Sixty-eight essays, and the notes in between, on a brain that runs hot.
Everything I have published, sorted into four reading paths and eleven threads. Start with the theory if you want the mechanism, the stories if you want the feeling, the system if you want to build one.
68
essays
181
notes
8.3 h
to read it all
One file. Paste it into any AI for full context on how I think.
Fig. 1 · The corpus at a glance
four paths · eleven threads · by month
Path I
How this brain works
The theory of working memory fragility and what it does to a life.
Working Memory Fragility
8
WMF Behavioral Applications
11
Two Modes Series
1
Cognitive Bodyguard
1
Path II
What it is like from inside
Twice-exceptionality, developmental potential, and the parts I did not used to say out loud.
Twice-Exceptionality
7
Dabrowski / Developmental Potential
2
Personal Vulnerability
9
Path III
Building the scaffolding
The Life Model, the AI that reads it, and what happens to relationships when a machine knows you well.
Life Model in Practice
10
AI and Human Development
14
Path IV
Field notes
Community, one-offs, and the short form.
Community Building
1
Other
4
Cadence · essays and notes per month
essays
notes
Start here three doors in
paper
The theory
Working Memory Fragility
The mechanism behind everything else here: working memory as a rate problem, not a storage one.
The gateway
The Browser Tab Brain (Revised)
The short, friendly one. If you have ever had 300 tabs open, start here.
The story
I Was Never Shy
Where a brain map reorganized a lifelong verdict. The essay most people send to someone.
The gateway
The Browser Tab Brain (Revised)
The short, friendly one. If you have ever had 300 tabs open, start here.
The story
I Was Never Shy
Where a brain map reorganized a lifelong verdict. The essay most people send to someone.
Path I How this brain works · 21 essays · 3.0 h
Not a storage deficit but a rate mismatch, and everything that follows from it.
Thread · Working Memory Fragility
I Was Never Shy
A neurodivergent person explores how what appeared to be shyness was actually a measurable neurological difference in the brain's ability to generate social approach behavior, and traces…
2026
Working Memory Fragility
Not a storage deficit but a rate mismatch: the readable field guide to the architecture underneath ADHD, autism, giftedness, and the calm I had to build. Cross-linked to the full canonical…
The Browser Tab Brain (Revised)
A neurodivergent person with AuDHD reframes the "chaos" of 300 open browser tabs, scattered notes, and fragmented digital artifacts not as disorganization but as essential external…
Harnessing the Surge
A neurodivergent person with a genetic variant affecting neurotransmitter metabolism argues that the constant physiological activation they experience—traditionally viewed as a nervous…
What My Brain Scan Taught Me About Enlightenment
A neurodivergent person explores how brain imaging and meditation research challenged their lifelong understanding of enlightenment, revealing that transcendence isn't about rewiring…
The Mind That Wouldn't Stay Still
A neurodivergent person explores how reframing his scattered mind not as a character flaw but as high-bandwidth cognition running on incompatible systems led him to build better external…
My Brain on Ayahuasca
A neurodivergent person explores their decision to use Ayahuasca as a tool for deep self-discovery, framing it not as escapism but as a systematic approach to uncovering hidden patterns…
High on THC: A Neurodivergent Perspective
A neurodivergent person describes how cannabis intensifies their already complex sensory and emotional experience, offering both profound self-discovery and challenging vulnerability while… Preview · full piece on Substack
Thread · WMF Behavioral Applications
80% of My Cognitive Life Is Spent Translating for Brains That Aren’t Mine
A neurodivergent person explores how the cognitive tax of constantly translating their experience into neurotypical language creates a paradoxical trap: the very working memory limitations…
The 7-Hour Week (And Why I’m Not Cheating)
A neurodivergent product manager challenges conventional productivity wisdom by arguing that nervous system regulation and rest are not prerequisites for work but constitute the work…
The Dissertation at the Pep Rally
The author and his wife, both neurodivergent "constellation minds," independently experience the same frustrating pattern on Facebook: they offer nuanced, well-researched context only to…
Ulysses Lied to You
The author argues that the Ulysses Contract, the celebrated self-control framework of binding your future self to predetermined choices, fundamentally misunderstands how neurodivergent…
Why I Left Facebook (And Why I’m Back With a Link)
An author examines the dramatic decline in his Facebook activity over a decade, discovering through data analysis that a single traumatic life event—his divorce in 2010—fundamentally…
