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Alex Karp, the CEO of controversial tech company Palantir, raised eyebrows during a recent live interview with the New York Times. In a viral video of the discussion, Karp defended his company to the Times' Andrew Ross Sorkin, gesturing dramatically with his arms, bouncing up and down on his chair, and struggling to make his point.

Palantir’s X account shared the video on Sunday morning and announced Karp is launching The Neurodivergent Fellowship: "If you find yourself relating to [Karp] in this video — unable to sit still, or thinking faster than you can speak — we encourage you to apply."

Palantir announced Karp himself would conduct final interviews for the fellowship. In a reply to the first message on X, the company included an application link to the fellowship, which is available in Palantir’s New York City and Washington, D.C. offices.

"The current LLM tech landscape positions [neurodivergent people] to dominate," according to the application. "Pattern recognition. Non-linear thinking. Hyperfocus. The cognitive traits that make the neurodivergent different are precisely what make them exceptional in an AI-driven world."

Palantir, a data and analytics company co-founded by conservative "kingmaker" Peter Thiel, was quick to argue that the fellowship is not a DEI initiative.

"Palantir is launching the Neurodivergent Fellowship as a recruitment pathway for exceptional neurodivergent talent," according to the application, "This is not a diversity initiative. We believe neurodivergent individuals will have a competitive advantage as elite builders of the next technological era, and we're hiring accordingly for all roles."

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[-] seraphine 32 points 1 day ago

"Hyperfocus"... just wanna exploit us, those guys

[-] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 23 points 1 day ago
[-] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago

Yeah also hyperfocua is thankfully often one of the earliest symptoms to be dealt with. The name "hyperfocus" sounds great, but when I tell the story of how in college I sat down to write a paper then several hours later was finished, couldn't tell you anything about it and desperately needed food, water, and to use the restroom but was so exhausted I didn't know how to prioritize these needs and spent several minutes deciding which to resolve first… Yeah then it sounds like a symptom of a disability rather than some magic power.

I swear I'm sick and tired of people thinking adhd is basically being an attention feruchemist

[-] BearGun@ttrpg.network 2 points 21 hours ago

attention feruchemist

that's a cool likeness, never thought of it that way. Would be really cool if it worked like that. Or, well, it would probably get exploited by corporations so you'd just spend all your time off filling your metalmind so maybe it wouldn't be that cool actually.

[-] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 2 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

Idk I feel like if it actually worked that way we'd get pretty firm negotiations that home and work get separate metalminds at least at decent jobs. And much like how zincminds don't make you smarter, they just make you equally smart faster, these won't make you good at your job, just make you solely focused on the stupid thing your boss told you to do.

Also I feel like given how hyperfocus is attention would be more like weight or senses than strength in that filling has benefits too by allowing you to task change and a sudden jolt from tunnel vision

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this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2025
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