Reciprocality started as an investigation into industrial psychology but grew into a broader attempt to explain how people learn, reason, and get stuck. By observing creative individuals, including software engineers, artists, and children diagnosed with ADHD, the project proposed that some people maintain a different kind of awareness and problem-solving capacity.
The central claim is methodological. The ideas are presented as a model you can test in practice. If the model fails to improve clarity and problem-solving, it can be discarded. If it works, it may explain something useful about cognition and learning.
Brain chemistry and cognitive blindspots
A core idea in Reciprocality is that modern culture can shape attention and behavior early in life, leading many people to develop cognitive “blindspots.” In the project’s framing, these blindspots are protected by social norms, which makes them difficult to notice and correct.
Because this topic can easily drift into medical claims, it is worth stating the intent clearly. This page treats “blindspots” as a proposed cognitive model and learning framework rather than a clinical diagnosis. The practical question is whether the model improves reasoning, self-correction, and problem-solving.
Creative individuals, including some children diagnosed with ADHD, are described as less constrained by the same blindspots in certain contexts, which the project uses to motivate its teaching approach.
Creative programmers and expanded perception
Alan G. Carter, who led the Reciprocality project, was influenced by observing highly capable software engineers. The project argues that effective programmers build clearer internal models of systems and make fewer hidden assumptions, especially under uncertainty.
Carter’s teaching emphasis was that when a person’s mindset is correct, the details tend to “sort themselves out” because the person is no longer relying on rote procedures. In practical terms, this means paying attention to constraints, tracing cause and effect, and checking assumptions rather than reacting to symptoms.
This teaching focus is described as mirroring aspects of how some ADHD-diagnosed individuals approach puzzles and novelty, especially when they are engaged and not forced into repetitive routines.
Related: How to Think Like a Programmer: Mappers vs Packers
The Ghost Not and M0 hypothesis
Two named ideas appear repeatedly in Reciprocality.
The “Ghost Not.” A proposed logical failure mode that arises when people conform to social expectations instead of checking their reasoning. In the project’s terms, it is a pattern where convenience and belonging override correction, leading to distorted conclusions.
The M0 hypothesis. A proposed account of how repetitive environments can train people to prefer routine over exploration. The idea is that boredom can become normalized, reducing curiosity and weakening creative problem-solving in structured settings.
Reciprocal cosmology and physics ideas
Carter extended the project’s themes into physics, asking whether the same kinds of hidden assumptions and logical distortions could be influencing how certain problems are framed. This page does not attempt to validate any specific physics model. The relevant point for an overview is that the project treats reasoning errors as a constraint on what people notice, test, and accept as “obvious.”
In that sense, the “physics” material is presented as an exploration of what happens when you deliberately try to remove those constraints and re-check what you think you know.
Mysticism and ancient traditions
Reciprocality writing also draws connections to religious and mystical traditions. These connections are presented as interpretations, with the general argument being that some older traditions were attempts to communicate cognitive and perceptual insights in symbolic form.
The practical takeaway, if you are reading this for thinking and learning, is that the project ranges widely. It treats cognition, culture, and meaning-making as linked, and it uses multiple lenses to discuss how people lose contact with reality and how they might regain clarity.
Unlocking a broader perspective
Reciprocality offers more than a way to teach programmers. It proposes a model for understanding how social reinforcement can distort logic, and how deliberate self-correction can restore clearer thinking.
If you want a practical entry point, start with the programmer-facing material first, then treat the broader ideas as optional exploration.
Related: The Programmers Stone: Unlock Creative Problem-Solving