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How I Run a Company with ADHD

andrewaskins.com

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Re: How I Run a Company with ADHD

#71

Post by bnjms »

internet_user wrote: post #54
ScottFree wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that at odds with your previous comment? > Inability to sustain concentration is not a temperament. It's a neurological impairement. The impression the article gave me is that ADHD is more the inability to choose what you focus on, not an inability to sustain concentration?

Inability to sustain attention/concentration is just one of the most common facets of ADHD. Yes, you could have more/others impairments in your executive function than just attention. Impulsivity is commonly measured as well. ADHD is really an umbrella term for several syndromes. I disagree with the notion that "inability to choose" is necessarily a definitive part of ADHD . It often is, and is common, but it's not u…

> It can also be due to anxiety, PTSD, all sorts of other issues, and people with those issues improve on anxiolytics/tranquilizers, instead of stimulants.

Is this true? What sort of anxiolytics? I’m pretty sure I’m diagnosable adhd-pi but I have anxiety that decreases with low dosage adderall.

Re: How I Run a Company with ADHD

#72

Post by internet_user »

colechristensen wrote: post #33
EnderViaAnsible wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ADHD is objectively a bundle of true deficits, not just a set of traits society frowns on. Certainly these deficits weren't as much of a disadvantage in early human evolution, but if you can create metrics and show that people with ADHD perform worse at some generic tasks vs. average human beings-- and you can, we have-- this is not just a world that has been created that is inhospitable to them. The ugly thing I've…

Read The Selfish Gene and https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2008/06/12/... There is doubt that a set of behaviors which is so prevalent in the population is just an accident and a disease. Evolutionary pressures exist to optimize gene expression ratios in a population. Put differently, when a certain gene becomes rare in a population individuals with that gene have a significant advantage in life and r…

Nonsense. We have all kinds of highly prevalent maladaptive traits.

Evolution is blind.

Re: How I Run a Company with ADHD

#73

Post by filmgirlcw »

snazz wrote: post #3

I wonder how common this is among HNers. I felt like I could relate to many of the feelings in the article and I certainly have trouble keeping track of time (w.r.t. rabbit holes and whatnot) and do better with some external motivation. In particular, I can be “hyperfocused” when it comes to interesting technical challenges for many hours, but I get distracted instantly when doing my email, the laundry, or taxes. I’m…

You may or may not have some ADHD tendencies, but it’s not uncommon for people to miss out on diagnosis as children.

I wasn't diagnosed until I was 19 or 20 because my perfectionism (which was/is directly tied to the anxiety/major depression I was diagnosed with at 14, but self-diagnosed at 9) sort of overrode the traditional symptoms. I did well in school (because I couldn’t NOT have perfect grades). I excelled at work. For many years, I was compulsively neat. (I’m not really sure what happened to the neatness).

When I was 17, I was put on ADHD meds as a way to treat side-effects of an antidepressant, but I found it had a ridiculously positive impact on my life. In college, I was formally diagnosed, and my psychiatrist posits that the fact that I appeared to be “fine” is what kept me under the radar. According to my doctor, it’s not uncommon for that to happen, especially if the individual is of above-average intelligence (I was given the “gifted” label before entering kindergarten).

I always “joke” (except, it’s not a joke an I’m 100% serious), that I’m a high-functioning ADHD person. And it’s true; over the last 15 years or so, I’ve learned to augment my behavior and recognize when the disease is impeding on my life. For clarification: being able to recognize something != always being able to change what is happening. I’ve also been fortunate to find work in fields where my ability to do multiple things at once is useful.

But I tell people I’m in meetings with frequently about the stuff I do to help quell my worst tendencies (I play puzzle games on my phone, for instance, so that I can pay attention to what people are saying. It looks rude, but the alternative is me literally not being able to focus on what is being said. And when I explain it, I’ve never found someone to be unsupportive), and I try to plan and make adjustments for my own time clock.

Like you, if it’s something I’m interested in, I can be hyper focused for hours. But the second something is born for even just not that compelling, it’s a struggle.

Re: How I Run a Company with ADHD

#74

Post by garmaine »

colechristensen wrote: post #35
falcolas wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aah, yes, that round hole called “work”. All the creativity, all the beauty of being a square peg is absolutely useless in the face of having to make money to survive. PTSD. Constant stress. Having trouble just keeping promises to friends. Failing to even keep up a hobby. The inability to control your own concentration. ADHD most definitely sucks.

What I'm trying to say is that there's nothing wrong with being what you are. Instead there is something wrong with a society that discriminates against it (and living in that society sucks). Trying to fit in to it is what sucks and the solution is not being better at fitting in.

