MY BRAIN IS TOO BIG FOR MY HEAD:
AI, Neurodivergence, and Counterintuitive Lessons
(~5 minute read)
Key Takeaways
What makes you different (neurodivergent thinking, rural location, unconventional background) can oftentimes help uncover opportunities or risks that others miss
AI tools now give individuals and small organizations access to expertise that once required entire institutions
Leading transformative change sometimes requires removing yourself from the equation entirely
A few months ago, I used AI to help me interpret my own brain. Not metaphorically. Literally. I uploaded my own MRI files and said:
“Hey Chat, can you tell me what’s going on in there?”
What started as curiosity helped with an actual diagnosis—and an even deeper evaluation. The AI legitimately told me that my brain was… too big for my head.
When AI Helps You Understand Your Actual Brain
I’d been dealing with chronic headaches, weekly migraines, and vertigo for a while. An eventual doctor’s appointment turned into bloodwork, tests, seeing several specialists, and an MRI. This is when the Dunning-Kruger Effect goes digital… [1]
I did what any rational person would do. ‘Oh no, not those records,’ I had to explain to the fifth person I was transferred to. ‘I’d like to have the files from the MRI of my brain.’
I was eventually handed a CD-ROM. In 2025. Even though both my PC and laptop didn’t have disc drives.
I’ll skip the whole debacle of how I finally got the files onto my computer and learned about the DICOM format (Cue Zoolander’s “THEY’RE IN THE COMPUTER?!”) [2][3]. If we thought WebMD made everyone think they have cancer, oh just you wait.
Before talking to the “real” experts, and because you should always get multiple opinions, I consulted my new AI clinical dream team: ChatGPT, Claude AI, and Google Gemini. They didn’t just generate technical reports—they actually flagged potential structural abnormalities[4][5][6].
This process also gave me a chance to hone some professional skills:
Prompt engineering fundamentals [7]
Meta Prompting techniques [8]
If you’re new to AI (or even a bit intimidated), those are great places to start for questions and answers.
The AI flagged concerning structural abnormalities in my cerebellum. The Cerebellar Tonsils (because we all know what that is) were specifically sitting lower than they should. I went back to my neurologist. Their official diagnosis?
Tonsillar ectopia herniation: which basically means my brain was slightly too adventurous and went somewhere it shouldn't have. Chiari Malformation Type I [9]. The AI had been right - part of my brain really was larger than it should be.
When Data Gets Personal
For years now, I’d come home pale as a ghost and my wife would greet me with, “Chris, are you okay? You look horrible.”
‘Why thank you, sweetheart… Most husbands can only dream of being welcomed home with such love.’ (I’m kidding, of course)
You’d think if your brain was larger than it was supposed to be then surely you’d be blessed with genius intelligence, right?
Unfortunately, that’s not the gift I received. But, some serious introspection got me out of my head (quite literally) and into the real world.
It was a reminder of how fragile some systems can be. It was also a new perspective on how some systems are currently dealing with major ambiguities.
The AI tools that I've been using lately have been remarkable. Yet the very technology that is having disruptive innovations across many industries is still only partially understood, even by the people creating them [10].
I’ve had a mission of working towards helping people with opportunities for self-autonomy and self-actualization. After 15 years building tech ecosystems from scratch in rural America, I'm used to unconventional solutions [11].
But this was different - this was personal. I had to pause for a second. This wasn’t just a quirky diagnosis. It collided with a much bigger decision I’d already made about my life’s direction.
How a Diagnosis and Departure Redefined My Direction
When something grabs my attention, or throughout life as I’ve searched for a better understanding, I tend to obsess about things that pique my curiosity. Hyper-focused. Deep dives. It was no different.
Artificial Intelligence excels at pattern recognition. If you’re curious how that works under the hood, there is a Neural Networks video series that breaks it down beautifully [12].
At least with the current technology, it could definitely define what was going on in my brain, but it couldn’t come close to describing what was going on in my mind.
It can best be described as a prophetic metaphor, like a painting from Picasso foreshadowing our future. I asked myself:
“What happens when your own brain becomes the problem and the solution you’re trying to understand?”
This all came after I made the incredibly difficult decision to step away from Codefi, which I co-founded over a decade ago, and where I poured everything into building systems of opportunity in the unlikeliest of places [13][14].
I took a step back when I departed. No job offer or new opportunity waiting. No next playbook in hand. It was a whiteboard.
Making the decision to leave was one thing. Following that news with a potential brain surgery diagnosis was another. The ambiguity wasn't just present; it was abundant.
There are times like this where you can let go or take the reins. And they both lead down completely separate paths.
Neurodivergent Thinking’s Competitive Edge
This experience crystallized something I've been seeing across many smaller communities across the country: we're entering an era where our biggest limitations can become our competitive advantages—if we know how to leverage them.
This journey sparked insights that are shaping new approaches I’m developing to help people and organizations navigate ambiguity. I’ll be sharing more about that in the next few posts.
It’s coming from lessons of more than a decade in rural economic development, but more importantly, from a brain that works… well, differently.
This is the first of five articles exploring how neurodivergent thinking + AI tools create new competitive advantages—especially for small towns and rural communities [15].
Follow me for the next four writeups where I’ll share about my own neurodivergence, specific AI tools, and frameworks for navigating ambiguity. What “limitation” have you used as unique differentiators?
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