“It was my dyslexia that made me who I am today.” — Guy Cornet, Creative DIrector Free Partners Creative director Guy Cornet recently reflected on his dyslexia in a recent post on Creative Bloq. It made me listen It made me relate It made me hungry It made me fair It made me think It made me understand people It made me passionate It made me have doctors handwriting It made me a creative From the interview: “A lot of neurodivergent individuals have found solace in the creative space. This is a place that has been built for people who think differently. And the industry needs fresh outlooks to stay ahead of the curve…
Being dyslexic, I found it extremely stressful working […]Fostering Creativity: The Early Life of Chuck Close [Premium]
The Expansive Life of IBM’s Thomas Watson, Jr [Premium]
“Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure.” — Thomas Watson, Jr. Recently, I had the chance to interview Tom Watson Jr’s grandson, Ralph Watson McElvenny and his co-author Marc Wortman. Tom Watson Jr. was one of those people who seemed to live larger than life. He struggled mightily as a child – and was sort of a black sheep of a talented family for years, but he found his niche – and later expanded that into multiple niches, There’s a lot to be gained from learning more about his life. From the book’s press release: “Nearly fifty years into IBM’s existence, Thomas Watson Jr. undertook the biggest gamble in business […]
Nick Koshnick: StoriedWork.com An AI Co-Pilot for Non-Linear Thinkers
Nick Koshnick is a Stanford PhD and seasoned entrepreneur who raised money from companies like Google and Andreessen, and then sold the company.. He’s also dyslexic. Now, he’s co-founded StoriedWork.com with business partner Frank Corrigan. Storied has been nicknamed an “AI Co-Pilot for Non-Linear Thinkers.” Pretty quickly, Nick realized the potential of the app to empower fellow dyslexics.
NON-LINEAR THINKER? NO PROBLEM! For many dyslexic writers, one of the greatest challenges using speech to text is getting the explosion of ideas in your head into a straightforward linear text . The Storied app helps with that – you’re allowed to ramble – and in fact the app expects you to ramble. Talk about your ideas and let the app do its thing. It […]Learning Through Real Things: David Kelley’s Tech Box [Premium]
“Striving for perfection can get in the way during the early stages of the creative process.” — David Kelley David Kelley is recognized as one of the world’s leading design innovators. He is also dyslexic and dysgraphic. In addition to founding Stanford University Design School, David co-founded IDEO, a design company that, among other things, designed the prototype for the computer mouse that we know today. In The Art of Innovation, David’s brother Tom wrote about how David loved to make things as a little kid, and as early as he could remember, he believed in the process of starting somewhere and continually improving something until it really works. When Tom was only six, he remembers David improving how he built snowmen until […]
Sony Santa Monica Game Designer Stephen Oyarijvbie
“Don’t get frustrated with yourself. There are things that you’re going to struggle with. Lean into the things that you do well, those strengths…and don’t dwell on how people treat you. You’re smart and probably smarter than a lot of other people. The world isn’t set up for us, so we have to navigate it slightly differently, and it gives us an advantage.” — Stephen Oyarijvbie When Stephen was 4 years old, he fell in love with video games and wanted to create them. Flash forward to today and Stephen’s living his dream as a combat designer for Sony Santa Monica. But things weren’t always easy in-between. Take a listen to my full interview with Stephen. It was a wide-ranging conversation that talked about […]
A Whodunit Mystery by Anthropologist Roxanne Varzi
UC Irvine Professor Roxanne Varzi is a creative anthropologist, filmmaker, and mystery author. She shared her dyslexia journey in a previous interview HERE. In my interview below, I learned that Roxanne was drawn to the field of cultural anthropology by its multidisciplinary nature. In order to explore ideas and different perspectives, Roxanne uses ethnographic texts, film, fiction, and plays. In this way she is able to break out of the research paper academic tradition and engage with a wider segment of society. In her mystery book, the main protagonist is a whipsmart anthropology graduate student who is also dyslexic with ADHD. She pieces together a murder mystery in the Rockies in a story that also includes the brilliant dyslexic paleontologist Jack Horner! Clicking on the […]
Tommy Smothers of the Smothers Brothers
Brilliant comedian Tommy Smothers of Smothers Brothers fame passed away at the age of 86. Condolences to his family and loved ones. “My comedy came out of my dyslexia…I search for words. I don’t stutter but there’s a timing that I discovered that was comedic timing, which is the process of getting to the next sentence or the next idea or the next concept. It’s kind of disjointed and not very articulate but it was a character that could say things.” — Tommy Smothers Tommy and his brother on the Judy Garland show. Tommy’s comedy sketch about being “inarticulate.” Bookmark Please login to bookmark ClosePlease login to access.
Dyslexic Toymakers and Gamemakers : Howard Wexler
Many dyslexic kids and adults are great at games – all sorts of games. Not surprisingly, some decide to make games themselves and then some choose careers in some aspect of the game industry. There may be an ability to see game play from multiple perspectives including different points of view, while those who win these games are often good at strategy, role play, and pattern recognition. Among game creators, strengths in humor, and divergent and playful thinking are very well-suited to inventing new games. Some years ago, legendary toy inventor Howard Wexler gave our community a webinar about his life inventing toys. As a kid, he played with Tinkertoys and enjoyed taking things apart. His toys and games were very different from each […]
Dyslexic Storytellers [Premium]
Although many of the physical and mechanical aspects of writing are difficult, many of the greatest writers of all time are dyslexic. Why does storytelling come naturally to so many? Dyslexic people have powerful emotional, personal, multisensory memories. As a result, it’s easy to recall the sights, sounds, smells, and feelings of the past and once the hurdles of getting information down on a page are overcome, stories can come to life for others. Not everyone has these gifts – in fact, a lot of people don’t. A common dyslexic strength is “episodic simulation”. The word “episodic” refers to what scientists refer to as episodic memory, memories for episodes or experiences that have a specific place and time. Our surveys of dyslexic and […]
The Beautiful World of Jarrett Camp
“I use my dyslexia as a form of artwork. When I create a composition of a piece, usually there’s another piece upside-down.” — Jarrett Camp Jarrett Camp is an award-winning fine artist based in Los Angeles. He is a stipple artist who creates large works that may take months to complete. He has been chosen to be a contributing artist to the NBA’s In the Paint program and he is represented by the Band of Vices art gallery. Jarrett’s work, Comatose (below) is work where he tried to present “right” and “left” brain related differences. Jarrett: ” This piece, actually upside down is another piece which tells the same story….how sleep works from the left brain and the right brain. The left brain […]
Getting into Film and TV with Isla Mcdade-Brown
“I think that dyslexia is hard. And I think that it’s OK to admit that it’s hard…and also admit that sometimes it does really suck…but I think that when you find your niche, and that can only really come from taking random opportunities…it really helps you find your thing.” — Isla McDade-Brown, Filmmaker It’s hard not to be enthusiastic about Isla McDade-Brown, because of all her her resilience and pluckiness filming Brock at Cambridge University when he traveled to Britain. Isla had first contacted us about her film dissertation on dyslexia and although there were some challenges organizing logistics along the way, she traveled down from York (with her film partner Ella Clements) to film him. One of the unexpected challenges they had […]
