The Stimpunks Pattern Library describes recurring structures that shape neurodivergent life, environments, and systems.
Together these patterns form a design language for understanding neurodivergent experience and designing environments where diverse minds can flourish.
Patterns move from attention and cognition → environments → civilization.
Pattern Status
- 🟢 Published
- 🟡 Planned
- 🔜 Next to be written
Attention Architecture
- 🟢 Pattern 01 — Monotropism
- 🟢 Pattern 02 — Spiky Profiles
- 🟢 Pattern 03 — Sensory Load
- 🟢 Pattern 04 — Processing Time
- 🟢 Pattern 05 — Deep Attention
- 🟢 Pattern 06 — Social Energy
- 🟢 Pattern 07 — Regulation First
- 🟢 Pattern 08 — Masking Pressure
Energy & Burnout
- 🟢 Pattern 09 — Environment Fit
- 🟢 Pattern 10 — Energy Accounting
- 🟢 Pattern 11 — Burnout Threshold
- 🟢 Pattern 12 — Energy Recovery
- 🟢 Pattern 13 — Context Switching Cost
Learning & Cognitive Flow
- 🟢 Pattern 14 — Interest-Driven Learning
- 🟢 Pattern 15 — Attention Anchors
- 🟢 Pattern 16 — Cognitive Load Windows
- 🟢 Pattern 55 — Task Initiation
Attention Ecology
Regulation & Sensory Ecology
- 🟢 Pattern 18 — Sensory Thresholds
- 🟢 Pattern 19 — Stim Regulation
- 🟢 Pattern 20 — Sensory Filtering
- 🟢 Pattern 21 — Sensory Safe Zones
- 🟢 Pattern 22 — Regulation Windows
- 🟢 Pattern 23 — Co-Regulation
- 🟢 Pattern 50 — Bodymind Break
- 🟢 Pattern 51 — Bodymind Affirmation
Recovery & Pace
Anxiety & Anticipation
- 🟢 Pattern 52 — Threshold Anxiety
- 🟢 Pattern 53 — Exposure Anxiety
- 🟢 Pattern 54 — Rejection Sensitivity
Participation & Collaboration
- 🟢 Pattern 27 — Interaction Access
- 🟢 Pattern 28 — Double Empathy
- 🟢 Pattern 29 — Parallel Presence
- 🟢 Pattern 30 — Communication Bandwidth
- 🟢 Pattern 31 — Social Translation
- 🟢 Pattern 32 — Consent Over Compliance
- 🟢 Pattern 33 — Meeting Friction
- 🟢 Pattern 34 — Collaboration Gradients
- 🟢 Pattern 56 — Asynchronous Access
Environment Design
- 🟢 Pattern 35 — Predictable Structure
- 🟢 Pattern 36 — Cognitive Map Clarity
- 🟢 Pattern 37 — Sensory Gradients
- 🟢 Pattern 38 — Attention Sanctuaries
Systems & Institutions
- 🟢 Pattern 39 — Average User Fallacy
- 🟢 Pattern 40 — Meritocracy Trap
- 🟢 Pattern 41 — Administrative Burden
- 🟢 Pattern 42 — Metric Fixation
Civilization Patterns
- 🟢 Pattern 43 — Commons Infrastructure
- 🟢 Pattern 44 — Ecologies of Care
- 🟢 Pattern 45 — Neurological Pluralism
- 🟢 Pattern 46 — Neurodivergent Institutions
- 🟢 Pattern 47 — Collaborative Niche Construction
- 🟢 Pattern 48 — Neurodivergent Civilization
- 🟢 Pattern 49 — Environmental Weathering
The Pattern Ladder
Attention ↓ Energy ↓ Learning ↓ Attention Ecology ↓ Regulation ↓ Recovery ↓ Anxiety & Anticipation ↓ Participation ↓ Environment ↓ Systems ↓ Civilization
The Pattern Ladder (Detailed)
The Stimpunks pattern language grows from individual attention and regulation toward environments, institutions, and civilization.
This ladder shows how the pattern system scales.
49 Environmental Weathering 48 Neurodivergent Civilization 47 Collaborative Niche Construction 46 Neurodivergent Institutions 45 Neurological Pluralism 44 Ecologies of Care 43 Commons Infrastructure ↑ 42 Metric Fixation 41 Administrative Burden 40 Meritocracy Trap 39 Average User Fallacy ↑ 38 Attention Sanctuaries 37 Sensory Gradients 36 Cognitive Map Clarity 35 Predictable Structure ↑ 56 Asynchronous Access 34 Collaboration Gradients 33 Meeting Friction 32 Consent Over Compliance 31 Social Translation 30 Communication Bandwidth 29 Parallel Presence 28 Double Empathy 27 Interaction Access ↑ 54 Rejection Sensitivity 53 Exposure Anxiety 52 Threshold Anxiety ↑ 26 Sustainable Pace 25 Energy Debt 24 Recovery Cycles ↑ 51 Bodymind Affirmation 50 Bodymind Break 23 Co-Regulation 22 Regulation Windows 21 Sensory Safe Zones 20 Sensory Filtering 19 Stim Regulation 18 Sensory Thresholds ↑ 17 Attention Ecology ↑ 55 Task Initiation 16 Cognitive Load Windows 15 Attention Anchors 14 Interest-Driven Learning ↑ 13 Context Switching Cost 12 Energy Recovery 11 Burnout Threshold 10 Energy Accounting 09 Environment Fit ↑ 08 Masking Pressure 07 Regulation First 06 Social Energy 05 Deep Attention 04 Processing Time 03 Sensory Load 02 Spiky Profiles 01 Monotropism
How to Read the Ladder
- 01–16 and 55 describe core cognitive and energetic patterns.
- 17–23 and 50–51 describe attention ecology, sensory ecology, and regulation.
- 24–26 describe recovery and sustainable pace.
- 52–54 describe anticipatory and social-evaluative anxiety.
- 27–34 and 56 describe participation and collaboration.
- 35–38 describe environmental design patterns.
- 39–42 describe institutional and systemic patterns.
- 43–49 describe civilization-scale patterns.
Together these patterns form a ladder from how minds work to how worlds are built.
Where This Comes From
A library of numbered patterns, each naming a problem and a solution you adapt, each linked to the patterns above and below it, is a form we inherited from A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction (1977) by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa and Murray Silverstein. Their 253 patterns were for towns, houses and rooms.
the patterns are still hypotheses, all 253 of them—and are therefore all tentative, all free to evolve under the impact of new experience and observation.
Alexander, Ishikawa & Silverstein, A Pattern Language, p. xv
So are these 56. The status marker beside each entry is not decoration; a pattern here is our current best account, and it changes when someone tells us it does not describe their life. The fuller lineage, and where ours departs from theirs, is in Where This Comes From.