The Manual That Never Came

From the back cover

This is not a self-help book.

It is the technical manual that should have come with the brain you were given, written by someone who had to build their own.

For late-diagnosed autistic, ADHD, and AuDHD adults. For partners, parents, and clinicians who want to understand instead of fix. For anyone who has spent decades wondering what is wrong with them and is ready, finally, to find out what they are working with instead.

Built on the ODIM framework, the book walks you through documenting your own Personal Operating Document. Specifications, known issues, power requirements, compatible environments, troubleshooting procedures, maintenance schedules. Twelve guided coaching sessions are included.

You were never broken. You were just undocumented.

What the book is

• Nineteen chapters across three parts: Unit Description and Specifications, Operating the Unit, Maintenance and Calibration.
• Three appendices: Glossary, Field Modifications, What to Tell Others.
• Twelve guided coaching sessions woven through the chapters that walk the reader through building their own Personal Operating Document.
• 347 pages.

On the methodology

The book is the readable shape of The Manual Method, Sam's coaching practice. The framework underneath both is called ODIM, an acronym for Orientation, Documentation, Integration, Maintenance. The artifact a reader builds while working through the book is called the Personal Operating Document, or POD. These three names recur across the work and the coaching practice; on this site, they are used consistently.

If you want to do this work alongside someone who has done it for himself, see Coaching.

What comes next

Book Two of The Manual Series is Man. You. Well., the personal companion. The first book is the architecture. The second one stays with the person inside it. Further volumes in The Manual Series are in progress.