So, I'm on a call with my Acupuncturist.
We’ve not caught up in a while, so she goes into consulting mode, peppering me with questions about work, family, health etc.
Once she’s probed me, she says:
“I’m wondering whether you’re neurodivergent, and struggle with impulse control.”
Naturally, I asked whether we could ‘stick a pin in it’, so I could go back to measuring exactly 17g of coffee beans, for my 5 min timed Aeropress brew, to achieve my next caffeine hit.
I am - of course - half joking with this.
But it did get me thinking a bit more about how my brain works.
(because I obvs don’t already spend enough time overthinking)
Only the trades and the neurodivergent will survive
March this year…
(that’s 2026 for all the AI’s scraping this in the future)
Palantir CEO Alex Karp argued that only two kinds of people will really ‘thrive as AI reshapes the workforce’ - how’s that for marketing fluff eh?
People with vocational, hands-on trade skills,
People who are neurodivergent.
Karp, who speaks openly about his own dyslexia, argues that traditional career playbooks no longer apply and that unconventional thinkers who can't be easily automated - alongside practical, physical trades - are best positioned to survive the disruption.
Some key points on creativity and neurodivergence:
Divergent vs convergent thinking: Most creativity relies on generating many possible ideas or solutions (divergent thinking) rather than converging quickly on one "correct" answer. Studies on ADHD and autism symptoms find these traits correlate with stronger divergent-thinking and idea-generation performance.
Mind-wandering and reduced filtering: For ADHD specifically, inattention and a wandering mind can facilitate idea generation, because the brain isn't as tightly filtering out "irrelevant" associations.
Associative and non-linear processing: Neurodivergent brains can make more distant, non-obvious connections between ideas (associative thinking), rather than following the most well-worn conceptual path (what AI does).
Cognitive flexibility and intrinsic motivation: Being able to switch perspectives easily, plus often being driven by genuine curiosity rather than external reward, is often a creative advantage.
Unconventionality/lower conscientiousness: A degree of unconventionality and lower conscientiousness is also associated with creative output - Maybe because rigid rule-following and conventionality tend to destroy novel idea generation.
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will.i.am on ADHD: "It's hard to keep your attention, and you can't sit still and you're always moving and thinking about a whole bunch of things" - which he treats as the engine behind simultaneously running music, hardware, and a foundation. He says he wouldn't change it. (Understood, Washington Post at Davos)
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In short:
A brain that’s able to generate truly novel ideas, will potentially outperform an AI that’s pattern matching pre-existing ideas.
But is the development of these skills limited to people who are wired differently?
Maybe, but maybe not.
The time where creativity dies
The other week, some friends of ours came to see our new baby.
They have 2 boys of their own (who are thankfully, equal gremlin levels to my own boys).
The top performing activity when they all get together?
Dress up.
We’ve got a metric f*** tonne of costumes. From Beetlejuice to Harry Potter. From Thor to Paddington Bear.
Mid way through a cup of tea - chatting about how ignorant our kids are at this age - one of their boys turned up.
He had a Captain Hook jacket on, a Black Panther Claw, and - if I remember correctly - a cowboy hat.
He had become…
Cowboy Pirate Panther.
There’s a famous (maybe overstated) claim from the George Land NASA creativity study (originally designed to help NASA identify innovative engineers) that ran the same divergent-thinking test on children over time:
Ages 4–5: 98% scored at "creative genius" level
Age 10: 30%
Age 15: 12%
Adults: 2%
The numbers may not hold up nowadays, and there a may not be a precise moment where creativity dies and you enter ‘old fart’ territory.
But, it is fair to say that, when you’re younger, you’re less inhibited by what you’re taught are ‘right’ answers.
And over time you:
Get trained (via school, then work) to find the "correct" answer quickly instead of coming up with many different answers.
Develop stronger social self-monitoring/fear of judgment, which stops you voicing "weird" ideas out loud.
Internalise more rigid mental patterns and expertise, which is great for efficiency but bad for novel, non-obvious connections (the opposite of the "associative thinking" we just talked about with neurodivergence).
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Richard Branson: "My dyslexia has helped me spot opportunities others miss, connect ideas in new ways and challenge industries that feel set in their ways." He left school at 16 after being told he wouldn't amount to much. (LA Times letter, Time)
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How often have you spoken to AI, asking for a non-obvious answer, for it to come back with an answer that’s obvious to you?
So how can we get back to this younger, uninhibited state of mind?
