No Weird Idea goes to Waste

No Weird Idea goes to Waste

In the inaugural episode of Rules Were Harmed in the Making of This Podcast, Tee Barr and Kate Chapman explore what leadership looks like when your brain doesn’t follow the manual. Drawing from lived experience across tech, open source, and nonprofit leadership, they unpack how neurodivergent cognition. ADHD, autism-spectrum traits, queerness, and systems thinking, shapes foresight, pattern recognition, and decision-making. They talk about seeing failure modes early, doing invisible “glue work,” and the friction that comes from operating outside rigid roles and job descriptions. The conversation digs into masking, self-regulation, burnout, and why “professionalism” often just means neurotypical comfort. They also explore how AI, transcription, and tooling function as accessibility (not shortcuts) and how leaders can hack broken systems without becoming one. No frameworks are finalized. Several side quests are taken. Rules were harmed in the making of this episode.