The Paris Hilton Rule: How a Neurodiverse Team Came Together to Write a Book

It was never my intent to quote Paris Hilton. In writing Neurodiversity for Dummies with Khushboo Chabria and Ranga Jayaraman (now available for preorder), I poured through lots of scholarly articles and scientific research. But beyond the solid science and sound advice, my co-authors and I realized we owed our readers something more: to make sure our book wasn't boring.

Making sure that Neurodiversity for Dummies isn't boring, but an informative and fun read is what I like to call the Paris Hilton Rule (keeping reading as for why).

No one likes to read a boring book. One of the ways we ensured that Neurodiversity for Dummies isn't boring is by stretching the text beyond the voices of its co-authors and filling it with quotes and stories from neurodivergent people around the world. This not only makes our chapters more lively, but they better inform the reader by including a wide variety of neurodivergent experiences.

That includes unexpected voices like Paris Hilton, who has written some beautiful things about her experiences as an ADHD woman. And her tongue-in-cheek advice that "the only rule is don't be boring and dress cute wherever you go," because "life is too short to blend in" just so happened to perfectly match a serious point my co-authors and I make regarding the decision as to whether or not to mask one's neurodivergent traits.

However, what really makes our book stand out isn't just Paris Hilton or any of the other the quotes we've included. It's also the mix of skills, creativity, and sometimes different viewpoints, that our neurodiverse team of authors brought to the writing process.

You see, collaboration (and even conflict) is an inherent part of humans effectively working together - whether that is in our workplaces, in writing a book, or in our immediate families. No two of us are alike, and valuing different perspectives, understanding divergent experiences, and navigating disagreements in opinion is a key to finding success.

This Monday, February 19, we are celebrating one month until the publication of Neurodiversity for Dummies by holding a LinkedIn Live author talk to discuss how three very different people learned to collaborate, work together, and write a book. We hope you can join us!

This chat isn't about saying that we have all the answers (we don't). But, it will be an honest and casual discussion about what we've discovered along the way and how we can use those lessons to help people with different ways of thinking work together more effectively. We'll share insights, and tips, and also the unexpected challenges and obstacles we faced.

We hope you can join us on Monday, February 19 at 6:00pm Eastern (3:00pm Pacific). Sign up here to join our chat and be reminded. We promise that it will be fun...and a bit different. After all, we firmly believe in Paris Hilton's rule to "not be boring". After all, "life is too short to blend in."

John Marble is the founder of Pivot Neurodiversity and is a training partner and classroom instructor with?Neurodiversity Pathways. Along with Ranga Jayaraman and Khushboo Chabria, he is the co-author of Neurodiversity for Dummies (Wiley), which will be published on March 19, 2024 but is available for pre-order now. He is autistic.