Neurotypical vs. Neurodivergent Thinking — Opposites or Just Different Routes?

[GHA]

I’ve often heard it said that neurotypicals (NTs) are “typical” in their thought processes, while neurodivergents (NDs) are the opposite. I do believe there’s truth to it — but there’s also some nuance that’s worth adding.

From what I’ve read and observed, the “opposite” nature is less about one group thinking against the other, and more about how information is processed and prioritised.

• NTs often process through strong social inference — predicting intentions, reading between the lines, and relying on shared context.
• NDs may process through more direct, fact-based, or pattern-based reasoning — noticing details others overlook, following logic over social convention, or approaching a problem from an unexpected angle.
• There may be an overlap — I find this in my own case — but originality and creativity seem to be dominant traits in NDs. Their ability to generate ideas that break away from the predictable patterns of conventional thinking is often their greatest strength. While NT thinking can be highly efficient within established frameworks, ND thinking can step completely outside those frameworks, connecting elements in ways most people wouldn’t even consider.

In short, it’s not that one group is the reverse of the other — it’s that they’re navigating the world using maps drawn from different priorities.

What do you think — does your experience match this?

 

[Outdated]

When I was 13 or 14 Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) released a new book called Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. I read the inside of the dust cover and it said the book was about the interconnectedness of all things.

That was a light bulb moment for me, that's the difference between the way my brain works and most other people's. That's the difference with the way my memory works. Also the difference with the way my brain handles knowledge and logic.

If you ask me about a book just an hour after I've finished reading it I won't be able to tell you much about it, 3 or 4 days later I have full access to all of that. It has to interconnect with everything else I already know, once it has done so then I have better access to that memory than most people have.

I don't just remember a thing, with that memory is also tied in when and where I learnt that thing, who was there at the time, under what context, my emotional state at the time, etc. I don't just remember the lesson that I learned all by itself, my memory doesn't work that way. It has to store the whole package or it doesn't compute. Memories stored this way are less prone to corruption over time.

Then I overheard the term Linear Learning, and it gave me the idea of Linear Memory.

As a kid in school that's what it seemed like to me. All the other kids remembered everything in one big long and unwieldy list where as my brain uses spreadsheets. It takes a bit longer to fill out a spreadsheet than it does to scrawl a few more words at the bottom of a list but it's far more practical.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

I’ve often heard it said that neurotypicals (NTs) are “typical” in their thought processes, while neurodivergents (NDs) are the opposite. I do believe there’s truth to it — but there’s also some nuance that’s worth adding.

From what I’ve read and observed, the “opposite” nature is less about one group thinking against the other, and more about how information is processed and prioritised.

• NTs often process through strong social inference — predicting intentions, reading between the lines, and relying on shared context.
• NDs may process through more direct, fact-based, or pattern-based reasoning — noticing details others overlook, following logic over social convention, or approaching a problem from an unexpected angle.
• There may be an overlap — I find this in my own case — but originality and creativity seem to be dominant traits in NDs. Their ability to generate ideas that break away from the predictable patterns of conventional thinking is often their greatest strength. While NT thinking can be highly efficient within established frameworks, ND thinking can step completely outside those frameworks, connecting elements in ways most people wouldn’t even consider.

In short, it’s not that one group is the reverse of the other — it’s that they’re navigating the world using maps drawn from different priorities.

What do you think — does your experience match this?

I think that's a fair analysis.

Having a NT wife, working with the public for 40 years...I would not generalize and suggest the thinking is opposite, per se, but definitely different.

The ND community does not limit itself to ASD or ADHD, but rather we are just a few under that umbrella. That said, we must be careful not to conflate the two. Yes, ASD is ND, but not all ND are ASD.

Even within the subset of ASD there is incredible neurodiversity within itself. Throw in varying sensory issues, intelligences, co-morbidities, etc. and how we sense our world, how we react to it, how we think...all of that can vary. Spend enough time on this forum and you will see that not everyone is thinking the same and can have a different view of their world.