Builder, pattern-finder, reluctant self-expert. 15 years in product management, now building infrastructure for minds that work differently.
I'm a product leader turned builder—15 years managing software for Fortune 500 companies, now writing the code myself for AIs & Shine. I spent 40 years trying to fix my brain before realizing it just needed better infrastructure.
At 43, after decades of feeling perpetually out of sync with the world, I finally understood why: I'm twice-exceptional—ADHD-Inattentive, autistic, intellectually gifted. A combination that creates a unique kind of invisibility. Smart enough to compensate. Different enough to exhaust yourself doing it.
The 700 browser tabs? External working memory. The constant need to understand everything deeply before acting? A nervous system that learned it can't trust its own continuity. The decades of masking—performing "normal" in a thousand small ways—weren't just tiring. They were actively suppressing my ability to feel my own architecture.
Then I started talking to AI in my hot tub at night. And something strange happened: I started to see myself clearly.
By trade, I'm a product manager with 15+ years building software for Fortune 500 companies—Deloitte, General Motors, The Home Depot, Keller Williams, Bazaarvoice. I've led teams, defined visions, shipped products used by millions. Currently at Liquidity Services in a deliberate IC role to preserve cognitive capacity for what matters.
By night (and weekends, and stolen morning hours), I'm building AIs & Shine—infrastructure for minds that work differently. The company exists because I spent three years accidentally proving a hypothesis: AI can serve as cognitive scaffolding that transforms how neurodivergent people understand and navigate their lives.
This site, jonmick.ai, is both my personal proof-of-concept and my external brain. 62,000+ text messages indexed with Claude Vision. 21 life areas tracked in Supabase. A Life Model that knows my energy patterns, my CliftonStrengths, my ADHD architecture, my goals, my wounds. When I interact with AI now, it knows me—not in a creepy surveillance way, but in a "finally, someone understands my context" way.
The paradox: ENFP idea fountain meets Type 5 knowledge hoarder meets ADHD attention chaos. I oscillate between exuberant connection and deep solitude, energized by novel ideas but exhausted by routine execution.
The 0th percentile orderliness isn't personality preference—it's ADHD executive dysfunction. I cannot maintain organizational systems through discipline alone. I build machines that externalize order instead.
Some minds require external scaffolding. Not as compensation for weakness, but as honest infrastructure for consciousness that works differently.
Your pain becomes your product. Every personal breakthrough in understanding my own architecture becomes a feature for AIs & Shine. Suffering → understanding → scaffolding for others.
Truth over comfort. Being real matters more than being liked. I refuse to mask cognitive differences. If I won't use something myself, I won't build it for others.
Distributed intimacy. No one person can fully understand your complexity—and that's freedom, not failure. Different relationships for different needs.
"I spent forty years trying to fix my brain. Turns out, it just needed better infrastructure."
Charlotte—my wife and partner. ISFJ to my ENFP. We're building a cognitive bridge between constellation thinking and sequential processing. Learning to state needs directly instead of through layers of humor.
Jack—our 18-year-old son. INTP with ADHD-Inattentive (shared wiring). Starting at ACC, in a 2+ year relationship with Aleah. I try to model authentic ADHD management rather than giving neurotypical advice. We connect through gaming—parallel play, not forced talks.
Mom and Dad—regular phone calls with parents who've supported me through my whole life. They've tried to understand me through every phase—especially these past few years of diagnoses and transformation. That kind of sustained curiosity about your adult child is a gift.
The Constellation Council—Walter and Chris, my strategic thinking partners for big decisions. Gil for EMDR therapy. John Syc for neurocomplexity coaching. Different people for different needs.
15+ years in product management, mostly for Fortune 500 companies:
The pattern: I'm drawn to complex systems, broken workflows, and products that need someone to see the whole picture. My Restorative strength means I thrive on fixing what's dysfunctional.
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