Sunday Edition: ADOTAT Unplugged

Apparently, people like it. So, we’re doubling down.

Think of this as ADOTAT Unplugged—no buzzwords, no PR spin, just unfiltered insights, industry truths, and a little weekend wisdom to keep your brain from melting.

And for the price of whatever nonsense Starbucks is pushing this week, you get the stuff we probably shouldn’t be sharing—deep dives, insider scoops, and the kind of blunt analysis that actually matters.

Your Sunday inbox deserves an upgrade. Let’s make Mondays irrelevant.

Can You Be a Good Guy in Advertising? Or Is That Just a LinkedIn Fairy Tale?

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Try it now and you could snag $10,000 (because who doesn’t love free money?).

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🌀 Time Is an Illusion, but Try Explaining That at a Dinner Party

There are moments in life when you realize—with alarming clarity—that you are not like everyone else.

For some, it’s realizing they enjoy free jazz or that they unironically love Nickelback. For me, it’s the moment I understand that most people experience time as a linear, sequential flow—while I live in a glitchy, half-rendered version of reality where the past, present, and future exist at the same time.

🎵 Imagine listening to a shuffled playlist where you don’t know who made it, why certain tracks keep getting repeated, or why an ad for a product you haven’t even thought about yet is suddenly playing in your head.

One moment, I’m 15 years old. The next, I’m 30. Then I’m here—allegedly 49, but honestly feeling like I just showed up to the party and forgot what I came for. And sometimes? I remember things from the future. Try dropping that nugget at a dinner party and watch people slowly back away while clutching their wine glasses.

Chronologically Confused & Thriving

The world is built on the assumption that people remember things in a clear, logical order—before 🡪 after, beginning 🡪 middle 🡪 end. Turns out, that’s a really useful skill for things like:

✅ Relationships ("No, I wasn’t ghosting you. I literally forgot that time moves forward.")
✅ Business meetings ("What do you mean this isn’t due yet? I already saw it finished in my head.")
✅ Basic human functioning ("What do you mean it’s February??")

But I don’t have that feature. Or maybe I do, but it’s buried under a pile of other mental processes my brain thinks are more important—like constantly analyzing time itself as if I were auditioning for a role in Interstellar.

Oh, and let’s spice things up: 🎉 PTSD, Autism, and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS)—a genetic disorder that basically makes my body feel like it’s held together with rubber bands and sheer force of will. My brain is time-traveling while my joints are attempting to exit this dimension. Fun!

Wait—What If I’m Actually Right?

Most people experience time as a linear sequence because their brains filter information that way. But what if that’s just one way to perceive time? What if my brain isn’t wrong—just different?

Autistic people often struggle with time perception because our brains aren’t filtering events in the same way as neurotypicals. For many of us, time doesn’t feel like a straight path—it feels like a vast, interconnected web, where moments don’t line up in neat little rows.

📌 Maybe I don’t have memory problems. Maybe I just perceive time as it actually is—without the artificial structure that humans impose on it.

Physicists have been saying for a while now that time isn’t actually linear. Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity shows that time is relative—it changes based on perspective. Quantum physics suggests that past, present, and future may all exist simultaneously. Indigenous philosophies often describe time as cyclical rather than linear.

So maybe—just maybe—my brain isn’t broken. Maybe I’m just experiencing time the way it actually is.

Different Isn’t Broken—It’s an Advantage

For most people, life is structured around a predictable timeline:

➡ Childhood
➡ Adolescence
➡ Adulthood
➡ Retirement
➡ Done

Society loves that model. It’s easy. It makes sense. People love things that make sense.

But history isn’t made by people who color inside the lines. Every major shift in human thinking—the Renaissance, scientific revolutions, technological breakthroughs—came from people who saw the world differently.

If time isn’t real in the way we think it is, then maybe being “out of sync” isn’t a flaw. Maybe it’s an advantage.

📌 Pattern recognition—I don’t need a linear timeline to notice cycles, repetitions, or how things connect.
📌 Thinking outside of time—While others are focused on "what comes next," I see a bigger picture.
📌 Intuition that feels like remembering the future—It’s not magic, just deep processing that happens outside of conscious awareness.

Society runs on linear thinkers. The world is built for them. But the most interesting things in life? They come from the weirdos who see time differently.

Grounding? Never Heard of It.

"Have you tried grounding techniques?" Normal people love grounding techniques.
They love knowing what day it is, having a clear sense of time, and experiencing existence in a singular direction. Must be nice.

