We Learn Backwards
Here’s my hot take on neurodivergent learning—one that cuts across fields, because I’ve studied at least ten of them in depth: we learn backwards.
A concrete example: When I was enrolled in Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center program in 2024, I could not make sense of the instructions for building a business plan. The exercise required us to create something supposedly “fact-based” using largely invented data. That felt fundamentally wrong to me. In my view, any analytical or scientific document should be built from measurable data, full stop. And if that data doesn’t exist yet, the correct thing to do is leave the space blank.
An empty field is information. It tells you what you don’t know.
Most of the other students were comfortable following the formula. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that. In fact, it’s how many people learn. But following a formula tends to hide uncertainty rather than surface it.
A similar pattern showed up for me in high school and college. When I was assigned reading, I would often start with the quizzes at the end of the chapter. I simply couldn’t absorb the material without a reason to care first. The questions created a need, and that need made the reading intelligible.
This is often framed as an ADHD limitation—the inability to focus on boring material. But I think that diagnosis is incomplete. Much of the learning process is boring until relevance is established. I still use this approach in business: I jump in before I’m fully prepared in order to create a constraint that forces me to do the unglamorous groundwork. Necessity doesn’t just motivate the prep—it makes it meaningful.
Which brings me back to the larger question. It’s possible that these learning differences aren’t just about attention or motivation, but about how knowledge itself is structured internally. Some of us may build understanding from the outside in—through action, friction, and feedback—rather than from abstract models downward.
I don’t have the data to prove that. But I strongly suspect a neurodivergent education specialist would have something interesting to say about it.
