[WiP] Dyslexia?

[nelsonic]

Context

I'm writing this post to capture my feelings on Dyslexia. It is not a plea for sympathy or compassion, I don't need anyone to "feel sorry" for me. This is purely a factual account that I want to capture so that I can refer others to as it has come up in (verbal) conversation a few times and some conversations are best captured.

I suffered tremendously as a child because of dyslexia, but I don't feel it's "held me back" as an adult. I have done very well for myself as an adult; I picked my "path" carefully to maximise my strengths. I studied accounting+finance, which was mind-numbingly tedious, but super valuable and simultaneously maximised my mathematical abilities and minimised the amount of reading/writing I had to do. I only worked in finance for 15 months but it was "enough" to realise I hated it. After that I revived my childhood love of programming and worked as a developer. The advantage of having put in the years to be proficient in accounting+finance is that, coupled with decent programming skills, you will always be "in-demand". Being fluent in both the languages "business" and "computers" means you can write software with a high value to companies/organisations.

Dyslexia was a "disability" in school, but in "real life" I learned to overcome it with a simple system: read 1h every day without fail. It might sound "too simple", but trust me

I "retired" from my full-time job at 29 with enough assets and cashflow to never need to work again; most people never achieve this, I did it in my 20's.

What?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyslexia

History

As a child I was severely dyslexic. I could not read a sentence out loud in class without reading a word back-to-front or saying the words in the wrong order or mis-reading the word entirely. If you didn't have a "learning disability" as child you will not have an easy way of empathising with the children who do/did. You might understand it conceptually, but you have little notion of what it feels like to be constantly laughed at by your peers and even bullied for being "stupid". As a result of my inability to read (aloud) I suffered through school and hated almost every minute of it.

Couple the dyslexia with moving schools a 11 times, having to learn in 3 different languages (English, Afrikaans, and you have a recipe for acute frustration. I didn't have a "coping mechanism" Dyslexia, also known as reading disorder, is characterised by trouble with reading despite normal intelligence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyslexia

https://www.dyslexia.com/book/the-gift-of-dyslexia/ https://www.amazon.com/Gift-Dyslexia-Smartest-Revised-Expanded/dp/0399535667

https://youtu.be/RVseLzwxceM

¹My dyslexic still manifests itself occasionally when I read things aloud and my patient wife kindly (non judgementally) points out that I read a set of words backwards; we both then laugh about it (I initiate the laughter, as she doesn't laugh "at" people) then I move on with my life. As a child I was bullied mercilessly for my dyslexia. I know now that the "bullies" had their own emotional insecurities that they were acting out, so I don't resent their behaviour toward me. ☔️ > 🌈

[nelsonic]

Steven Spielberg discusses his dyslexia: https://youtu.be/4N6RKHOHMJQ

[nelsonic]

MIT Professor Catherine Drennan on Her Dyslexia and Its Advantages: https://youtu.be/ennIWco_H3Y