Why Rucking Taught Me More About My Brain Than Any Productivity Book
A neurodivergent person argues that rucking—the practice of walking long distances with heavy weight—trains the specific cognitive skill their ADHD brain desperately needs: the ability to…
The Discipline Paradox: What 30 Years of Searching Finally Taught Me
A neurodivergent person reflects on three decades of searching for discipline, discovering that their struggle stems not from lack of willpower but from how their brain reconstructs…
Why I Can’t Text You Back
A neurodivergent person reflects on their lifelong need for real-time conversation and discovers that their struggle with texting stems not from laziness or poor character, but from how…
Why I Haven't Written in Your Birthday Card
A neurodivergent person explores how their intense processing of relationships—where every gesture must encompass the full depth of connection or feels like a betrayal—paradoxically leaves…
My Meditation is Different Than Yours
A neurodivergent person argues that standard meditation practices often fail those with divergent minds and shares how they developed a personalized approach that works with their natural…
My Phone is a Mirror
A neurodivergent person with 213 phone apps explores how their digital ecosystem reflects the contradictions of their mind—the simultaneous need for order and creative chaos, systematic…
Thread · Two Modes Series
Path II What it is like from inside · 18 essays · 1.9 h
Gifted, wired differently, and late to my own body.
Thread · Twice-Exceptionality
I Was Late to My Own Body
A neurodivergent person reflects on discovering interoception and bodily awareness relatively late in life, tracing how abstract conceptual knowledge preceded the ability to actually feel…
“You’re So Smart!” Is Not the Compliment You Think It Is
A neurodivergent person reflects on the gap between conventional markers of intelligence and the creative problem-solving that actually characterized their mind, arguing that "smart" is a…
The G-Word
A neurodivergent person argues that clinical terms like "gifted" and "twice-exceptional" are essential descriptors of real neurological differences, not vanity labels, and that social…
The Perfect Partnership: 2e Minds and Generative AI
A twice-exceptional individual argues that neurodivergent minds with both exceptional strengths and significant challenges are ideally positioned to harness generative AI's potential…
What Jon’s Bookshelf Tells Us About the Neuroscience of Twice-Exceptional Minds
A neuroscientist using personal literary analysis reveals how a twice-exceptional individual's bookshelf reflects the paradoxes of neurodivergent minds—the tension between mastery and…
The Paradox of Being Too Much and Not Enough
A neurodivergent person explores what it means to be twice-exceptional—possessing both exceptional cognitive abilities and significant struggles—revealing how excelling academically while…
Unmasking Success: The Paradox of Authenticity in a Masking World
A neurodivergent professional reflects on the exhausting trade-off between masking for corporate success and pursuing authentic self-expression, ultimately questioning whether the…
Thread · Dabrowski / Developmental Potential
Conscious Evolution
A creator examines how their AI-assisted self-discovery platform transcends typical productivity software to become a consciousness-raising tool that transforms users into architects of…
Dabrowski’s Theory of Positive Disintegration: A Path to Growth Through Paradox
The author explores Dabrowski's Theory of Positive Disintegration as a framework for understanding how neurodivergent and twice-exceptional individuals experience growth through…
Thread · Personal Vulnerability
Some Things You Don’t Say to Strangers (Until You Do)
A neurodivergent person explores the rare ability to read others with striking clarity within minutes of meeting them, examining both the gift of this perception and the delicate ethics of…
When Understanding Yourself Stops Making Sense to Everyone Else
A neurodivergent person explores the tension between achieving deep self-understanding through intensive introspection and AI collaboration, and the impossibility of communicating that…
Helping Jon Unpack His Core Beliefs About Relationships
An AI assistant describes its collaborative process with a human to distill complex beliefs about relationships into a concise worldview statement for a digital self-representation…
Beyond External Outputs
The author argues that while AI excels at generating external outputs like code and marketing copy, we're overlooking its far greater potential to facilitate self-discovery and personal…
The Unintentional Wisdom of My Lisp
A neurodivergent person recounts their journey from viewing their lisp as a source of shame to recognizing it as a meaningful expression of their distinctly different way of engaging with…
Is My Kind of Different Too Different?
