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Georgia McGraw's avatar

I do not say this to be a dick, but you've got a wee typo, the first mention of the zoom call date says it's on Sunday March 31st, but it should be March 30th.

Hope the call goes well, I'm sorry that I won't be able to join, hopefully next time!

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Helen Dale's avatar

Have fixed, and no, youтАЩre not being a dick. The only area where my (very serious) childhood dyslexia shows these days is in an inability to think calendrically or to process calendrical information. I check and re-check constantly (and indeed managed to find one mistake, but not the one youтАЩve identified). When I was in practice, my secretary saved me constantly from double-booking myself or standing clients up. One does not keep secretaries in retirement, however.

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Georgia McGraw's avatar

Sounds like a pain. I partly earn my keep as a project administrator, AKA a secretary in old money, so I quite like a bit of proof-reading. I will politely notify you if I spot any future calendar cock-ups.

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Helen Dale's avatar

IтАЩm fortunate this is the only bit left of it (I can actually remember what it was like to be seven years old and unable to read after two years of schooling). IтАЩve written (for Law & Liberty) what that was like, and how I was rescued from it thanks to an IQ test: https://lawliberty.org/the-coming-war-over-intelligence/

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KM's avatar

Well, lucky you weren't born in the time of neurodivergence BS and told, sorry, ordered to embrace your dyslexia as a beautiful, inherent part of your authentic self, and to demand that the world completely change to accommodate you.

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Helen Dale's avatar

I have had people try to claim me for тАЬneurodiversityтАЭ and I absolutely refuse to be dragged into this sort of nonsense. Dyslexia is not a тАЬgiftтАЭ or superpower. It cost my parents a fortune in fees to a phonics tutor (for two further years) to fix and has caused me lifelong embarrassment (as you have all just seen).

I do not expect people to accommodate the missing of meetings and appointments, either. I was once booked (in the 90s) to appear in the functions room of a large independent bookshop and managed to muddle up the dates. 150 people expecting to see the Miles Franklin winner were left high and dry.

I was never forgiven, never invited back again, and I did not expect to be. I explained the dyslexia, but all those people IтАЩd let down were absolutely right to be annoyed. I am not on board with тАЬneurodiversityтАЭ.

This kind of thing should hold you back: it makes for a less reliable, less capable employee or business manager or lawyer or academic or anything really.

The attempt to make the world bend to fit people who are genuinely less capable (or rude and obnoxious in the case of those with ADHD or autism) is not on par with building a wheelchair ramp or letting a blind person bring their guide dog to the office.

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KM's avatar

Could not agree more!!!! The whole thing is unhinged, unschooled and ahistorical.

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KM's avatar

Have you read Mania by Lionel Shriver? It's soooooooooooooooo good.

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