Autistic and me

I was reading The Serendipity Mindset by Christian Busch today in the morning and, unfortunately, I don’t think it’s nearly as good as The Luck Factor. It feels very general. I was on page 107 when I decided to leave it.

There were some suggestions there about how to create more serendipity in life, but some of them stroke me as rather odd. For example, the author suggests that when you meet someone at an event, instead of asking “What do you do?”, you should ask, “What’s your state of mind?”

Perhaps some people would find that refreshing, but I wouldn’t. I’m hardly going to tell a complete stranger that I recently opened a Community Interest Company and am now wondering whether I should close it. I write about that on my blog, ok, but that’s different.

If someone asked me that question, I’d probably come up with some random nonsense, politely excuse myself, and avoid them for the rest of the event.

Which brings me to another thought. Do you think it’s strange that I write about my doubts on my blog? Should I be presenting myself as a confident and collected CIC director instead? That’s probably what many people would do.

Anyway, in the afternoon I moved on to reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. There I came across a reference to Viktor Frankl, suggesting that he survived the concentration camps because of the power of his mind. Yet in Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl himself points out that, as a doctor, he was treated differently from other prisoners and that this played a role in his survival.

Despite my reservations, I was trying to keep reading in case I was missing something. Then I came across this sentence: “Through conscience, we can come in contact with universal laws or principles, with our own singular talents and avenues of contribution, and with the personal guidelines within which we can most effectively develop them.”

It might as well have been written in Chinese.

So that’s two book disappointments in one day. It could easily put me off reading altogether.

But there’s something else I’ve been wondering. Both of these books have excellent reviews. So now I’m asking myself: does the fact that I don’t understand them mean that I’m not very bright?