The most dangerous lie they tell the neurodivergent community is that the world is a meritocracy.
They tell us: “Work hard, be yourself, and the rest will follow.” But for those of us on the spectrum, the Patient Zeros of the corpo world trying to navigate a map built for the neurotypical, we know the truth. The world isn’t a meritocracy; it’s a Vibe Economy.
In the Vibe Economy, a person’s value isn’t determined by their performance, politeness, adherence to rules, or output. It’s determined by “cultural fit,” the ability to mirror social cues, and willingness to appear hardworking, whilst more importantly selling the fuck out and kissing ass participating in the performative theatre of small talk.
For us, the Vibe Economy is a rigged market. Every time we try to “be ourselves” or “just network,” we are essentially trying to buy a high-priced asset with an overinflated neural currency rapidly devaluing in real time.
Try buying a house with Zimbabwe dollars. Let me know how it goes.
Autistics winning in the Vibe Economy looks a lot different to neurotypical winning. They’re outspoken outliers, talented content creators, or possess in excess some talent the normies like.
It’s time to stop trying to win in the Vibe Economy. It’s time for something better for us. But first let me explain why.
The Masking Tax
Most professional advice for Autistic people focuses on “accommodations” or “masking better.” Get your accommodations if you can. I agree with this part. The second part is trash advice for trash circumstances.
I’m gonna teach you to drop the mask and demand respect.
They want you to spend 200% of your cognitive energy only to pretend to be a confused and exhausted neurotypical person, except the confusion and exhaustion are real, all while others slack off and sail ahead on easy mode.
Not to mention you feel fake as fuck, so even if you win, you lose. Cos they’re not praising us when we do this. They’re praising the clown makeup we put on.
This is a terrible trade. The worst deal in the history of deals.
You’re trading your mental health, unique interests, ability to hyperfocus, pattern-recognition abilities, and your identity itself for the chance to be barely tolerated in the office, the bar, or even your own family.
It’s not hard to see that this is the opposite of Min/Maxxing. Nerfing the things that make you strong, only to spec into unimportant performative things for other’s comfort.
Imagine if the Fyffes Banana company, the global titan at what they do, decided they were gonna stop moving bananas altogether, and instead compete with Tesla and BYD in the EV market. They’d immediately go broke, because that’s not what their supply chain was built for.
What if a Cheetah tried to be a snow leopard? It would die running fast as fuck back to Africa.
That’s what we do when we mask too much.
If full-time autistic maskers were a company stock, they’d be a “Strong Sell” Hype stock.
You’re overpaying for a low-yield asset (social acceptance) using a finite resource (your sanity). Except social acceptance is not just a low yield hobby. It’s a necessary step for getting anything done really, and a fundamental human need for healthy development.
The ideal situation is a mandem of other autistic folk to hang out with. Been there, done it, tons of fun. A bit gay and leftist for me personally but the best, funniest, and most accepting people you can meet.
But we can’t operate in the ND bubble our whole life, especially not professionally. So the natural fallback is to wear the Neurotypical mask.
I’m just saying this way that we do this is ass backwards and there’s much more energy efficient ways.
Fuck Em: Enter Neural Arbitrage
In finance, arbitrage is the simultaneous purchase and sale of the same asset in different markets to profit from tiny differences in price.
Neural Arbitrage for the neurodivergent professional is identifying where your “weirdness” is undervalued and moving it to a market where it is a premium asset.
A social example of this is “finding your people” by signalling your interests and personality for other likeminded, usually Neurodivergent people to find you. You’re doing it right now on Substack. How far are you willing to signal your spark in real life?
What about jobs?
We are notoriously overrepresented in the fields of Train Conductors and Air Traffic Controllers, but for everybody’s safety, this is the best possible outcome.
The realest thing you can do is link a real role to your real autistic traits.
Take “Sincerity.” In the Vibe Economy of a corporate happy hour, extreme sincerity is a liability. It’s “awkward.” But in a high-stakes crisis or a complex technical audit, that same sincere inability to sugarcoat a failing system is what keeps the company from going under.
You become the most unfireable, valuable person in the division.
The goal isn’t to “fit in” everywhere. The goal is to identify the markets where your “default mode” is a luxury good.
There are endless combinations of traits, but if you’re unsure where to start, I made a quick list of the most common Autistic/ADHD ones in a Substack article here and further expand on their application in my book 52 Career Hacks from living with Autism & ADHD. Free for paid subscribers.