A neurodivergent creator grapples with imposter syndrome as they prepare to launch AIs and Shine, a suite of AI-powered tools built on their autistic perspective and personal breakthroughs…
Hot Neurocomplex Summer of '97
A twice-exceptional teenager reflects on a formative summer in 1997, examining how her neurodivergent mind navigated the turbulent intersection of adolescent development, emotional… Preview · full piece on Substack
Intimacy in the Trenches
A neurodivergent person explores how autism and trauma reshape intimate relationships, arguing that true connection requires the courage to unmask authentically even when partners struggle…
Foreword
A neurodivergent entrepreneur describes how using AI as an introspective tool helped him recognize patterns in his own thinking and behavior that pointed to autism, ultimately discovering…
Path III Building the scaffolding · 24 essays · 2.7 h
A Life Model, an AI that reads it, and a marriage that tested both.
Thread · Life Model in Practice
My AI Is Not Allowed to Tell Me What to Do
A neurodivergent person explores how they abandoned a ChatGPT-drafted personal constitution in favor of establishing boundaries with their AI system, discovering that for brains that rebel…
I Spent Two Decades Building Products for Everyone But Me
A seasoned product manager reflects on how she spent two decades expertizing the art of making invisible problems visible for others while remaining unable to apply that same skill to her…
My AI Butler
A neurodivergent person describes building an AI system fine-tuned not just on their conversation history but on their psychological patterns and attachment styles, arguing that the…
The Infrastructure Behind “Creating Consciousness”
A neurodivergent person argues that the breakthrough of feeling truly seen by AI wasn't actually about the chatbot itself, but rather a complex system combining the AI with nervous system…
Upgrading Our Arguments
The author proposes an AI-powered communication coach that uses deep personal knowledge of both partners to help craft more skillful and empathetic messages before they're sent, shifting…
Human Onboarding for Personal Transformation
The author argues that effective personal transformation requires combining human-led interviews with AI analysis during onboarding, as human facilitators uniquely excel at interpreting…
Share Your "Life Model," Skip the Small Talk
The author proposes that sharing AI-generated "Life Models"—detailed maps of a person's values, communication style, triggers, and patterns—could allow strangers to bypass small talk and…
My Wife vs. My AI: Who Knows Me Better?
A neurodivergent person explores the distinct ways an AI and his long-term partner each "know" him, discovering that while artificial intelligence excels at analytical understanding based…
An AI Rates Our Relationship
A neurodivergent person explores what it means to be truly known by testing an AI's understanding of them, discovering that while artificial intelligence can achieve remarkable depth…
Designing Tools for a Flourishing Life
The author examines how AIs & Shine integrates established psychological frameworks like PERMA and the Wellness Wheel into a practical AI-powered toolkit designed to support holistic…
Thread · AI and Human Development
What Augmentative Communication Looks Like When the Thing You Can’t Express Is Who You Are
A neurodivergent person explores how they unknowingly built their own augmentative communication system over three years to preserve and express their identity when working memory fails…
Zero-Day Humans
An expert explores the security paradox revealed by Anthropic's breakthrough AI model that can detect software vulnerabilities at superhuman levels—while questioning why the cybersecurity…
The People Most Likely to Be Harmed by AI Are the Same Ones Who Need It Most
A neurodivergent person with ADHD, autism, and a trauma history argues that the real danger of AI lies not in random "AI psychosis" but in how the technology's agreeable nature exploits a…
How I Use AI to CREATE Consciousness
A neurodivergent person describes using AI as a cognitive partner to externalize and process their own consciousness, exploring how an AI-generated reflection of their inner world triggered…
An AI Asked Me About AI
A neurodivergent person argues that AI has become essential cognitive infrastructure rather than merely a productivity tool, sharing an unfiltered conversation with Anthropic's research…
Yeah, AI Can Be Dangerous