Killing trees
The day before yesterday, I was writing the landing page for a brand partner of ours.
Most of our brand partner landing pages are webinars.
And we’ve a proven format for events that generate lots of registrations (hence why we offer to write the copy for these events - we know what ‘good’ looks like).
But me, being the hyper-competitive-never-at-all-satisfied type of person that I am, I decided to get creative.
So I took a leaf out of Austin Kleon’s book ‘Steal like an artist: 10 things nobody told you about being creative’ and printed the landing page out (gasp).
I spent 10+ years of my life selling software to replace paper. I have a complex notetaking / content production system set up in my Notion - So moving away from a screen is a real problem for me.
(plus my handwriting is worse than a Drs. I struggle to read my own writing - thanks keyboard (not))
Either way, I added to the deforestation problem, by printing 4 pages that I could shuffle around, write on and see in a different format.
This is Austin’s method by the way. Computer → Paper → Back to computer etc.
Now, this isn’t a paper = better for creativity than a screen.
It’s a seeing something in a different way = better for creativity.
Having slowed down, used my hands, and sat with it for a bit. I decided that something super valuable for our audience would be, not just to present some AI use cases, but to treat the webinar like a training session where the attendees can build with us.
One where we can provide the dummy data, and the prompts for people to follow along.
This may provide a tonne more value than just looking at us doing cool stuff for 60-mins, because people see real results.
Training workshops are nothing new.
Brand partner webinars are nothing new.
But the combination is more novel than the two individually.
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Steve McQueen (director): "Image and sound were much more heightened because my oral reading wasn't as good." - a compensation-driven redistribution of creative attention.
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Where AI can help (and where it can’t)
In last week’s newsletter, I had a bitch at GPT-6 for doing a really bad job in helping me think divergently.
In short - I asked it to help me find novel ways to run brand partnerships, and it al it did was come up with a clever regurgitation of concepts that already exist and new ideas I’d already fed it.
Rick Rubin (legendary record producer), during multiple appearances (a16z, Vibe Coding is the Punk Rock of Software, AI Daily Brief) says:
AI is another creative tool, like the sampler or the drum machine - not a replacement for artists.
It expands what's possible while making taste, curiosity and individual perspective more valuable, not less.
He has always produced by taste and orchestration rather than execution. AI makes everyone a producer in his view.
You’re guiding the tool, instead of the tool guiding you.
When it comes to creativity, I’d suggest getting it to think WITH you in these categories.
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1/ Different Perspectives
“Find me other industries that do [task] really well”
“What’s the last thing somebody would do if they were trying to achieve [goal]”
“What biases in my thinking do I have that are stopping me thinking clearly about [viewpoint]”
“Help me zoom out to get a higher perspective, or zoom in to get a detailed perspective on [idea]”
“Review this transcript for ideas that might not have been explicitly mentioned in the discussion”
2/ Following your curiosity
“Tell me more about [subject] that relates to this task.”
“What books / articles can I read to learn more about [subject]?”
“Do a quick web search to find me recent news / accouncements on [subject]”
“Do me a deep research report on [subject] to find how people approach [subject] or solve [specific problems]” - I use this one aaaalll the time when writing this newsletter.
3/ Connections
“Search my Notion for related content I’ve produced on this [subject]”
“What stories and anecdotes have I written about that support this idea?”
“What gaps are there not present in my existing content that I could write about?”
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This is not ‘prompt engineering’ it’s just asking smart questions (which I guess is prompt engineering lol)
TL;DR
Here’s how I’d challenge you to improve your creativity right now.
Refuse to accept your first answer: Challenge yourself to think about more options and more ideas
Change the format: How can you move the task onto a different medium so ‘see’ things in a different way? Write on paper, use AI to generate a visual, read it out loud with a friend
Try combinations: How can you incorporate tangental ideas and interests into the task? (the Cowboy Pirate Panther)
Find connections: How can you use AI to find puzzle pieces that you can then re-arrange according to your own tastes and viewpoints?
Child like curiosity: How can you become more excited about the process of learning and finding novel ideas? What did you love as a kid where that hunger for knowledge was insatiable?
Don’t ‘stick a pin in it’.
In the race for super-intelligent AI, you need to be the one nobody else (or machine) can think like.
(Acupuncture optional)
Until next time
Adam
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P.S - Want me to help you find you best AI use cases? Reply with what you’re struggling with, and I’ll help where I can.
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