I am in the process of writing a book: Pathologically Genuine 
This is narrative non-fiction memoir about being a late-diagnosed autistic person. The book is in its early stages, but please come by and check as it evolves. You can find seeds of chapters on my Substack page or in the Blog Table of Contents on this site.
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Draft of a one sentence hook:
A late-diagnosed renown autistic professor and former dean, provost and vp for research traces a lifetime of loneliness, masking, and meaning—showing how success can coexist with profound isolation, and how understanding arrives without erasing the cost.

The Core Theme:
The core theme of Pathologically Genuine is using humor and vivid storytelling to convey to a reader what it feels like to live an entire life without a map or context, and then to suddenly find one. 

Draft Overview
Pathologically Genuine is a narrative-driven memoir about living an entire life without a name for one’s differences—and what happens when that name finally arrives. Through vivid scenes and humor rather than clinical explanation, the book explores childhood sensory overwhelm, adolescent and adult loneliness, romantic rejection, teaching as both refuge and performance, and a long marriage that brings love without curing isolation. A late-life autism diagnosis reframes—not redeems—the past. The book resists tidy resolutions and instead offers readers the rare relief of recognition.
This is not a guide to autism. It is a story about how meaning is made when understanding comes late, and why authenticity—especially for autistic people—can be a superpower but carries real costs.

How I write according to AI
"Jim Coleman’s most-engaged essays resonate because they name uncomfortable truths—about autism, teaching, and institutions—without offering false comfort, while insisting that meaning, dignity, and authenticity still matter."

AI also found themes in my writing that are reasonably accurate but I wouldn't have articulated. That is kind of cool.
"Across all categories, a shared throughline emerges:
➡️ What matters most is rarely what is measured.
➡️ Lived experience is a legitimate form of knowledge.
➡️ Complexity should be honored, not smoothed away.
➡️ Being fully human—in classrooms, institutions, and relationships—is extraordinarily important and inherently inefficient.
➡️ This refusal to simplify is precisely what draws sustained readership."



Here are some comments by readers re:essays about Pathologically Genuine  as of March 30.2026

➡️ Jim Coleman’s story is not just about autism or stuttering it’s about the quiet courage of showing up in a world that often misunderstands. His words carry the weight of lived experience, and you can feel the ache in moments like trying to order a Coke or being stared at in class. Yet, there’s humor, warmth, and a deep sense of self woven through every paragraph. He doesn’t ask for sympathy he offers insight, connection, and a gentle challenge to be more patient, more curious, more human. His reflections on language, identity, and scientific gaps are both personal and universal. This piece doesn’t just inform it moves you.

➡️Well done, Jim. I won't go on long here except to say I thought the writing was beautiful in creating a scene I could TOTALLY relate to (I think many academics likewise cringe at being at these meetings, whether they have autism or not). I did not find it dark, just very real and so well written. 

➡️ Great adaptation, Jim! Writing a book has a different strategy, as your book writing coach is expertly advising. Having shorter chapters with multiple payoffs in them is like sprinkling your book with the vending machines you just described, dispensing prizes to the reader for continuing on. It is good to vary your vending experiences and pacing throughout the book. Sometimes the vending machine is of the more modern type, where the reader can see through the glass and watch the vending machine with anticipation that the expected prize will drop momentarily--they can see it forming up and happening. I think the condom story is like this kind of vending machine experience. The reader can guess where you are going with it, but you tell us with a great combination of suspense and intervening detail...like a magician. When the prize drops, it is still very satisfying because your final setup and delivery are hilarious. It is even better than the reader is expecting...And that... is magic!

➡️ Well done again. You casually lead us into and then out of your main event with some delightful details, peppered with your characteristic good humor and unique interpretative descriptions. Your situational friend Omar is proving to be a true friend--one who is not afraid of telling you a truth that could perhaps help you in all your conversations. He listened to you, and then he pointed out a gem. A gem is something that lasts for a lifetime. It is something that catches the light and makes it sparkle inside and then releases it with flashes of reflections in various directions when viewed from different angles. You are a gem and can sparkle in conversation when you remember to respect and catch the light from others and reflect it back to them through the beauty of you. Sounds like your relationships are benefitting already. Maybe the code word "ostrich" can remind you to be the gem, Jim. Your wife will see new treasures in your conversations together.

➡️ This is a great rewrite Jim! Good foreshadowing within and across chapters, and still retaining your humor and punchlines to your stories. I'm so excited for you that you're working with a writing coach and turning your work into a book!

