The Neurodivergent Professor

Who Am I? Why Are We Here? What is My Purpose? Are We Living 'Right'?  Questions like this - the 'big questions' have been around since antiquity. It's fun to think about when our brains reached a point in evolution where we started having luxury time. Because it's a luxury to think. To ask these kinds of questions means we've already met our basic needs. At some...

Before embarking on an investigation any researcher worth their salt will state their assumptions. This lays the groundwork for what is to come and allows the reader to contextualize the investigation. In regular science, this is often ignored. It's a shame we seem to be losing this important piece of the discourse puzzle. Anyway, when it comes to the Acid Tests, most of my assumptions are &a...

The KEW Acid Tests ask how Nature can inform the big questions humans ask. "Why are we here?", "Who am I?", and "What is our purpose" have puzzled humans for years - perhaps millennia. In the past 4,000 years or so, we have employed philosophy, religion, and science as mechanisms to ask and answer these big questions. While we certainly have learned a lot, the questio...

One of the greatest mistakes made in science, by amateurs and professionals alike, is not knowing what the question is. What is the question!!!???? Say you are studying the effectiveness of a vaccine against some pathogen. What is the question? Too many times we get wrapped up in the specifics. The details. The minutia. We forget WHY we are doing this in the first place. In this case, I would say...

As we conduct the great KEW acid tests I have to establish a baseline. In this episode I want to touch on a few elements of the 'human personality' and our 'global value system' that I think we can improve on. I think humans are great, but there are a few key items I want to mention: One of the big issues is that we think linearly. We tend to look at things as either improving...

I apologize that it has been nearly a month since my re-introduction post and Episode 101. I have been overwhelmed with thoughts, ideas, tangents, trailheads, and rabbit holes regarding this new direction for my blog/podcast/and YouTube channel. In this Episode, and over the next 4-5 I will start to unravel this rats' nest into what I hope to be an interesting adventure. An acid test is a gen...

It's been six months. Though I wasn't sure what would happen with KEW, I knew I would be back.  After 100 Episodes and over 30 interviews, I am inspired to work on new material here on Knowledge + Experience = Wisdom. I'm ready to get back on track releasing new Episodes weekly in podcast and YouTube video formats. Follow here, at Knowledge + Experience = Wisdom on your favorite pod...

Everything about our 'biological-ness' is really about change. The developmental stages are all change. We all grow bigger through life. We go through a brief period of fast growth, then switch over to a period of reproduction. These things are true for all life forms. We share, with ALL biology, this unanimous and ubiquitous feature. We change.  The universe also changes. The laws of th...

I kind of can't believe the title of Episode 99, but this is the culmination of the previous KEW Episodes and Interviews. Hopefully this body of work, thus far, has given me a bit of credibility. Coupled with my PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and over a decade in multiple modalities of therapy, counseling, and coaching, I think I have some room to 'weigh in' on some of the...

Are you familiar with the 'bell curve'? It's also called a 'normal curve', or a Gaussian distribution because it describes what statisticians call a 'normal distribution'. Here's the wikipedia definition: a probability distribution that is symmetric about the mean, showing that data near the mean are more frequent in occurrence than data far from the mean An...

Do you put on your oxygen mask first? Then what? We help our kids, our partners, the people sitting next to us. But we don't think too much about what to do next. We are sort of obsessed with taking care of ourselves. And some of us suck at it. If you, like me, struggle with codependency, people pleasing, and conflict avoidance you may actually struggle with putting your needs first. Getting...

You know you do it. You think you are right about something, only to find out you were incredibly, undeniably, 180 degrees wrong. It happens. To all of us. To all of us humans, anyway. We all think we're right. If we didn't, we wouldn't have conviction. We'd be open. We'd be undecided. Once we have made a decision, well, that decision is correct, correct? I mean, right? Bu...

Do you enjoy friendly competition? Many of us do. Some say it brings out the best in us. Some thrive in an environment where other people push us to perform at higher and higher levels. I can appreciate friendly competition like this. But I rarely see it. And sometimes even friendly competition turns sour. Feelings get hurt. Tempers flare. The high level of energy surrounding competitive exchanges...

