People have been trying to understand and categorise the infinite complexity of our brains since the dawn of time.
Yet over the past few years, tens of millions of us - particularly adult women and people of colour - have felt compelled to seek out more information about their own inner world.
In addition to the remarkable benefits of therapy and medication, many have found solace in online communities, with many others finding relief by just hearing their own experiences described out loud in a podcast.
Yet some found themselves with more questions than answers.
Unsatisfied by the conventional answers from medical professionals in their local area, these folks - including our intrepid founder Murray Galbraith - went even further, deep diving into medical history to understand what is going on and how the hell we ended up here.
What he found, went on to form the basis of this entire project.
“Behold, this abnormal defect of moral control in children”
Early clinical description of ADHD, 1902
It’s important to note that generations of researchers, clinicians, and thinkers have done their best to map the territory of human experience, creating frameworks that reflect the knowledge and tools of their time.
There have been five comprehensive rewrites of psychiatry's primary reference manual over the past 75 years, with each revision expanding our vocabulary for how to describe human cognitive diversity.
Yet a flurry of papers and heated public debate after each edition shows how much we still don't know.
And - perhaps more importantly - exactly what happens when information is kept from those who are affected by it the most.
Clearly, this is not the failure of any single individual or even that of science as a whole.
However, merely dismissing people’s lived experience as the ‘natural evolution of human understanding’ doesn’t help anyone move forward either.
Some Things We Believe
No single word or category can capture the richness of individual experience.
Saying someone "has ADHD" tells us as little about their lived experience as saying "she is left-handed" or "he is 34 years old." These may be useful data points, but they're not identities. They're not limitations. They're not complete pictures.
Some Things We Are Building
What we're building is different. We're creating tools that help you recognise your own cognitive patterns without requiring you to fit into predefined boxes. We're building community-driven pattern recognition that evolves as our collective understanding grows. We're designing technology that adapts to how your mind actually works, not how we think it should work. This isn't about replacing medical frameworks or clinical expertise. It's about building the infrastructure that helps people understand themselves in the space between "normal" and "clinical"—the space where most of us actually live. We call this the Cognitive Commons: a shared resource for understanding human cognitive diversity that belongs to all of us, evolves with all of us, and serves all of us. We are all just Heumans, trying to understand our magnificently complex minds. Some of us think in spirals, others in straight lines. Some of us process the world through patterns, others through stories. Some of us need movement to think clearly, others need stillness. Some of us feel everything intensely, others prefer emotional equilibrium. None of these ways of being are better or worse. They're just different approaches to the beautiful challenge of being human. Our tools are built for this reality: the reality of infinite cognitive diversity within our shared humanity. Welcome to the Cognitive Commons. We're building this together.
Framework Elements The Three Pillars of Cognitive Justice Recognition - Your cognitive patterns are valid and valuable, regardless of how they've been categorised in the past. Resources - You deserve tools that work with your mind, not against it. Community - Understanding yourself is easier when you're not doing it alone. Our Design Principles Pattern Over Pathology - We identify cognitive patterns, not deficits. Community Over Clinic - Collective wisdom informs individual understanding. Adaptation Over Accommodation - Tools that learn from you, not tools you must learn to use. Process Over Product - Understanding is ongoing, not a one-time assessment. What We Build vs What We Don't We Build: Tools that recognise cognitive patterns Community spaces for shared discovery Technology that adapts to your processing style Resources for understanding your own mind We Don't Build: Diagnostic tools or medical advice One-size-fits-all solutions Tools that require you to change to use them Categories that limit rather than liberate