Social Arbitrage
The price of being real is most people probably won’t like you. But the ones who do really do, and this is a far better deal.
The price of being fake is people are somewhat alright towards you, but they don’t see your true face, and this invalidates the recognition. Plus all the other negatives I mentioned earlier. It’s a trap.
If you want to build social capital without the exhaustion of “performing,” you have to stop being a Performer.
The final destination here is to find the correct people and the courage necessary to be real and unmask at a comfortable speed.
This can be impossible for those out of the loop for too long.
Luckily there’s a low risk way to build your social muscle and increase your irl reach in the search for these people.
Acting like a Broker.
The Performer gains social capital by being charismatic, telling jokes, and “reading the room.” It is an energy-intensive, manual process.
The Broker gains social capital by being the Bridge. Because our brains are wired for patterns, we often see connections that others miss.
• Person A has a problem/interest
• Person B has a solution/common interest
• You are the one who knows both.
When you connect Person A to Person B, you have created a “Social ROI” for yourself without having to engage in too much small talk.
Normies call this shit socialising. They’re Retards. This is practice, not real connection.
The goal is to connect others like a video game task, farming XP. There is no further expectation on these people. If they abandon you afterwards, don’t feel jealousy or spite. The goal was never to pull together a friend group with you in it, although that will probably most likely happen.
We’re just doing simple tasks to strengthen the social muscle.
Naturally your social skills and comfort will strengthen. You can take pride in what you’ve done. And you can justify being yourself, because there’s no reason to impress anyone.
With an expanded network and your true face on display, those few real ones who are actually worth being friends with will be easier to reach.
Becoming the leader of a friend group
This is simple, but with no social skills or contacts it’s next to impossible, so I recommend XP farming first if that’s the case.
I’ve created and led a few groups and to be honest I dislike the responsibility of it. But I’ll teach you how:
Pick something fun to do (it has to actually be good. It CANNOT be shit)
Sort any transport/logistics/supplies
Get just one person to commit to come
Spam everyone else with the plan
Take charge of the group with positivity and leading the plan without getting insecure. The goal is fun.
That’s literally it.
Broker Mentality for Career
When you connect Job A with Autistic Trait B, you have created “Professional Capital” marking yourself as a rare breed who can do the job better, and as such, your favour is valuable.
You may think this is cheap, tacky, or commodifying yourself. Yea. That’s capitalism. It is. But so is what you were doing before.
At least this way, you have more leeway to be real, value yourself more, and you can get something out of it.
People will tolerate your “lack of vibes” more if you are the person who displays ability to solve real problems or connects people with where they need to go with the ease and professionalism only an obsessive autist can.
Avoid being a dancing monkey
I said “displays ability” and not “just does it habitually whenever they can”. Don’t be a doormat.
Your value is valuable, and for it to remain so it must be elusive, rare, dependant on your mood, like how a cat only shows affection when you’ve earned their trust or when the cat just feels like it.
Don’t be a dancing monkey, or an excitable, loyal dog with your valuable skills and energy. Be a cat. Make it so they try to win you over.
Do Your Personal Audit Now:
We crave a system. So, here is your audit for the week:
1. Identify your High-Tax Environments: Where are you spending the most energy for the least amount of actual gain? (e.g., The “optional” Friday drinks, the “vibe-check” meetings).
2. Locate the Utility Markets: Where does your bluntness, your hyper-focus, or your pattern-recognition actually solve a pain point for someone else?
3. Execute the Trade: Stop trying to be “liked” in the High-Tax environments. Start being “useful” in the Utility Markets.
The Vibe Economy is for people who have nothing else to offer but a smile and a firm handshake. You have a brain that sees the code behind the curtain. Stop trading that code for pennies.
Winning isn’t about becoming more “normal.” It’s about becoming yourself.
Being strategically valuable “normal” people means they have to adapt to you.
If you’re still here, you already know this isn’t another self help blog telling you to “communicate better” or download a habit tracker.
I write for people who noticed something is deeply off, tried playing by the rules anyway, and got punished for it. People who are allergic to fake positivity, tired of being psychoanalysed by idiots, and done pretending the world makes sense when it clearly doesn’t.
Subscribing means you get the unfiltered versions. The things I don’t soften, dilute, or dress up to be palatable. Essays about power, attraction, autism, resentment, self respect, collapse, and what actually works when the official advice fails.
I’m not here to save you or fix you. I’m here to map the terrain honestly so you can stop walking into the same traps over and over again.
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If it doesn’t, you were never the audience anyway.