Pillar 5: Pattern Matching (Episode 141)

An episode where our detail-oriented, data-loving, information-hungry selves come to life!

In Episode 141 of The Autistic Culture Podcast, Dr Angela Kingdon continues our journey through the 10 Pillars of Autistic Culture with Jodi Britcha-Coyne, as we move onto Pillar 5 — Pattern Matching.

Jodi Brichta-Coyne is a Certified Life Coach, Author, Strategic Interventionist, Certified Relationship Coach, and an NLP (neurolinguistic programmer) for working moms and women with small businesses. As a mother of 2, Jodi started coaching to help other women deal with the stress and sometimes overwhelming combination of balancing a business life while maintaining a household. Before and while raising her family, Jodi has spent over 15 years as a corporate executive and small business owner.

Pattern Matching is the cultural heart of autistic analysis, organization, and perception. While neurotypical culture often values quick generalizations and intuitive leaps, autistic minds notice what’s actually there. We observe first. We track anomalies. And we build understanding by recognizing patterns, not assumptions.

Here’s what defines this core Autistic trait:

* 🔁Pattern Matching: Recognizing recurring structures in data, behavior, language, or systems—and using them to predict, analyze, or innovate.

* 🧠Monotropic Information Processing: Our brains tend to focus deeply on one thread at a time, often developing complex internal frameworks that connect disparate ideas.

* 📚Data Hunger: A term coined within neurodivergent communities to describe the innate drive to seek information, accumulate facts, and understand systems at depth.

Key Concepts:

* Autistic pattern recognition is not cold or robotic—it’s emotionally charged, deeply human, and often creative.

* It’s how we make sense of chaos, find comfort in repetition, and experience joy through discovery.

* Our ability to match patterns spans micro and macro levels—from noticing a tiny shift in tone during a conversation to identifying social or ecological trends across decades.

* It can be as playful as memorizing Pokémon stats or as groundbreaking as transforming human sexuality research like Kinsey did.

Alfred Kinsey's most famous quote, and one that sums up his approach to sex research, is: "We are the recorders and reporters of facts, not the judges of the behaviors we describe."

* Pattern matching often begins in childhood—lining up toys, collecting rocks, memorizing subway systems—and matures into adult forms like categorizing fan wikis, correcting Wikipedia, writing diagnostic criteria, or developing complex board game strategies.

💭 Here’s what to listen for through the lens of Pattern Matching:

Let’s look at 10 real-world examples of how pattern matching shows up—and how you can lean into it as an autistic cultural strength!

Here are some examples:

* Follow the data trails.

✅ Lean in: You notice a glitch in a spreadsheet or inconsistency in a story, so you trace it back to the source—even if it takes a while.

🎭 Mask: You brush it off because no one else seems concerned, but it gnaws at you all day.

* Organize information in your own way.

✅ Lean in: You color-code, cross-reference, or categorize your notes based on what helps you find meaning.🎭 Mask: You use a planner or note system that’s “normal” but totally unusable to your brain.

* Let repetition be grounding, not “weird.”

✅ Lean in: You listen to the same song or rewatch the same show to find patterns you missed the first time.🎭 Mask: You force yourself to rotate through new content to avoid being seen as obsessive, even though it’s less satisfying.

* Let pattern logic guide social insight.

✅ Lean in: You analyze someone’s tone, timing, and phrasing to understand their emotional pattern—even if it’s nonverbal.🎭 Mask: You pretend to read social vibes intuitively, even when it doesn’t actually make sense.

Patterns are magical enough. The woo isn’t that woo-y

* Build knowledge maps.

✅ Lean in: You sketch diagrams, flowcharts, or database trees that connect ideas across time and topic.🎭 Mask: You try to follow neurotypical linear thinking styles and get overwhelmed or lost.

* Say it when you see it.

✅ Lean in: You point out connections between topics that others haven’t noticed—because that’s your brain’s gift.🎭 Mask: You keep quiet to avoid being labeled “off-topic,” “intense,” or “too analytical.”

