Long story short, it’s not perfect, but hear me out, this may prove to be a great read for the right kind of person. Throughout, there is no critical discussion of science concepts, just quick adoption and overapplication to unrelated social domains. This is an intriguing book, written from the perspective of someone who has had to self-consciously learn much of what most of us take for granted. While the scientific analogies prove personally useful to Pang and could be generative for a group discussion on alternative ways of considering social life, Pang’s overloaded analogies and prescriptions serve poorly as generalized guides to humans—even for other people with neurodivergent profiles.

She landed an agent quickly, and a book deal with Penguin, with Explaining Humans released at the start of the first lockdown. In eleven brief but science-laden chapters, Pang presents convincing evidence that much of our world can be understood from the perspective of tiny molecules, particle waves, and the laws of thermodynamics. To disrupt our warped perception of social norms, Millie introduces us to the protein model of teamwork where unlike people, proteins recognise and respect the need for difference and in turn, we should also learn to embrace and harness our true personality rather than denying or masking it. Passionate about understanding humans and the way we work, and how science and art parallels this, I aim to bridge the gap between the everyday and the inaccessible. Since my parents felt they were superior to our neighbors, such an explanation was in line with my family’s attitude.Also some of the handwritten diagram annotations were not easy to read, so overall the diagram/doodles didn't add much to the book. She decided she wanted to publish her writing “during a panic attack on the commute”, and did a “sprint Google” to find out how to go about it.

The protein model is an invaluable life lesson — teaching us that individuality is fundamental to effective teamwork and all we need to do is trust more in our personality and perspective to short-circuit many of the inhibitions that hold us back. If you want to read some lightly entertaining neurodivergent anecdotes tenuously linked to unproven self-help advice via irrelevant pop-science chatter and metaphors tortured to the point of breaking and well beyond: this is the book for you. An easy-to-read part-memoir, part-explanation of why humans are the way they are and what we can learn from it - Refinery29 You may also be interested in.This book does nothing to dispel my suspicion of authors who broadcast the fact they have a PhD on the cover. There are far more informative and relatable books out there that support ASD folk in dealing with the world, and/or that help neurotypical folk understand a little more about neurodiversity. I think Camilla is clearly very intelligent but when it comes to writing I'm not sure this is the field to be in. We get information from all of our different senses, but what if they’re all really loud, and everything’s really intense, and you’ve got no filter, so you’re stuck in this kind of soup of limbo, when you’re trying to interpret these different signals that are really quite quiet?