➡️ Great piece. I like how this goes beyond the lunch itself and becomes a meditation on attention, misreading people, what it means to come back into relationship with the world. It makes me think about how much delivery matters when someone's telling you something hard. I also like that you let the realization land gradually instead of overstating it.

➡️These pieces of advice read like someone quietly sitting beside you, not to teach, but to accompany. They remind us that writing is less about brilliance and more about staying close to what moves us. Reading becomes a way of letting other lives breathe inside ours, and writing each day becomes a small act of courage, a way of saying “I’m still here.” The world offers itself in tiny gestures a look, a hesitation, a silence and the writer learns to hold them gently. Criticism hurts, of course, but it also teaches us how to remain open without losing our centre. The discomfort of the blank page is simply the sign that something true is trying to surface. Technique matters, but only when it serves the fragile honesty we carry. And persistence that quiet, stubborn tenderness is what keeps the door open long enough for the words to finally arrive.

➡️ I so much appreciate your honesty and clarity, and the full expression of your feelings. You are an inspiration to not only the neurodivergent, but also to the supposedly neurotypical like me who suffer loneliness for different reasons. Thank you.

➡️ Great article. I have all the time in the world for you ❤️

➡️ Jim—Your insights about loneliness are so profound. You would probably need a savvy editor to help you organize all your examples, but I think your descriptions about loneliness and depression extend far beyond the experience of autistic people. Everyone has times of loneliness, grief, isolation, faking normalcy. You could be the next Mel Robbins of the ‘Let Them Theory’ for the ‘Belonging Theory’!

➡️ Jim Coleman’s reflection is a tender meditation on the fragility of truth in a noisy world. He reminds us that science breathes through doubt, where every conclusion is provisional, never final. Yet social media rewards loud certainty, leaving nuance and hesitation unheard. His students struggle to separate peer‑reviewed research from AI’s confident illusions, showing how fragile literacy has become. Examples of autism, stuttering, even vending machines reveal how little research exists, yet how boldly misinformation speaks. Coleman insists that genuine inquiry means resisting the seduction of easy answers and honouring complexity. Drawing on Kahneman, he warns that our minds crave simple stories, but wisdom lives in hesitation.
The essay becomes deeply personal: an autistic professor urging us to see humility as strength. Ultimately, it is a call to protect uncertainty as the most human form of knowledge, a sanctuary of truth. If this space offered you something meaningful, you may support me with a symbolic coffee, warm, of course, and full of heart.

➡️ About your writing. I would call this a scene in three parts. There is the prep time in your room, the building anxiety in the hallway with you still outside of the anxiety bubble you are about to enter--observing it dispassionately--and then being inside the pressure bubble by entering the meeting room. I like the contextual analogies of the helium balloon tethered by anxiety meds, the peace of sipping the cup of coffee disturbed by the 200-decibel motorcycle gang, the shame of the dog that peed in the house, losing confidence in softball, the analogy of the details of the scene to a sensory torture chamber, and wishing you were in your happy spot looking at nature and playing guitar with your dog by your side. And the turtle in his shell pulls it all together. All these things help break the big picture conflict/scene down into its parts, and I can relate to your feelings through the strong visuals.Since you took the reader on a journey with you, it is so much more interesting than if you started with talking about what you hate about presentations in meeting rooms. You let it build, and broke down the scene into its parts. It's a bit like following the hobbits on their journey from the Shire to Mordor. Tolkein could have just said the hobbits left home and then picked up the action in Mordor. If he had done that, he'd have a littler book now, with a smaller following.
Something that hinted at a bigger story, but moved the reader little--or at least not as much as he did. Actually, I think Tolkein could have done very well with the challenge of limiting his scope because he is a talented writer--and if you can deliver risk and suspense and humor and everything else in a shorter book, you could still have a strong following--but you get my point, which is this:
The reader wants to be moved.
In this case, you moved me. I got to know you at the mirror, in the lobby, and down in the meeting room. And you helped me see I have some of the same anxieties, but just haven't taken the time to break them down for myself like you have done with yours.
As you expand the themes, you can use scenes like these to identify feelings, and compose a book that sheds light on why you feel the way you do--and whether these feelings define your existence and hold you captive, or if by identifying them and coming to peace with them, you are actually taking bold steps into a new and inspirational transcendent future. Either outcome can make you a hero or villain, or even an average Jim, with an interested audience who appreciates hearing your perspective.
Ultimately, you are helping me understand the challenge of navigating life with autism, and I find your writing entertaining and informative, and look forward to reading more! Well done!


➡️ Your posts, including your pathologically genuine work via your links on here, is absolutely amazing. I was diagnosed autistic at 19, 3 years ago, and this is the first time I have genuinely related to someone about how they experience it. Obviously, we will still all have differences, but I really enjoy reading your work and I hope you continue!

