Part 2 of a seven-part series examining how modern societies frame neurodivergent cognition as economically valuable. As neurodiversity gains recognition, autistic and ADHD cognitive traits are increasingly framed as valuable assets in technical industries. This article explores the tension between genuine acceptance and economic instrumentalisation, examining how societies celebrate neurodivergent minds for their analytical strengths while often overlooking the broader realities of neurodivergent experience.
Contents
1. Introduction
In recent years, the concept of neurodiversity has gained increasing acceptance. The idea is simple: neurological differences such as autism, ADHD, and dyslexia are not merely deficits to be cured, but forms of human variation.
This perspective has helped challenge decades of stigma and misunderstanding. It has encouraged schools, workplaces, and institutions to rethink how they accommodate different cognitive styles.
Yet beneath the growing acceptance of neurodiversity lies a quieter and more complicated question.
What happens when society begins to value certain neurodivergent traits primarily because they are economically useful?
1.1 Series Overview
This short series explores the “question of usefulness” across seven perspectives: historical, social, personal, diagnostic, systemic, experiential, and constructive.
- Asperger’s Syndrome and the Question of Usefulness examines the historical origins of the diagnosis in Nazi-era Vienna and the uncomfortable context in which it emerged.
- Neurodiversity and the Question of Usefulness looks at how modern economies increasingly frame neurodivergent cognition in terms of its value to technical industries.
- Lived Experience and the Question of Usefulness reflects on what it means to live inside that dynamic, where certain cognitive traits are valued while the broader reality of neurodivergent experience often remains misunderstood.
- The Spectrum Problem after The Question of Usefulness examines whether the modern autism spectrum accurately reflects the diversity of autistic cognition, or whether diagnostic simplification has obscured meaningful differences in neurological profiles.
- We Still Don’t Understand Neurodivergent Minds Even Beyond the Question of Usefulness brings these perspectives together, exploring how the concept of usefulness continues to shape the conversation and arguing that meaningful inclusion requires changing environments rather than sorting or flattening different kinds of minds.
- When Autism Doesn’t Work: The Human Cost of the Question of Usefulness describes what that dynamic looks like from the inside when it does not work.
- Choose to Build Your Own Meaning Anyway: Beyond the Question of Usefulness explores what remains when usefulness fails as a framework, arguing that meaning must be constructed deliberately rather than assumed to emerge from success or inclusion.
Taken together, these essays explore a simple but important idea: that understanding neurodiversity requires looking not only at cognitive strengths, but also at the historical, social, human, and structural contexts in which those strengths are interpreted, and what follows when those frameworks break down.
2. The Rise of the “Valuable Autistic Mind”
In fields such as technology, engineering, cybersecurity, mathematics, and data science, certain autistic cognitive traits can be highly advantageous.
These may include:
- intense focus
- pattern recognition
- tolerance for repetitive analysis
- comfort with structured systems
- deep specialist interests
It is no coincidence that many industries built around complex technical systems have become particularly interested in neurodivergent talent.
In some sectors, neurodiversity is now framed as a competitive advantage.
Companies run recruitment programs specifically targeting autistic candidates. Conferences celebrate “neurodivergent thinking” as a driver of innovation. Articles describe autism as a “superpower.”
This shift reflects genuine progress in recognising cognitive diversity.
But it also raises an uncomfortable tension.
3. Acceptance… But on What Terms?
When neurodivergent people are welcomed primarily for the analytical abilities they bring to technical work, the acceptance offered can feel conditional.
The implicit message sometimes becomes:
You are valued because your mind produces useful outputs.
But usefulness has limits.
Many autistic individuals who perform well in analytical roles still experience profound challenges in everyday social environments. Difficulties interpreting emotional cues, navigating workplace politics, or managing sensory overload do not disappear simply because someone is technically capable.
In fact, the very traits that make someone effective in highly analytical environments can make other aspects of life significantly more difficult.
When the narrative of neurodiversity focuses only on strengths, those struggles can become invisible.
4. The Cost of Masking
One of the least visible aspects of autistic experience is the effort required to function in environments built around neurotypical communication.
Many autistic professionals learn to mask their differences.
Masking can involve:
- consciously controlling body language
- rehearsing conversational responses
- monitoring tone of voice
- suppressing natural reactions
- constantly analysing social interactions
To colleagues, the result often appears seamless. The individual seems professional, composed, and socially competent.
But masking requires continuous cognitive effort, and over time it can lead to exhaustion, anxiety, and burnout.
The workplace may see the output of neurodivergent cognition while remaining largely unaware of the emotional cost involved in sustaining that output.
5. The Double Empathy Problem
Modern research increasingly challenges the idea that autistic individuals simply lack social understanding.
The Double Empathy Theory, proposed by sociologist Damian Milton, suggests that communication breakdowns between autistic and neurotypical individuals arise because both groups interpret social signals differently.