Wtf man. ADHD very nearly ended my marriage and my career. I think you are being very insensitive to the issues adhd people face.

Re: How I Run a Company with ADHD

#75

Post by philliphaydon »

ScottFree wrote: post #36

My reaction to this article has been... complex. ----- Bah! Another article about ADHD. ADHD's over diagnosed and not not as big a problem as people make it out to be. But, I'm curious all of a sudden, so I might as well read it. > For the first 19 years of my life I knew I was lazy. Yeah, I'm pretty lazy too. That's just who I am, though. I don't have ADHD... > So what, you can't stop bouncing your leg at the restau…

> > I was happiest with my nose in the book

> I'm seeing a disturbing pattern take shape.

I fall into alot of the list but I will say I do not suffer from ADHD.

When I was at school I was told I had ADHD and put on Ritalin. But I couldn't tell the difference between taking ritalin and not taking it, I didn't focus any better, didn't get in trouble any less.

I always figured I wasn't challenged enough in school, or wasn't doing something I enjoyed.

If I was doing technical drawing I always got top of the class and helped the other kids with their work. In History class we learned about NZ history which is like 150 years of nothing, so I couldn't focus, yet you give me a book about Egypt and I'm fascinated and sit for hours reading.

Fast forward many years and I watched: https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_cre...

ADHD is a real thing, but I recon majority of people 'diagnosed' with ADHD, don't actually suffer from it. And I don't believe the Author suffers from it.

Re: How I Run a Company with ADHD

#77

Post by mobjack »

danaos wrote: post #28
Biologist123 wrote: post #17

To the writer (if looking on this board), thank you for this piece. Have you ever come across this article in the Economist, summarizing research providing evidence that ADHD is a legacy of our nomadic past when ADHD traits conferred an evolutionary advantage? https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.economist.com/science-and-t... My takeaway is that entrepreneurship is one of the few areas of modern life where ADHD might ac…

Not OP, but as a sufferer, I boldly disagree. There may be some benefits related to brainstorming and "out of the box" thinking but they are overshadowed by the disastrous consequences of being unable to organize and execute.

Organizing and executing sucks with ADHD, but it helps in executing without much organization.

It could be a good thing in the right environment like a startup.

Trying to organize then execute something could take a month of back and forth and planning. If you skip that step, you can get it done in a week then plan afterwards.

Re: How I Run a Company with ADHD

#78

Post by falcolas »

colechristensen wrote: post #50
falcolas wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don’t live in ancient society. We live in our society. Not to mention, not all traits that survive evolution are positive.

I guess you can either think the individual is deficient or society is deficient.

I can think society is deficient all I want (I do, but not for any lack of consideration for my ADD). It doesn’t change the fact that I need to work, and that to work, I need the ability to control my concentration. To do that, I take meds.

I can’t be anything but thrilled that society has given me a tool that gives me some control of my concentration.

Re: How I Run a Company with ADHD

#79

Post by internet_user »

bnjms wrote: post #71
internet_user wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inability to sustain attention/concentration is just one of the most common facets of ADHD. Yes, you could have more/others impairments in your executive function than just attention. Impulsivity is commonly measured as well. ADHD is really an umbrella term for several syndromes. I disagree with the notion that "inability to choose" is necessarily a definitive part of ADHD . It often is, and is common, but it's not u…

> It can also be due to anxiety, PTSD, all sorts of other issues, and people with those issues improve on anxiolytics/tranquilizers, instead of stimulants. Is this true? What sort of anxiolytics? I’m pretty sure I’m diagnosable adhd-pi but I have anxiety that decreases with low dosage adderall.

Read up the studies. I'd say it's probably best studied in schizophrenia, they have all kinds of cognitive improvements on antipsychotics, rather very unpleasant drugs.

Dopaminergics like amphetamines, ritalin or bromantane do help with anxiety, it's common knowledge, but I don't think the effect is sustainable long term, at least not that I've heard. More common for that effect to fade away with time on chronic dosages and more of a jitterness surface later on.

Re: How I Run a Company with ADHD

#80

Post by xkcd-sucks »

internet_user wrote: post #69
DoreenMichele wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of Twice Exceptional* people get labeled lazy. It may not be ADHD. It may be some other hidden issue. In the vast majority of cases, people who get identified as an adult seem to be tremendously relieved and empowered by having a better label than lazy. * https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twice_exceptional

Twice exceptional people with a solid track record of underachieving? How is that in any way exceptional? * Executive function is affected by all those disorders you mention in the wiki. And the best proxy we know of and can measure is attention.

One of the two "exceptions" is mental illness so
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