Ep. 28: Holger Nils Pohl - "The Wrong Planet“

Stories Connecting Dots with Markus Andrezak

Hey, we haven’t heard in a while. I am happy to be back. In all kinds of ways. If you have questions where I was, ask. But let’s cut to the chase! This pod is all about Holger and his new book on autism. It is written from first hand experience with all empathy you can imagine. It's also a short entertaining read for the whole family. Especially for families not familiar or ever having been in touch with autism. So, before you do anything else, I urge you to visit Holger's Kickstarter Campaign for the book! Also, please spread the word!!!

If you want to know more, stay here and listen to the pod.

I have watched Holger's work since many years, but we never met. Finally, we met at a a conference in Cologne this spring and we spent a lot of time discussing. Holger is a person, I felt attached to right away but not only Holger as a person but also his work and thinking. I learned straight away that he did what I always promised, at least to myself, which is to write a book. Not only one, but the current count is - we are not quite sure, at ten. For my personal view, Holger’s latest book is his most important one. It is called „The Wrong Planet“. It tells the story of an alien on an unexpected journey to planet earth, having a crashed landing and having a couple of encounters to species unknown to him: ducks, a bear, a beaver an otter and a frog. Ofc, all of this is a metaphor for the experiences of people living with Asperger Autism. It is written from a person knowning the experience first hand. More in the episode. Lots more. The book is a very short and easily digestible book for the whole family, old and young, and also or even more interesting to anyone not living with Asperger autism. Beyond that it is ofc leading to thoughts of a more general and deeper understanding of diversity in general. The English version is a kickstarter project available from June 11 2024. All relevant info is available under holgernilspohl.com/autism. There will also be super interesting pledges excerpt just the book. Go there, get the info, be informed and potentially buy! If you want the German edition, you are lucky, you can directly buy it from Holger und his webpage holgernilspohl.com/ under books. Ofc we cover all the other work that Holger is doing and you also might already know him from his work in innovation and visualization or any of his collaborations with Alex Osterwalder, Sohrab Salimi and many more.

Also, the conversation goes a long way on getting started, staying in pace, productivety and getting done as well as the value of visualization - which is Holger's actual profession. Last not least, his latest non fiction book „Creating Clarity“ is awesome and you can just do it like me and direct order from Holger and get it shipped signed and super instantly. A really nice product experience. Go For it. But now: LetÄs listen to the man himself. Again: Check out Holger’s kickstarter project „The Wrong Planet“ from June 11 2024 on https:// holgernilspohl.com/autism

Or check out the already existing German version of the book on his web page under books. Thanks for listening, thanks to Holger for his time and see / hear all of you soon.

Chapters 4:10 - Intro to „The Wrong Planet“ 9:10 - Craft and Detail make a story work for young and old 16:30 - Backstory and Motivation for "The Wrong Planet" 20:15 - Why a fiction book? 24:20 - Kickstarter and more info 30:30 - Info on autism 32:20 - Getting a diagnosis 41:00 - All of Holger’s Books 48:10 - How Holger manages Productivity 1:06:20 - The concept Of Now 1:14:55 - Models as Fiction 1:16:00 - All of Holger’s other work 1:22:10 - On getting started