Alex Rosenthal

Multiple studies have shown students with ADHD outperforming on average their peers at creative problem-solving and divergent thinking tasks, and there are very similar findings for dyslexia, especially when it comes to advanced spatial reasoning.

So if difference is in fact the norm, what do we do with that?

I say seek out minds that are different than your own and make something incredible together.

There's a wealth of research that shows that teams of people from diverse backgrounds produce superior outcomes.

I'd like to propose a corollary to this.

Diverse minds working together can produce wonders.

This comes with challenges and opportunities.

So in the last decade or so, companies such as SAP, Hewlett-Packard and JP Morgan have started programs designed to recruit neurodivergent talent.

And in the time since, they've reported corresponding gains in productivity, morale, innovation and quality.

I see this in my own work as well.

Again, by the serendipity of working in visual fields without being able to visualize, I wind up working with a lot of minds who are very different than mine, and that results in some weird and wonderful work, such as a film noir animation about fractals that I co-authored that was brought to life by a brilliant hyper-fantasic animator named Jeremiah Dickey.

Or this is one of my pride and joys.

It's a game that's a hybrid jigsaw puzzle and escape room in a box.

And the way it works, yeah.

The way it works is you first assemble a jigsaw, but you're missing big sections, so you have to unlock them by solving puzzles that are embedded in the illustration and artifacts that you unlock along the way.

This was made in collaboration with two incredible artists, Rita Orlov and Senna Tripp, and our minds can be found in very different corners of the galaxy of neurological diversity.

So am I working in the wrong fields?

No, I don't think so.

I think I'm exactly where I should be.

In fact, some of the greatest joy and fulfillment in my life has been from coming to terms with the initially jarring realization that my mind works differently than the people around me and recognizing that for what it is.