What If 'Normal' Was Never Normal? A Provocative Question Goes Viral

Australian leadership advisor and author Mike Meyer has sparked a global conversation with a provocative question: "What if we've spent 200 years making people fit the system, then called the people who couldn't fit it the problem?" The question, posed after Meyer hypothesized that 40-50% of the population could be neuro-complex, has resonated far beyond his usual audience, with 92% of its reach coming from outside his network and interest spreading across Australia, the UK, and the US. The discussion challenges the notion of "normal" and suggests that neurodivergence may not be exploding but rather that we are finally recognizing people who were always there. Meyer argues that for the past two centuries, schools and workplaces were designed for an industrial society that demanded conformity, and we mistakenly equated what worked for the system with what was normal for humans. He emphasizes that neurodevelopmental differences are hereditary, and many adults grew up when such differences were poorly understood, so they didn't suddenly become neurodivergent when their children were diagnosed—they were always there. The conversation, sparked by Meyer's article "We're Not All Neurodivergent. So Why Does It Suddenly Look That Way?" (available on M31 and LinkedIn), has led to his original hypothesis piece "Beyond Diagnosis: What If We've Been Counting the Wrong People?" also being revisited. Meyer, founder of M31 and author of "Weird is the New Normal," is not suggesting everyone is neurodivergent but asks how much human capability we have overlooked because our definition of normal was too narrow. He stresses that for some, neurodivergence is profoundly disabling, but for others, the problem may be a collision between the person and a system built for someone else's functioning. "Change the environment, and you don't change the person's neurology. You change the collision," he says. The popularity of the conversation indicates people are ready to ask bigger questions about neurodivergence beyond diagnosis counts. Meyer invites challenge to his hypothesis but insists there's an underlying truth: "Maybe the people weren't always the problem. Maybe sometimes it was the system we were asking them to fit."