflax a weed?If anything is a disability, autism is. But is anything a disability? The social model of disability sees disability as arising from the interaction between a person and their environment. …Autism3 min readAutism3 min read
Feb 10, 2021Weird Pride DayThe first ever Weird Pride Day was on the 4th of March, 2021, and the second was on the 4th of March, 2022. At the risk of being predictable, the third will be on Saturday the 4th of March, 2023. This is a day for people to embrace their weirdness…Actuallyautistic5 min readActuallyautistic5 min read
Jul 30, 2020Making education work for the next generation of neurodivergent pupilsAn autistic science teacher considers what genuinely inclusive education might look like. This was originally a talk at Autscape in 2020, the conference for and by autistic people. The video of this talk is now online. Many of us — autistic people, and those who are neurodivergent or just ‘weird’…Autism14 min readAutism14 min read
Apr 10, 2020Understanding Exponential GrowthThe mathematics of pandemics — Exponential growth is a simple idea, with far-reaching consequences, and it’s something that everyone really ought to understand. When something grows in proportion to how big it is already, it grows exponentially. So if it’s twice as big, that means it’ll grow twice as fast. It follows from this that…Mathematics6 min readMathematics6 min read