Meanwhile, I’m over here memorizing the timeline of my own life like it’s an AP History exam just so I don’t sound like a total lunatic when someone asks me, “Hey, when did that happen?”

🤡 Me, trying to function in society: "Uhhh… some time between 1995 and five minutes ago??"

But here’s the unexpected plot twist:

📌 Weird isn’t always bad.
📌 Linear thinking isn’t the only thinking.
📌 The best ideas, the most interesting connections, and the biggest innovations? They come from people who see the loops, the layers, and the jumps in time that others ignore.

Sure, my brain doesn’t play by the usual rules. But let’s be honest—does anything in this world really make sense anymore? If we’re all just figuring things out as we go, why not embrace the weird?

So if you see me staring off into the distance at a party, I’m not spacing out. I’m just processing. Maybe I’m remembering the future. Maybe I’m untangling the past. Maybe I’m just trying to remember where I left my phone.

Either way, it’s a wild way to live. But honestly?
I wouldn’t trade it for anything. 🚀

Ah, the sweet, seductive siren song of sameness. There’s something comforting about surrounding yourself with people who nod along like human bobbleheads, confirming every half-baked idea you throw at them. But let’s be real: that’s not how progress happens.

That’s how you end up running a MySpace fan club in 2024.

If you want to build something that actually matters—whether it’s a business, a movement, or a device that finally stops autoplay ads—you need people who don’t just think differently but challenge you like a particularly aggressive personal trainer. Yes, it’s annoying. Yes, it’s sometimes exhausting. But it’s also how you avoid making dumb mistakes and, just maybe, invent the next game-changer.

1. Groupthink Is a Slow-Motion Trainwreck

Picture a boardroom full of yes-men (or yes-women, or yes-bots—this is the future, after all). They’re nodding in unison, applauding the genius of an idea that is, in fact, absolutely terrible. This is how companies implode. This is how we got New Coke, Google Glass, and whatever WeWork was supposed to be.

Groupthink is the corporate version of everyone deciding to jump off the same cliff just because the first guy said, “Trust me, it’s fine.” It kills creativity, suffocates innovation, and ensures that no one ever says, “Wait, maybe we shouldn’t light this pile of cash on fire?”

2. Innovation Thrives on Cognitive Chaos

You know who thought differently? Steve Jobs. Richard Branson. Oprah. Walt Disney. People whose ideas seemed borderline unhinged until, shocker, they changed the world. Imagine the board meetings:

• Jobs: “Let’s get rid of buttons on the phone.”

• Everyone Else: “Are you okay, Steve?”

• Jobs: “Shut up. I’m changing the world.”

Thinking differently isn’t about being contrary for the sake of it. It’s about seeing what others don’t, challenging the status quo, and sometimes, being just crazy enough to pull it off.

3. Diverse Teams Make Smarter (and Faster) Decisions

You’d think that working with people who all agree would make decision-making easier. Nope. Turns out, diverse teams—people with different backgrounds, experiences, and worldviews—make decisions faster and better. It’s like having a jury that actually deliberates instead of just picking the most popular option because they want to go home early.

Companies that embrace diverse thinking don’t just make better choices—they avoid spectacularly dumb ones. Remember, someone at Netflix thought Love Is Blind was a good idea, and here we are, still watching.

4. Problem-Solving Needs More Brains, Not an Echo Chamber

Scott Page, a professor at the University of Michigan, has a whole theory about why diverse teams are better at solving complex problems. Basically, if you put a bunch of similar thinkers in a room, they’ll all miss the same things. But if you get a mix of perspectives, you start catching blind spots before they sink the whole ship.

Think of it like trying to escape a maze. If everyone runs in the same direction, you’re just a really confused parade. But if you have people looking at the problem from different angles, suddenly, there’s a way out.

5. You’ll Actually Learn Something (Shocking, I Know)

Working with people who think differently doesn’t just make you better at business. It makes you better, period. It forces you to challenge your assumptions, see the world through different lenses, and—dare I say it—grow as a human being.

It’s like traveling. If you only ever stay in your hometown eating the same food, listening to the same music, and talking to the same people, congratulations—you’ve built a very comfortable, very tiny world. But step outside of that? Suddenly, you’re experiencing new ideas, perspectives, and ways of thinking that you never would’ve encountered otherwise.

The Bottom Line: Embrace the Chaos

Yes, working with people who think differently can be maddening. They’ll push back. They’ll poke holes in your best ideas. They’ll make you rethink things you were absolutely sure about. But that’s exactly why you need them.

