What makes a good career coach? Pattern recognition

Most frequently unspoken thought while talking to a therapist: Just fucking tell me what to do! A good therapist is a sounding board but a good career coach tells you your best career path. The best career coaches know the right answers because they see patterns, and autistic people are the best at seeing patterns. That’s […]

Autism is a label that means “I’m Interesting”

I spend half my life trying to not offend people. My safe space is the comments section here on my blog where the only social rule is: be interesting. I’m especially grateful to people who disagree with me; it’s out of control for me to chase someone around arguing with them in person, but in […]

I have a love/hate relationship with INFJs

I hate them because they are so judgy. As an ENTJ I am too uncaring to spend time passing judgment on INFJs. But there’s a hierarchy of influences on our personality and autism trumps personality type, so as an autistic ENTJ I spend a lot of time expressing my knowledge about INFJs being judgy, and […]

How to feel anchored

We have mice. We have had mice for a really long time and I tell myself things like every apartment in every big city has mice, but I’m not really sure if that’s true. And also I think maybe I’m too old to live with mice. I mean, I’m definitely too old to be writing […]

Online business from hell: child trafficking in video games.

This is how trafficking happens online. Often the system is so efficient that it never has to change to in-person. Trigger warning.

Why personality type doesn’t actually matter

In my courses about personality type, INFJs ask the most questions. ENTJs ask the fewest questions. The only type less fun than an INTJ is an ISTJ. So if an INTJ wants to look fun they need to marry an ISTJ. ENFJs were the nicest about me being late to every webinar and they were […]

Science says: Passionate people are not happy

Z has to practice his cello. But he just wants to talk about how he can’t practice. I’m like, “Just fucking practice, just pick up the cello and practice. You can’t do anything until you practice.” I’ve been writing about my life with my kids for twenty years, but how can I keep doing it when he […]

What if girls aren’t oppressed?

The Bureau of Labor says that by 2026 we will be short 1.2 million engineers. Right now, the majority of developers are men. So presumably it’s a crisis that women are not in STEM. Microsoft is thinking that filling the funnel with girls is the way forward. Microsoft decides the Wonder Woman movie has a female […]

I’m giddy about the great resignation

My son Z started getting crazy from the pandemic around the fall of 2021. He’d made very few friends in Boston before Covid, and the friends he did make from music lessons stopped coming to Boston from the suburbs. And he couldn’t really meet new kids, because Covid.

The history of Tango: How to reclaim a story for yourself

I call Melissa to tell her my newest discovery. I gear up to lecture her about Tango and the Jews. “Do you know about them?” I ask. “I won’t be fun if you already know.” She says, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

© 2023 Penelope Trunk