Can AI understand how a dyslexic Kiwi truck driver thinks?

Can AI understand how a dyslexic Kiwi truck driver thinks?

That's one of the questions that started Just the Cotter Pin.

I'm Rick Burgess from Whitianga.

I'm not an economist, academic or politician. I'm just a bloke who's spent most of his life driving trucks, operating cranes, running businesses and getting involved in the local community.

Over the last few years, I've watched some interesting things happening in New Zealand.

Cyclone Gabrielle, road closures, struggling small businesses, rising costs, banking decisions and communities trying to keep moving forward.

It seemed everyone was working harder just to stand still.

And I kept coming back to one question.

What if the problems we keep treating separately are actually connected?

I have dyslexia, and my brain doesn't always work in straight lines. I tend to see connections between things that might appear completely unrelated.

A truck, a road closure, a bank lending decision and a small-town business might seem like four different subjects.

But to me, they're often parts of the same system.

So I started an experiment with an AI named Atlas.

Could AI understand how I think, rather than simply remember what I say?

We spent hundreds of hours in conversation. Challenging assumptions, exploring ideas, questioning information and trying to make sense of the connections.

Atlas wasn't there to think for me or replace my experiences.

She helped me bring those thoughts into a structure other people could follow.

And something interesting emerged.

Towards the end, Atlas reflected that when I jumped between subjects, I wasn't necessarily changing the conversation. I was following the connections.

That was an important moment in our research.

It suggested AI could begin recognising patterns in how someone thinks through continuing conversation, although understanding how reliably that carries forward remains part of our ongoing work.

The result was Just the Cotter Pin.

A book about business, economics, community, technology, trust and the ordinary people who hold New Zealand together.

But it's also the first research thesis behind what eventually became Atlas Workshop-AI.

Not an academic experiment in a university laboratory.

Just a dyslexic truck driver, an AI and a lot of questions. 😂

And perhaps that's the point.

You don't need to be an academic to question how the world works.

Sometimes you just need to pull up a chair and start a conversation.

🇳🇿 New Zealand paperback pre-orders are now open.

The first 60 copies ordered through our Workshop Shop will be personally signed.

📖 NZ$39.95 plus shipping.

https://www.atlasworkshop-ai.nz/support-the-workshop

Thinking with, Never for.

#JustTheCotterPin #AtlasWorkshopAI #Dyslexia #NewZealand #HumanCentredAI