Because the alternative is mediocrity. And mediocrity is for companies that don’t exist in five years.

So go find the rebels, the misfits, the people who drive you absolutely nuts. They might just be the ones who help you build something worth remembering.

Neurodiversity at Work: The Untapped Talent Pool Driving Business Success 🚀

Companies are starting to realize that hiring and supporting neurodivergent employees isn’t just an inclusion effort—it’s a serious competitive advantage. The data shows that businesses embracing neurodiversity are not only improving productivity and innovation but also driving higher revenues and profitability. This is no longer just about corporate social responsibility; it’s about winning in the market.

📈 Productivity and Performance Gains

Workplaces that integrate neurodivergent individuals see dramatic improvements in efficiency, risk management, and innovation. Neurodiverse teams in software testing, for example, are significantly more effective, delivering 30 percent higher productivity compared to standard teams. Organizations with greater cognitive diversity report a 20 percent increase in problem-solving capabilities and are 30 percent better at identifying risks.

The broader impact of diversity is even more telling. Companies with high levels of diversity are 35 percent more likely to outperform their competitors. This isn’t a feel-good initiative—it’s a fundamental shift in how businesses maximize talent and drive better decision-making.

💰 The Financial Edge: Higher Revenues and Profitability

Companies investing in neurodiversity programs are seeing substantial returns. Businesses with neuroinclusive cultures are reporting a 28 percent increase in revenues, along with double the net income and 30 percent higher profit margins. These are not small improvements—they represent the difference between companies that thrive and those that lag behind.

Leading tech companies, including SAP, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Microsoft, have long recognized the benefits. Their dedicated neurodiversity hiring programs have resulted in measurable improvements in productivity, work quality, and innovation capacity. These companies are not just hiring differently—they are redefining what a high-performance workforce looks like.

🔍 The Massive, Yet Overlooked Talent Pool

Despite the clear benefits, most companies are still failing to tap into the 30 percent of the population that is considered neurodivergent. This represents a vast, underutilized source of talent that could transform industries struggling with labor shortages and skills gaps.

Beyond hiring, retention is becoming a critical factor. More than 80 percent of job seekers now say that inclusion is a key factor when choosing an employer, while 81 percent of employees say they would leave their current job if their company lacked a real commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. In today’s workforce, being inclusive is no longer optional—it’s a requirement for attracting and retaining top talent.

🚀 The Entrepreneurial Superpower of ADHD

One of the most overlooked advantages of neurodiversity is its link to entrepreneurship. Individuals with ADHD are five times more likely to start their own businesses compared to the general population. Among entrepreneurs, nearly 29 percent have ADHD, highlighting the natural alignment between ADHD traits—risk-taking, creativity, hyperfocus, and resilience—and successful business leadership.

This entrepreneurial drive is not just a coincidence. Many of the world’s most innovative founders exhibit traits associated with ADHD, leveraging their ability to think outside the box, move fast, and solve problems in unconventional ways.

⚠️ The Hidden Challenges That Remain

Despite the clear advantages, neurodivergent individuals continue to face significant barriers in the workplace. The unemployment rate for neurodivergent adults remains alarmingly high, ranging from 30 to 40 percent, which is three times the rate of individuals with physical disabilities. Even when employed, neurodivergent workers face inequities—employees with autism, for example, earn 30 percent less than their non-autistic peers, underscoring persistent wage gaps and structural biases.

📉 Employers Still Struggling to Understand Neurodiversity

Companies may talk about diversity, but most have little understanding of how many neurodivergent individuals actually work for them. A 2023 study found that out of 127 surveyed employers, only 56 could accurately estimate how many neurodivergent employees they had. This knowledge gap reflects a broader issue—companies cannot support what they don’t measure.

Another challenge is lack of disclosure. More than 69 percent of employers identified disclosure as a major barrier to providing support for neurodivergent employees. Many workers fear stigma, lack of accommodations, or simply do not feel comfortable sharing their neurodivergent status with employers. Without open conversations, companies risk missing out on the full potential of this workforce.

🏆 The Bottom Line: Neurodiversity is a Business Advantage

The message is clear: businesses that embrace neurodiversity are gaining a competitive edge across productivity, innovation, and financial performance. Companies that fail to build neuroinclusive workplaces risk falling behind, while those that act now stand to unlock a game-changing talent advantage.

This is not just about doing the right thing. It’s about building smarter, more profitable, and more resilient companies. The question is no longer whether companies should invest in neurodiversity. It’s how fast they can adapt.