1 So what’s this talk about the black swan?
2 The European truth: all swans are white
3 The shock of discovery: Australia
4 The deeper meaning behind the story
5 The black swan today
6 Three key traits of a black swan event
7 What does that have to do with ADHD?
8 Living in a world of white swans
9 Neurodivergent brains as black swans
10 Maybe we were never looking wide enough

TL;DR: For centuries, Europeans believed all swans were white … until explorers found black ones in Australia, shattering a “universal truth.” This story became a symbol of how one exception can upend everything we think we know.

In today’s world, neurodivergent minds … ADHD, autism, dyslexia … are the Black Swans. They challenge assumptions about how people learn, think, and succeed. Their differences reveal that the world isn’t built for every kind of brilliance… but it could be.

Follow me to explore how rethinking ADHD and neurodiversity can change the story.


So what’s this talk about the black swan?
No, we’re not talking about the ugly duckling story … but the true story of how a simple black bird shocked the entire European worldview…

Let’s go back to the 1600s.

For centuries in Europe, all the swans people had ever seen were white.
It became a symbol of certainty and logical truth: All swans are white.
Philosophers and scholars used it as an example of inductive reasoning:

“If every swan I’ve ever seen is white, then all swans must be white.”

It was taken as truth. Unshakable.

And then? Boom — the shock.

In the late 1600s, explorer Willem de Vlamingh discovered real, living black swans
in… Australia!

Now this … was a problem because it shattered the “universal truth.”
It proved that no amount of past observations can guarantee certainty.
It reminded the world: Just because you haven’t seen it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

This was deeply unsettling in a time when science, religion, and philosophy were all searching for order. The idea that reality could contain the unimaginable was uncomfortable.

Eventually, the story became something bigger … it was no longer about birds.
It was about assumptions. And truth.

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The Black Swan became a symbol.

A symbol of how easily our assumptions can be overturned.
How just one exception can destroy centuries of certainty.
How the world is far bigger, stranger, and more complex than we like to believe.

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The Black Swan today

Today, “Black Swan” (thanks to Nassim Taleb) refers to a rare, unexpected event with a huge impact … the kind that makes people say:

“We couldn’t have seen that coming.”
Even though, in hindsight, it feels obvious. Just like that black bird in 1697.

Three key traits of a Black Swan event:

1. It’s an outlier It lies outside regular expectations.
2. It has an extreme impact Economically, socially, personally, etc.
3. It seems obvious in hindsight People always find a reason why it “makes sense,” even though no one predicted it.

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You will ask what does that have to do with ADHD?

We live in a world of white swans … built on neurotypical expectations.

But in the age of brain imaging, we know one thing for sure:
No brain is the same. It’s like a fingerprint.

And now, latest research estimates that 15–20% of the global population is neurodivergent (ADHD, autism, dyslexia, and other dys– profiles).

I don’t know about you, but to me… that’s actually a lot of black swans.

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So what if…

Neurodivergent brains are Black Swans?

They:

• Challenge what we thought we knew about how humans think and learn
• Don’t follow the usual patterns
• Often bring unexpected brilliance or insight
• Force society to rethink its systems — education, work, productivity

A Black Swan in a white-swan system — and it forces everyone to confront this truth:

“Maybe we were never looking wide enough. Maybe the rules don’t fit everyone. Maybe there are more kinds of brilliance than we assumed.”