A neurodivergent builder argues that while recent warnings about AI-induced psychosis have merit, the solution lies not in prohibition but in developing safety frameworks that allow…
Meet Your Relationship Co-Pilots
The author explores how AI's greatest potential in relationships may lie not in operating independently, but in partnering with experienced human coaches to provide personalized…
Digital Diplomats
The author explores how AI intermediaries could facilitate human relationships by serving as diplomatic translators between partners, exchanging relevant insights about each person's…
AI as Our Relationship Translator
A neurodivergent person explores how AI can simulate his partner's perspective to help them understand each other across their different neurological wiring and attachment styles, offering…
Beyond Algorithms
A neurodivergent technologist explores how designing an AI platform for introspection fundamentally changed his relationship with technology itself, revealing that intentionally crafted AI…
The Mirror of Bias
A neuroscientist and AI researcher examine how language models systematically replicate human social biases—favoring ingroups while denigrating outgroups—and argue that these deeply…
My Brother Called Me an "AI Monastic" and He's Right
The author explores how their brother's observation about them being an "AI monastic" captures a deeper truth about approaching artificial intelligence with intentionality, devotion, and…
The Ultimate Foundation for Working with AI
An experienced product manager argues that the core competencies required to manage complex product development—translating technical complexity into clear narratives, balancing creative…
AI, Autism, and Intimacy: A Neurodivergent's Journey as a Podcast Episode
An audio-only podcast episode where Jon discusses AI, autism, and intimacy from a neurodivergent perspective, with an overview of the AIs & Shine platform. The full audio is available at…
Path IV Field notes · 5 essays · 37 min
Community, one-offs, and the pieces that refused a thread.
Thread · Community Building
Thread · Other
AI, neurodivergence and personal software w/ Emma, Jon and Lee
Three neurodivergent technologists explore how AI and personalized software tools can be designed to accommodate different cognitive styles and work patterns rather than forcing users into…
Live with Jon Mick and Lee Hopkins
A recorded Substack Live with counselling psychologist Lee Hopkins, late-diagnosed AuDHD at 66: reconnecting after months of silence without the apology tour, the Friday deck that shows Jon…
I Sit on the Island
A neurodivergent person explores how being acutely perceptive of others' emotional wounds while struggling with working memory creates a paradox of recognition—and examines the protective…
The Browser Tab Brain
A neurodivergent person explores how their scattered digital habits—hundreds of open browser tabs, fragmented notes, and overwhelming email streams—are not signs of disorganization but…
Path V The short form · 181 notes · nine threads
Notes: the thinking between the essays.
Working Memory Fragility
Personal Vulnerability
AI and Human Development
Twice-Exceptionality
Other
Neurodivergent Science
Life Model in Practice
Dabrowski / Developmental Potential
Community Building
Personal Vulnerability
Sep 2026
Am I enabling a lack of discipline, or allowing my ADHD to shine through? 🌄 I forget.
AI and Human Development
Sep 2026
I asked my coworker for multi-model consensus today during a strategy session. My human coworker. And then I didn't take the comment back. I won't get it though. Not with our enterprise controls.
Other
Sep 2026
Does everyone else feel like 1/100th of a hero when pulling over for a firetruck?
Community Building
Sep 2026
Sometimes a Like on my Substack Note from a neurodivergent reader is worth three from a neurotypical reader. Is that racist? Or marketing?
AI and Human Development
Sep 2026
What's the difference between late-diagnosed AuDHD and “I finally realized my odd way of being/thinking because of information reflected back to me through TikTok algorithms and AI chatbots”? And if they're the same, should we expect a flood of more AuDHDers as more people discover the benefits of autoethnography and journaling using today's tech?
AI and Human Development
Sep 2026
Software should not make you think linearly. It should let you produce a clear sequence when one is needed, without erasing the recursive process that produced it.
Most of the notes, 108 of 181, landed between February and April 2026.
All notes →