Neurodiversity Breeds Creativity: I Am Autistic and Fucking Proud
Daniel Robey, CEO of ReMake, opens up about his journey with autism, the value of neurodiverse talent and his hopes for the future
I was never formally diagnosed with autism. In fact, it wasn’t until we found out my son was autistic, in 2018, that my own journey began. We started to recognise differences in his behaviour, speech, and learning when he was three or four years old. Once he was diagnosed, aged ten, my wife and I started to learn an enormous amount, studiously consuming every imaginable resource, in a bid to better understand him, support him and of course empathise with him. As a result, I became very self aware, and once I began to see autism through the eyes of my son, I started to realise how remarkably similar we are. All of a sudden, a lightbulb went off.
Like my son, I too have always felt different, ever since I was the naughty kid at school who couldn’t sit still or concentrate or understand social cues. Back then, neurodiversity wasn’t fully understood and crucial information was not readily available. The path to understanding my own ND was brought on by my son’s diagnosis - and as he’s developed, so have I.
Autism is me: I don’t like to think of it as a label, it’s simply part of who I am. The same way I am English and Jewish, autism is simply something I was born with.“Hi, I’m Daniel, I’m from London and I’m autistic,” should be seen as no different to, “Hi, I’m Julian, I’m from Paris and I speak French.” The more I learn about autism, the more I realise how natural it is to me and the prouder I feel.
There aren’t enough people who know and understand ND, we live and breathe the reality of this every day with my son. Education is vital and when it comes to this subject, knowledge really is power. I was initially hesitant to open up about my autism, wary of being accused of mistaking the signs, but in the last few years I have shared my diagnosis more freely. This is largely down to the soul searching I did during covid; spending more time at home and giving myself the chance to get clarity about how I feel in certain situations, how I handle them, and how ND affects me on a daily basis. Thankfully, post-pandemic, people seem more mindful of others’ differences and I hope we continue on this trajectory so the world can become a friendlier, more understanding place. Respect and recognition comes from understanding, after all.
Celebrating Differences
As a business owner, I tend to see the world through a business lens and feel compelled to champion ND within the industry. Entrepreneurially speaking, my autism has helped me a lot, because my brain is wired differently to a neurotypical person – neither is right or wrong but I often look at people, situations, obstacles and opportunities a little differently. This ability to think differently lets me see things from another perspective which gives me an advantage in certain scenarios. On occasion, things are more difficult for me because I will be oversensitive or over analyse, but I am also capable of seeing the outcome of things more quickly than someone who isn’t ND. I’m not particularly great with language or numbers - a common misconception is that “all autistic people are good with numbers” - but I am very creative and my autism helps me visualise things.
ReMake is a technology company striving for simplicity – typically one of the hardest things to achieve. It’s easy to put hundreds of buttons on a remote control but it is very complicated to create the same control with only three buttons. Achieving simplicity through intuitive design is an artform and my ability to visualise solutions amplifies creative possibilities.
Leading a tech start-up can sometimes feel like striving for the impossible, but that is to be expected when you are looking to reinvent ‘the norm’. The feeling of ‘otherness’ that I have experienced throughout my life serves to inform my entrepreneurial endeavours – if I am capable of exceeding expectations and overcoming obstacles in my own personal life, I am confident in my ability to do the same in this business. I have firsthand experience of changing things for the better, and these life lessons are embedded in the foundations of ReMake.
Autism Adds Value
Autism is a spectrum. It is round, and there is no high or low end of the scale - just different degrees of cognitive ability. ND is like a recipe containing many different ingredients in varying quantities, all with their own unique flavour profile. It is one of life's amazing textures, a strength, and when it comes to a company’s successes, a benefit.
If you employ a ND person they should feel accepted, supported and encouraged, like a neurotypical employee would. Despite having different sensitivities and ways of working - personally speaking, I can’t sit in a noisy place with my back to the room (just ask my wife how long it takes me to pick a seat in a restaurant!) - ND people are more than their diagnosis. I am sensitive and hyper aware of how I present myself in social environments and when I feel uncomfortable, I mask. Masking is when a ND person outwardly projects what they believe is expected of them in a given situation, as opposed to how they’re really feeling inside, despite the discomfort or anxiety this results in. Being ND should never feel like a shortcoming and companies that acknowledge and appreciate how important neurodiversity is to their business should be celebrated.
Tech behemoth IBM is one such company. The American multinational is known for embracing neurodivergence, having founded a ‘DiversAbility Community’ to include “a focus to embrace autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Tourette syndrome, and other neurological differences as skills.” Elsewhere in the tech space, Microsoft and SAP are also early advocates of neurodiversity, having both established programs that facilitate comfortable recruitment and onboarding of ND talent. In 2017, both companies joined forces with EY, JPMorgan Chase, Ford Motor and DXC Technology, to form the Autism at Work Employer Roundtable, which aims to raise awareness and support other companies working with ND professionals.
I hope we continue to see more of this; companies educating their teams on the value of neurodiversity within their ranks, having discussions about how best to facilitate and support these team mates, and raising awareness of the competitive advantage of ND talent. Creating unique solutions may prove difficult at times, but the benefits can be great.
Removing the Mask
I talk about autism as a superpower with my son, although I try not to use that term, knowing it is triggering to those in the autism community. For us, data is processed by the brain in a completely unique way and that is our strength. The world we are living in must support this for the progressive development of all of our business goals.
My son is 14 now and his autistic profile is quite extreme in certain instances, so naturally I consider what his future work environment will be like, and how he might work in a shared office space with coworkers. He faces a lot of challenges that neurotypical people take for granted which will inhibit him from working in a 'normal’ office.
According to The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the prevalence of autism in children reached 1 in 44 in 2021, up from 1 in 110 back in 2006. These children will grow up to be curious, creative, neurodiverse adults capable of great things and I want to do everything I can to ensure they won’t have to wait until they are 42 years old to discover the full extent of their own potential.