In other words, misunderstandings are often mutual rather than one-sided.
This reframes autism not as a failure of social cognition but as a difference in how social information is processed.
Recognising this difference is crucial if workplaces genuinely want to benefit from neurodiversity. Otherwise, neurodivergent individuals may still be expected to do most of the adapting.
6. When Diversity Becomes Instrumental
The growing interest in neurodivergent talent has clear benefits. It challenges stereotypes that portray autism only in terms of deficits.
However, there is a risk that neurodiversity becomes framed primarily as an economic resource.
When discussions focus mainly on how autistic cognition benefits industries such as technology or cybersecurity, the broader human reality can be lost.
Neurodivergent people are not valuable only because their cognitive profiles align with certain technical roles.
They are valuable because they are people.
Reducing neurodiversity to a talent pipeline for specific industries risks repeating a familiar pattern in a different form: judging human worth primarily in terms of productivity.
7. Lessons from History
The history of Asperger’s syndrome provides an uncomfortable reminder of how easily societies fall into this habit.
The category was first described in Nazi-era Vienna, within a medical system that evaluated individuals partly according to their perceived social usefulness.
Children who displayed unusual intelligence and analytical abilities could be defended as potentially valuable members of society. Others were not afforded the same protection.
Modern neurodiversity movements are obviously very different in both intention and context.
But the historical lesson remains relevant.
When society begins to celebrate certain neurological differences primarily because they produce useful outputs, the line between acceptance and instrumentalisation can become blurred.
8. Conclusion: Beyond Usefulness
The goal of the neurodiversity movement is not to prove that autistic people are economically valuable.
The goal is to recognise that different kinds of minds exist, and that societies function best when those differences are understood rather than suppressed.
Some neurodivergent people will excel in highly analytical professions. Others will require significant support throughout their lives.
Both realities are part of the same human spectrum.
Understanding neurodiversity means recognising this full range without reducing individuals to what they can produce.
Because the value of a person cannot be measured solely by their usefulness.
This question is explored further in: Lived Experience and the Question of Usefulness.
The history of Asperger’s reminds us how societies once judged human worth through usefulness. Lived experience reminds us why that question still matters. The later articles explore what happens when that framework breaks down and what follows.
This article is part of a series:
- Asperger’s Syndrome and the Question of Usefulness — Historical Origins
- Neurodiversity and the Question of Usefulness — modern economic narratives
- Lived Experience and the Question of Usefulness — personal realities
- The Spectrum Problem after The Question of Usefulness — diagnostic frameworks
- We Still Don’t Understand Neurodivergent Minds Even Beyond the Question of Usefulness — systemic perspective
- When Autism Doesn’t Work: The Human Cost of the Question of Usefulness — how it feels from the inside
- Choose to Build Your Own Meaning Anyway: Beyond the Question of Usefulness — constructive series finale
9. References
- Milton, D. (2012). On the ontological status of autism: The ‘double empathy problem’. Disability & Society.
- Austin, R. D. & Pisano, G. P. (2017). Neurodiversity as a competitive advantage. Harvard Business Review.
- Chapman, R. (2023). Empire of Normality: Neurodiversity and Capitalism. Pluto Press.
- Botha, M. & Chapman, R. (2023). Neurodiversity, epistemic injustice, and the capitalist imperative. Neurodiversity.
- Horkan, W. (2025). Magic Mouse My Arse… Apple Doesn’t Build for the Neurodiverse… They Build for Neurotypical Convenience.
https://horkan.com/2025/04/12/magic-mouse-my-arse-apple-doesnt-build-for-the-neurodiverse-they-build-for-neurotypical-convenience - Horkan, W. (2025). Neurodiversity and Cyber: Understanding One in Five of Your Industry with Mary Welton of Plexal.
https://horkan.com/2025/01/08/neurodiversity-and-cyber-understanding-one-in-five-of-your-industry-with-mary-welton-of-plexal - Horkan, W. (2025). Rethinking Autism: The Evidence Behind Milton’s Double Empathy Theory.
https://horkan.com/2025/02/11/rethinking-autism-the-evidence-behind-miltons-double-empathy-theory - Horkan, W. (2024). The Reduction of Diagnostic Categories in the DSM-5: Overlooking Important Distinctions.
https://horkan.com/2024/07/27/the-reduction-of-diagnostic-categories-in-the-dsm-5-overlooking-important-distinctions - Horkan, W. (2025). Exploring the Interplay, Similarities, and Differences between Autism, Asperger Syndrome, and ADHD.
https://horkan.com/2025/02/12/exploring-the-interplay-similarities-and-differences-between-autism-asperger-syndrome-and-adhd-comparing-them-to-neurotypicality-a-comprehensive-analysis