Empathy Unlimited: Ending Neurodivergent Unemployment with CTO Mark Fister

Chaya and Mike sit down with Mark Fister, CTO of Haystack Unlimited and proud ADHDer. Mark sheds light on the challenges that neurodivergent individuals face during the interview process and day-to-day job duties, what kind of necessary accommodations foster success, and how his company is building a supportive future for neurodiverse workers.

We Also Cover:

• The Double Empathy Problem
• The Myth of Social Incompatibility
• Innovation Within Neurodivergent Communities
• Psychological Safety in the Workplace
• Blind Recruiting and Unconscious Bias
• The Role of AI in Neurodiverse Accommodations
• Haystack Unlimited's Video Game for Job Recruitment

Quotes:

• "The fundamental problem is called unconscious human bias, which has served humans very well from an evolutionary perspective, but does not serve us well in 2024, nor will it serve us well onwards."
• "80% of autistic people are unemployed or underemployed."
• "They have strong deductive reasoning and sustained concentration. But over there in the job, they can't seem to do anything. They can't seem to cut butter with a with a butter knife. Why is that? There's more to this than meets the eye."
• "Connect those words, nonjudgmental and love. Maybe that's my favorite two words connected together."

About Mark Fister:

Mark Fister is a father and husband, executive, snowboarder, technologist, trail runner, speaker, canyoneer, author, investor, and terrible chess player. Mark loves to see business and technology from as many perspectives as possible. To wit, he has held 20 different roles in the software industry at companies like Dell, IBM, eBay, PayPal, and even his own company.

Recently, Mark has been learning about servant leadership. After interviewing over 100 people on the topic, he discovered he was on the autism spectrum, which brought clarity to his life. After some soul searching, he is now dedicated to ending joblessness for neurodivergents everywhere through previous work at Auticon and BeMe and now his own company, Haystack Unlimited.

Connect with Mark:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/markfister/

https://haystackhub.com/

https://servantleadershipconsulting.net/

https://www.theoctopusmovement.org/

Related Reading:

• Autistic peer-to-peer information transfer is highly effective - A Game of Autistic Telephone

As always, thanks for lending us your ears and keep igniting that spark!

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