The Stimpunks canon gathers the core ideas that shape our work. These ideas form a shared language for understanding neurodivergent experience, diagnosing broken systems, and designing environments where people can thrive.
Across this site you’ll find philosophy, patterns, design methods, and environments. The canon connects these pieces into a coherent worldview.
What makes us different makes all the difference in the world.
Start Anywhere
Different people arrive here for different reasons. You can enter the Stimpunks universe from any direction.
- If you want to understand the big ideas
Start with the Stimpunks Philosophy. - If you want to understand your own experiences
Explore the Core Patterns of Neurodivergent Life. - If you want to design better systems
Read about the Stimpunks Design Method. - If you want to redesign real environments
See Designing Neurodivergent Environments.
There is no single starting point. Every path eventually connects.
The Canon Map
The Stimpunks canon forms a framework for understanding how neurodivergent lives interact with environments and institutions.
This map shows how the core ideas fit together.
Human Difference
(Neurodiversity)
↓
Attention & Cognition
(Monotropism, Spiky Profiles)
↓
Nervous System Regulation
(Sensory Load, Burnout)
↓
Participation & Social Energy
(Masking, Social Energy)
↓
Environment Design
(Cavendish Space, Inclusive Environments)
↓
Systems & Institutions
(Average User Myth, Meritocracy)
↓
Community & Care
(Interdependence, Mutual Aid)
Each layer influences the ones below it. When environments and systems ignore these realities, friction and burnout emerge. When they respect them, people flourish.
The Core Ideas
These ideas form the philosophical foundation of Stimpunks.
- Autism Is a Neurotype, Not a Disorder
- Human Needs, Not Special Needs
- Broken Systems, Not Broken People
- Care Is Infrastructure
- Nothing About Us Without Us
- Authenticity Is Our Purest Freedom
- Consent Beats Compliance
- The “Average User” Is a Myth
- The Myth of Meritocracy
- Design Is Tested at the Edges
These principles challenge deficit narratives and point toward systems designed for human diversity.
The Structure of the Stimpunks Canon
The ideas in the Stimpunks canon are not isolated concepts. They form a connected framework for understanding neurodivergent life and designing environments that support it.
Many pages on this site explore specific pieces of this framework. The structure below shows how they fit together.
- Human Difference
Neurodiversity, neurological pluralism, and the idea that difference is part of human variation. - Attention & Cognitive Architecture
How neurodivergent minds focus, process information, and organize attention. - Nervous System Regulation
How sensory environments, stress, and recovery shape daily experience. - Participation & Social Energy
How communication, masking, and social expectations influence collaboration. - Environment & Design
How classrooms, workplaces, and public spaces can be redesigned to support diverse minds. - Systems & Power
How institutions produce exclusion through ideas like the “average user,” meritocracy, and compliance culture. - Community & Care
How mutual aid, interdependence, and care infrastructure support flourishing.
The canon is not a list of beliefs. It is a map of how minds, environments, and systems interact.
The Pattern Language of Neurodivergent Life
Many experiences described across Stimpunks are not isolated quirks. They reflect recurring structures in how attention, nervous systems, communication, and environments interact.
Stimpunks documents these structures as a pattern language. Each pattern describes a common situation, the forces shaping it, and the design implications that follow.
Together, these patterns form a map of neurodivergent life — explaining why certain environments create friction and how they can be redesigned to support participation and regulation.
The Four Domains of the Pattern Language
- Attention Architecture — how attention flows and focuses.
Examples include Monotropism, Processing Time, and Deep Attention. - Nervous System Regulation — how sensory environments and stress affect the nervous system.
Examples include Sensory Load, Regulation First, and Energy Recovery. - Participation & Social Energy — how people interact and collaborate.
Examples include Social Energy and Masking Pressure. - Environment & Systems Design — how institutions shape participation.
Examples include Environment Fit, Energy Accounting, and Burnout Threshold.
Explore the full pattern language:
A pattern language turns isolated experiences into shared understanding — and shared understanding into better design.
Designing Better Environments
Patterns become most powerful when they are applied to real spaces. Stimpunks explores how environments can be redesigned to support neurodivergent participation.
- Neurodivergent Classrooms
- Neurodivergent Workplaces
- Inclusive Meetings
- Learning Spaces
- Cavendish Space
These environments demonstrate how pattern insights translate into practical design decisions.
Systems That Need Redesign
Many barriers faced by neurodivergent people are not individual problems. They emerge from institutions designed around narrow assumptions about how people think, behave, and participate.
Stimpunks explores how these systems can be challenged and redesigned.
- Broken Systems, Not Broken People
- The Myth of the Average User
- The Myth of Meritocracy
- Design Is Tested at the Edges
Understanding these systemic forces helps explain why certain environments produce recurring friction — and how they can be redesigned to support human diversity.
The Stimpunks canon is not a fixed doctrine. It is a living language for understanding difference and designing a more humane world.
The Stimpunks Universe
SYSTEMS
(institutions)
↑
│
ENVIRONMENTS
(real spaces)
↑
│
DESIGN
(methods & recipes)
↑
│
PATTERNS
(structures of neurodivergent life)
↑
│
EXPERIENCES
(lived reality)