* Treat systems like puzzles.

✅ Lean in: You fix processes at work or home by finding the bottlenecks others miss and proposing better sequences.🎭 Mask: You let inefficient systems persist because offering a solution would “make waves.”

* Let trivia be your joy.

✅ Lean in: You bring obscure but delightful facts into conversation, because joy in knowledge is culture.🎭 Mask: You hide your knowledge to avoid being called “a know-it-all.”

* Create order from chaos.

✅ Lean in: You clean, archive, or label in ways that make your environment work for you.🎭 Mask: You leave your space chaotic or default to others’ systems, even when they make your brain scream.

* Own your pattern mind.

✅ Lean in: You proudly say, “I notice things other people don’t.”🎭 Mask: You apologize for “overthinking” or “fixating” instead of naming it as insight.

If you’ve ever been told you’re “too much” because you notice what others don’t—this is your moment. You’re not too much. You’re too perceptive. Notice what you notice. It’s your cultural superpower.

So, whether you’re autistic, exploring the possibility, or just someone who loves and respects autistic people, you are welcome here.

We’re saving you a seat!

This episode is a part of our Start Here Series, which is designed for new listeners of the show who are wondering, “where should I start?” to have a solid foundation for their experience here. It’s also for loyal listeners to begin to more fully embody the pillars of Autistic culture with more clarity and pride. Join the convo with #AutisticCulture!

Jodi’s Book – "Are You Still There God? It’s Me, Jodi." – A humorous and honest memoir about midlife and perimenopause from a mom’s perspectivehttps://a.co/d/5cJ6cGy

Frontiers in Psychiatry Article – "The Predictive Coding Account of Psychosis and Autism" – A scientific paper exploring overlapping cognitive mechanisms in autism and psychosishttps://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.621659/full

Rounded Globe – "The Prehistory of Autism" – A historical exploration of autism-like traits before the modern diagnosishttps://roundedglobe.com/html/391da86c-665f-49be-bfa0-9942b52ebc08/en/The%20Prehistory%20of%20Autism/

IntechOpen Chapter – "Understanding Autism: From Basic Neuroscience to Treatment" – An academic chapter providing a broad overview of autism research and interventionshttps://www.intechopen.com/chapters/43239

Monotropism Slides (Woods) – "An Updated Interest Model of Autism" – Presentation slides outlining a monotropism-based framework for understanding autistic cognitionhttps://shura.shu.ac.uk/24526/1/Woods_an_updated_interest%28Slides%29.pdf

Monotropism.org – Wellbeing Page – "Monotropism and Wellbeing" – Practical insights on supporting mental health through the lens of autistic attention and focushttps://monotropism.org/wellbeing/

Related Episodes:

Sex/Alfred Kinsey - Kinsey’s meticulous classification of human sexual behavior displays pattern matching through its drive to catalog and understand human variation systematically (Ep 35).

Magic The Gathering - The complex, rule-based systems and strategic deck-building in Magic appeal to pattern-seeking minds that thrive on structure and interrelated mechanics (Bonus Ep).Wikipedia - Wikipedia's hyperlink structure and vast, categorized information network reflect the Autistic tendency to follow patterns across domains and connect niche knowledge areas (Ep 61).

DC / Benjamin Banneker - Banneker’s use of mathematical and astronomical patterns to predict eclipses resonates with the autistic capacity to identify and apply abstract systems in the real world (Ep 5).

Ghostbusters - The film’s blend of paranormal science and gadgetry offers a pattern-based logic to the supernatural (Ep 2). Only Murders - The mystery genre hinges on uncovering hidden connections and subtle clues, engaging the autistic talent for tracking patterns others might miss (Ep 43).Board Games - Many board games reward players for recognizing strategic patterns, rulesets, and probabilities—skills where autistic thinkers often excel (Ep 95)

Follow us on Instagram

Find us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify

Learn more about Angela at AngelaKingdon.com 

Our Autism-affirming merch shop

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.autisticculturepodcast.com/subscribe