Different isn’t less; it’s powerful.
It’s Neurodiversity Celebration Week and what better way to celebrate than by embracing the fact that we all think differently and that’s a good thing!
In the spirit of appreciating diverse minds, I wanted to shine a light on an often-overlooked truth: different ways of thinking aren’t just valid, they’re valuable. The world would be a pretty boring (and inefficient) place if we all approached problems in exactly the same way. Some people can just "wing it", while others (me) need to first understand the entire history of a topic, cross-reference five sources and possibly get a PhD before starting a single task. It’s something we should celebrate, because different brains bring different strengths.
Actually, what really got me thinking about writing this was a recent software development module in my master’s programme. We were building a web application and the teaching style encouraged students to start coding early, then tweak and add to it as needed. That sounds logical, right?
Well, my brain said, "Absolutely not."
I found myself mentally frozen week by week, unable to start until I could fully map out every single part of the application in my head. Reflecting on it, I realised this wasn’t just perfectionism or overthinking; this was my neurodivergent brain doing its thing - needing structure, context and ALL the details before I could even think about beginning.
This module spanned over two semesters, about six months in total. I’m not joking when I say that only after we had to produce a 30-minute video demonstrating our web app and explaining its implementation did I finally think, "Ohhh, THAT’S what a web app is."
A funny (and very on-brand) digression: The reason I even signed up for this master’s degree? Anytime I heard about "servers" I would think “what on earth is a server?!?” and instead of just Googling it, I thought, "Well, I guess I have to study a three-year, part-time master’s in software development to fully understand it." And honestly, that’s neurodivergent thinking in a nutshell. Context and detail are everything, even if it means taking the scenic route.
What is Bottom-Up Thinking?
Here’s a bit of neuroscience for you, because who doesn’t love a good brain fact? (Quite possibly just me…).
A recent study by Ursino et al. (2022) used EEG (a fancy brainwave scanner) to investigate why autistic folk often process information differently. Turns out, autistic brains work a bit like Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote; hyper-focused on gathering every single clue before solving the mystery, rather than jumping to conclusions. (And that woman had an impeccable success rate- albeit entirely fictional).
Here’s the key difference:
- In non-autistic brains, information flows in a more top-down manner, meaning the brain filters out irrelevant details automatically and focuses on the bigger picture first.
- Autistic brains, on the other hand, are wired for bottom-up processing, meaning every piece of sensory input is taken in and analysed before a broader understanding is reached.
The study found that in the brains of autistic individuals, the frontal regions (that help with decision-making and filtering information) are more passive, while the occipital regions (which handle vision and sensory input) are going full throttle, throwing out ALL the sensory details at once.
The result? An incredible level of attention to detail, but sometimes a struggle to zoom out and see the broader context quickly. The study refers to this information flow as an "imbalance", but honestly? In my opinion, where this really becomes an issue, is when the world doesn’t accommodate different ways of thinking.
I often get stuck in the details, and yes, it can be frustrating for others when things take me longer, but what’s really frustrating is when people lack tolerance for different cognitive styles. My brain might not always be on the same wavelength as yours, but that doesn’t make my way of thinking any less valuable.
Deep in the Weeds
Before I was diagnosed as an AuDHD-er, I had no clue how much pain this different thinking style caused me. I spent years (the majority of my life) internally berating myself; thinking I was stupid, slow and forever three steps behind everyone else. But now I see it for what it really was.
Picture a Google Map. A group of people want to check out a country. Everyone else is zoomed out, enjoying the bird’s-eye view. Meanwhile, I’m zoomed in 200%, meticulously analysing a single road in the middle of nowhere.
Technically, we’re all looking at the same thing, but while they’re breezing through the big picture, I’m deep, deep, deep in the weeds.
Here’s the thing though - leave me be, I like it here! 😂 I’m gathering details, finding hidden gems and when I’m ready, I’ll zoom out at my own pace. When I finally reach that bird’s-eye view, I’ll have so much to tell you, because retreating back through the zoom levels means I’ve actually seen everything along the way and now I truly understand what you’re seeing.
Why This Matters
This brings me to an important point about expectations of autistic individuals, particularly in work and academic environments. I’m so fortunate to have work in a team where my thinking style has been accepted and embraced, but I do know that’s not the experience for every autistic individual and that makes me very sad.
I think a lot of issues stem from simply a lack of understanding about neurodiversity and different ways of thinking. For instance, autistic individuals can really struggle with brevity. We see detail, and summaries can feel unnecessary, and sometimes even counterproductive. But we get it, we can’t always speak in detail and we can get on board with the executive summaries. We can give you a one-pager or condense our work into a summary, but let us write the 10-pager first and, more importantly, give us the time to do it. For some, a one pager can be a quick job, but for autistic individuals, it’s absolutely not.
Skipping straight to the summary feels like trying to eat a cake without baking it first, painful and kind of impossible. (Although, let’s be honest, sometimes we eat the batter off the spoon, realise it’s a bit grim and question all our life choices. But I digress again…).
Our thinking style isn’t just about how we work, it’s how we process and make sense of the entire world around us. Asking us to change that? That’s about as reasonable as asking someone to manually adjust their heartbeat.
So next time you see an autistic person getting stuck in a small detail, remember, their brain is wired for deep-dive analysis. We don’t need to be told to "do it differently" or "not to get so caught up in the details"; we need tolerance, acceptance and support.
Let us go off on that tangent, you never know what we’ll uncover. And even if we don’t solve the mystery, I guarantee there will be a few funny anecdotes to share along the way.
The Power of Bottom-Up Thinking in the Workplace
In an employment context, bottom-up thinking, a hallmark of many neurodivergent minds, can be an incredible asset. According to Embrace Autism, autistic individuals are "details-before-the-concept" thinkers, while non-autistic people are "concept-before-the-details" thinkers.
Both are valid. Both are valuable.
By embracing different cognitive styles, organisations build stronger, more dynamic teams that tackle complex challenges from multiple angles.
It’s for that reason that I love Autism NI's campaign "Be Kind to Different Minds", because it perfectly encapsulates what neurodiversity is all about; respecting, valuing and embracing different ways of thinking.
The world thrives on diverse minds and a little kindness goes a long way in making sure everyone has the space to think, process and contribute in their own way.
Different isn’t less; it’s powerful.