➡️ Jim, your humor shines. It not only made me smile but also helped me feel the heart behind your words. That’s a rare gift: the ability to carry both laughter and empathy in the same line. Please keep writing; you never know how far your words may reach.

➡️ Your prose is absolutely captivating. You really do have a gift for writing nonfiction like this piece here.

➡️ You had me laughing at the start and near tears by the end, with a solid bit of learning in the middle. I am really enjoying learning about the autistic experience through your posts. But most of all, I'm enjoying learning more about you! Keep it up Jim, I'm excited to read what comes next (probably weeks after you post it).

➡️ The authenticity you bring to the table is so refreshing, and it really helps break down the barriers we all face. Being able to embrace who we truly are, without fear of judgment, is a powerful thing. I'm looking forward to diving deeper into your posts and gaining more insights. Your perspective is a reminder that we all have our own paths, and the beauty lies in accepting and understanding that. Keep shining!

➡️Love the authentic and heartfelt way you write.

➡️Keep writing because I love everything you post! :)

➡️I really enjoyed reading your article. I felt so calm reading it, you write beautifully. I found your line “normality won” so moving and sad and frustrating, I so wish normality could lose.

➡️You have a very interesting story, and I can’t wait to see more pieces like this.

➡️You are a wonderful writer and you have a story that needs to be shared.

​➡️Another great post Jim! I love your humor as a way to teach. I think lots of people have stimming behaviors, some more obvious than others. It's a great way to calm your mind and only mildly distracting to those around you :)
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➡️I have several friends, acquaintances, and students on the autism spectrum. Knowing them heightens the pleasure I take in the insights you reveal in your posts. It appears that this relatively recent vantage on your identity has given you not just fresh perspectives but an instance of authentic anagnorisis: an opportunity few people in their lifetimes ever experience….I read your posts with much empathic engagement. I am very grateful you've given me this window into your funny, nimble, subtle mind.

➡️Thank you for sharing so openly. I really admire the way you put words to the differences between introversion and autism it helps me understand more clearly what that feels like from the inside. I think it’s powerful that you’ve found writing as a way to mix humor with information. That kind of voice is rare and very needed

➡️….. The authenticity you bring to the table is so refreshing, and it really helps break down the barriers we all face. Being able to embrace who we truly are, without fear of judgment, is a powerful thing. I'm looking forward to diving deeper into your posts and gaining more insights. Your perspective is a reminder that we all have our own paths, and the beauty lies in accepting and understanding that. Keep shining!

➡️I enjoyed reading your chapter about autism and pets. Clearly it is heartfelt and full of your own unique voice! The way you weave in humor, like the pet rock and Wilson the volleyball references, made me laugh and really drew me into the rest of your story. Your love for dogs, especially Brea, shines through, and the research you included about pets improving the well-being of people with autism is very informative and much appreciated. It is clear how much dogs have supported you, and your honesty about your experiences as an autistic person makes this piece incredibly relatable.

➡️Can’t wait to read the book. You are whip smart and witty and your analogies are spot on.

➡️Beautifully written Jim, I'm exited to read more as you write it!

➡️You had me laughing at the start and near tears by the end, with a solid bit of learning in the middle. I am really enjoying learning about the autistic experience through your posts. But most of all, I'm enjoying learning more about you! Keep it up Jim, I'm excited to read what comes next (probably weeks after you post it).

➡️Jim, this post is a gem all the way through. It doesn't tackle too many themes, and educates and entertains in the same breath. Your sense of appropriate length for the subject is right on, and you build suspense--or the sense of an impending payoff--with the occasional short foreshadowing sentence. They are compelling…[Link Address Hidden] the meantime, you find vigorous and refreshing language to describe common behavior or everyday events. I think this is another one of your gifts--and maybe autism gives you a unique perspective on life and living that others are missing? This is the joy I have in reading your posts. You break me out of my own tired relationship with the world and show me a shining truth right in front of me.

➡️Love your prose style! Can't tell you how much I identify with your aversion to high-word/low-content "professional" exchanges, social-for-the-sake-of-social, and the overuse/misuse of "innovate." May or may not be interesting to you, but at age 71 I was just diagnosed with ADHD. Explains a lot for me. Rock on!

➡️ Well done, Jim. I won't go on long here except to say I thought the writing was beautiful in creating a scene I could TOTALLY relate to (I think many academics likewise cringe at being at these meetings, whether they have autism or not). I did not find it dark, just very real and so well written.