4 ms·
Tough road, kid, tough road. I had pretty serious brain damage when I was a child -- dyspraxia, dysgraphia, a bunch of other poorly-understood stuff -- and even
by leashless 3y ago
Tough road, kid, tough road. I had pretty serious brain damage when I was a child -- dyspraxia, dysgraphia, a bunch of other poorly-understood stuff -- and even today I'm still patchy. I've learned to have NT people handle the stuff I don't, like calendaring (I can't do time zones at all) and to be sensitive about tabulated data. I'm 51 now, and I've had a fairly successful career spanning a number of fields.
Two lessons from my experience.
1) the brain is incredibly plastic and over time figures out how to get things done
2) intense practice of very simple activities leads to very surprising and dramatic rewards -- video games with a strong hand-eye coordination component vastly improved my dyspraxia (at my age, we're talking Pac Man in arcades!) and then I moved on to tai chi. Deliberate practice of very simple things seems to be powerfully transformative for people struggling with neurological issues in general.
I don't know how much it helps, but strong odds there is a future. The year between A Levels and university to give yourself time to heal before you go straight into the next thing is a great idea. I also imagine there's a ton of emotional fall out from your attack and that also takes time to heal.
Shit hand of cards. You sound like you're doing a good job of coping. Keep on going it will improve over time.
- askafriend 3y agoIn case it's helpful: you can display multiple timezones side-by-side in Google Calendar. It lets you visualize what time it is for everyone when you're scheduling something. It's a setting you have to configure: https://www.androidcentral.com/apps-software/how-to-show-more-than-one-time-zone-on-google-calendar https://www.androidcentral.com/apps-software/how-to-show-mor...
- AdviceAlt 3y agoThank you, that's good to hear.
- leashless 3y agoAmerica has a vast brain damage problem from explosions in Iraq and American football. If you’re looking for ideas about how to recover from concussion damage they have a state of the art interest in the field. GOOD LUCK!
- VirusNewbie 3y agoThe image of you having a movie trope training montage involving pac man and tai chi is amazing. What careers did you pursue?
- leashless 3y agoWell now… Co-invented the world’s fastest voxel renderer in 1993 Paid for a year in digital currency… in 1999 Pioneered content management systems for really hairy databases in the early 2000s. One of those projects is still going. Went into energy policy after 9/11. Editorial team for the Pentagon’s study on the future strategic significance of oil. Cryptographic design work for the US Office of the Secretary of Defence around 2008 World class work on worst case scenario pandemics and sheltering people after nuclear terrorism around then too. Project managed the Ethereum launch in 2015. But the really interesting stuff is http://myhopeforthe.world http://myhopeforthe.world I’ve kept busy. :) Not bad for a man who couldn’t write until 17
- VirusNewbie 3y agoThanks for sharing the story, i’ll check out the site as well. It’s nice to hear about and get to know interesting folks on HN!
- AdviceAlt 3y agoThat's awesome. Thanks for sharing.