Through the Eyes of a Hunter-Gatherer

This book is the story of the hunter-gatherer hypothesis woven into my own life story. Each chapter represents both a stage in my life and principles of the hunter-gatherer theory that are meant to explain why things went the way they went. There are people who walk through life in a straight line. For hunter-gatherer types that is often not possible, our trajectories are more like that of a kite in the wind. It's so much harder for us to follow a given life path, we have to carve...
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This book is the story of the hunter-gatherer hypothesis woven into my own life story. Each chapter represents both a stage in my life and principles of the hunter-gatherer theory that are meant to explain why things went the way they went. There are people who walk through life in a straight line. For hunter-gatherer types that is often not possible, our trajectories are more like that of a kite in the wind. It's so much harder for us to follow a given life path, we have to carve one out for ourselves. It shouldn't be surprising that Satre, who said life has no meaning but we are obliged to give meaning to it, was a forager type. We are more often than not the square pegs that don't easily fit into societal expectations and norms. We aren't rule breakers out of spite, but we do break them when we see no point in them or when we see them as harmful. There are probably few dissidents who were not forager types.

The hunter-gatherer hypothesis has made so many things in my life clearer. Many of us think we are the only ones who experience similar struggles. Hunter-gatherer types (HGs) often find an explanation about their "weird lives" when they are diagnosed with autism, ADHD or bipolar. I have read many stories of neurodiverse people, often they are initially happy to receive a diagnosis as they have finally found an answer to all their questions. Or so it seems, because an autism or ADHD diagnosis really does not explain that much. Many of us go through life undiagnosed. Gifted kids are often not diagnosed with ADHD or a learning difficulty because they are highly intelligent and few people could understand their struggles. Their teachers are often clueless, and unfortunately their parents too.

I had a friend in high school, who I admired for his intelligence, taste in music and openness to experience. When we had an exam in German he would come to school having drunk a bottle of beer. It made him more creative, he would claim. He was into drugs and dropped out of school. We seemed to be polar opposites, me being shy and generally well-behaved and yet there was some mysterious reason that made us get along like a house on fire. After dropping out of school, I lost sight of him for a time, when he reemerged he was working for an organisation helping homeless teens. Years later I heard him on the radio, he had become a journalist. Those were the late 80s and being intelligent, a dropout and an alcoholic seemed to be preconditions to becoming a journalist. I tell his story in my journalism class. My students would always be awestruck and ask what happened to him further. I tell them that I don't know, he may have ended up in jail, or he may have passed away, he may have just as well become a millionaire. Well, this is a joke, the truth is that he is a consultant now, like many other HGs I have met in my youth.