Do you seek balance in your life, or do you go all-in on things you like? I used to think everyone wanted balance, and had a moderate approach to all things in order to maintain that balance across their varied interests. Given that there are only so many hours in a day, it's hard to do all the things we love to do - or even the things we don't want to do! But I have known folks who foll...

Have you ever been sucked into an internet thread and walked away feeling angry? You know, like a political rant thread? Identity politics? Ad hominem attacks and name-calling? Isn't that frustrating? That sentiment or feeling that other people are just mean, or evil, is part of what motivates this week's Episode. Many will argue that people are just 'bad', or even 'evil&a...

Has anyone ever told you to turn off your analytical mind? Or to use your intuition? I'm lucky to have a coach that constantly asks my analytical self to step aside.  The space that remains, sans analysis, is incredibly interesting. And I think it's where intuition lives.  In fact, I'd say my idea of intuition was inaccurate. I guess I thought of it like a hunch. Or a tingly spidey...

Most of us are not perfect. I certainly am not. In fact,lately I have been replaying several moments from my life where I behaved poorly.  But when I do this nowadays, I don't beat myself up. I have learned to find self-compassion for the person I used to be and to recognize I am no longer him. Integrity is the alignment of our values or beliefs with our actions or behavior. Even though I kno...

"Leaping into the Abyss Requires Faith, but Will Set You Free" Have you ever had Analysis Paralysis , or been unable to make a decision?  I'm sure you have - it happens all the time. Basically, we have two or more options, but we can't know for sure what the outcome of either decision will be.  Carlos Castaneda, in the books about Don Juan and the Toltecs, described this as lea...

Have you experienced trauma?  Have you overcome adversity? Many, if not most, of us have not have perfect lives. Candice Smiley is like us. Though we don't talk specifically about her past, you will be amazed to learn that this sophisticated, confident, and calm woman made it through her suffering. In fact, you will be impressed at her candor and her, well, knowledge, experience, and wisdom. ...

Do you ever think about trade-offs in your life? Something as simple as choosing to have the Doritos knowing they are bad for your body? Or driving over the speed limit knowing you could get a ticket. Or blowing your money on daily lattes knowing one day you may regret not saving more. Trade-offs are a natural part of existence. I learned about them in an ecological or evolutionary sense. Natural...

Where do you stand on the whole 'personal responsibility' issue? I always assumed that I had to take care of my own stuff. I made my choices and had to deal with them. When I had kids, everyone kept telling me, 'it takes a village', and I honestly didn't understand what they were talking about. I guess I've always been a lone wolf - but I don't necessarily like t...

Do you struggle with relationships?  I did for a long time. I went through a divorce in 2010 and that kickstarted an interesting adventure in dating and thinking about companionship in general. Luckily, I met a wonderful woman and remarried. But the five years I spent uncoupled were hard, to say the least. Antia Boyd helps women figure out why they struggle with relationships. Whether you struggle...

Not many people like talking about, much less admitting, what they are afraid of. But I have found, in my work and over a decade meeting with therapists and coaches, that fear is a HUGE motivator. It turns out that a lot of our behaviors and beliefs are rooted in fears. In the Internal Family Systems model, we talk about 'parts' of ourselves that are born to reduce these fears.  In other...

You're probably like, 'mind control, what's this guy talking about?' Either he's going to tell us how we need to get in our heads and understand what's going on, or he's going to talk about how the algorithm has us under its spell. It reminds me of this scene from Monsters, Inc (you'll have to go to www.chrisburcher.com to see the clip). This week I'm t...

Analog nomads . . . . .  When I decided to focus on the Are vs Should Problem , or the struggle between the person you ARE and the person you feel like you SHOULD BE, I was thinking mostly about the SHOULD part.  To me, the issue isn't so much about figuring out who we ARE, it's more about telling the SHOULDs to be quiet. And figuring out how to do that.  The AREs are things we want to b...