How did Clever People—The Platform for the Highly Gifted and Neurodiverse—come about? In the course of my work with highly gifted and neurodiverse people in my private practice for giftedness, the idea for Clever People—The Community for the Highly Gifted and Neurodiverse—was born several years ago.
Again and again I was asked by my highly gifted clients:
Where can I, as a “late-identified gifted person,” meet other gifted adults for conversations on equal footing? Where can I find other quick-thinking people who will finally understand me as I am?
Or: Personal communication is difficult for me as a highly gifted Asperger’s/autistic person and overwhelms me. How can I meet my need for contact and exchange without being immediately overwhelmed with stimuli?
Where can I find other parents with gifted children with whom I can exchange ideas on dealing with giftedness without being labeled as a helicopter parent? Where can I find peer playmates and friends for my gifted child?
The mainstream media reports are increasingly one-sided and allow less and less critical contributions, even if they are well-founded and justified. Where can I inform myself accordingly and critically question mainstream opinions without being attacked or even just “humored” for it?
Well, I considered these questions deeply until I finally decided to start the project “Clever People—The Platform for the Highly Gifted and Neurodiverse”—parallel to my work in my private practice and in addition to my busy private life.
I founded Clever People—The Platform for the Highly Gifted and Neurodiverse in 2018 from private funds and run the company independently. Due to the access requirements, the number of members continues to grow slowly but steadily and already includes a triple-digit number of members—without fake or multiple profiles!
A big challenge was to find suitable corporate partners who understood what I was up to—I paid some dues, but now I have reliable and capable people on my side who understand what Clever People—The Community for the Highly Gifted and Neurodiverse is all about.
There are a lot of social networks where you can sign up anonymously or multiple times with different identities and where you never really know if the person with whom you’re communicating actually exists and if so, if that person is actually gifted. Also, there are many social networks where you can sign up for free, but you have to recognize that nowhere is there really anything for free. Realistically, you have to be aware that in return for using services for free, your sensitive data will be sold, exploited or even “accidentally” put on the Internet, that you will be bombarded with unwanted advertising or that you’ll find fake or multiple profiles there.
Therefore, I have created clear access requirements and a transparent membership fee for Clever People—The Community for the Highly Gifted and Neurodiverse. I personally put a lot of effort into making sure that only 100% genuine, highly gifted and neurodiverse people are part of the community, that your privacy remains secure and that your sensitive data is not tapped for advertising purposes or even resold to finance the company, as is the case with many other portals. You will also not be bombarded with unwanted advertising. And, if you’re not yet sure whether you are highly gifted, you can first obtain a full “guest profile” for a maximum of one year. During this year, you might rid yourself of unnecessary test anxiety and dare a giftedness assessment with me at discounted conditions. 🙂